My name is Mandy. I’m 36 now. In March ’06 (aged 32) I woke with what I can only describe as fizzy feet! I had a small fizziness sensation in both feet. At the time I was working at Aldi supermarkets as a Store Deputy, running my butt off! I loved my job! I went to work that day thinking I had trapped a nerve as my job involved heavy lifting, but as the day went on (and over the next 2 days) I went numb up to my middle torso! I still continued to work! I really think that I was in denial, as I was super Mandy!! Normally, nothing was too much for me, except this was (

The next day was Saturday and my sister came to visit with her 2 kids. I just burst into tears as I told her I couldn’t feel my legs properly. I had an appointment to see the Doctor the following Tuesday, but my sister was having none of it. She called NHS direct, and a Docter rang me back! Next, I went to a walk in centre to see a Doctor there who did some initial neurological tests. He said I needed to see a Neurologist but there wasn’t any on call on the weekends! I had managed ok at home and so the Doctor sent me back home and told me to get in touch with my GP as soon as I could.

My GP thought my numbness was a side effect from some medications I had been taking for over a year. The medication is called Atenolol. I had been taking it for a fast heartbeat an panic attacks. He thought the problem was the medication, or something called TM (Transverse Myelitis) which was a total inflammation across the whole of the spinal cord! He said that was very rare. I stopped the tablets for a week with no improvement. I went back to GP who then sent me to the medical assesment unit at the Hospital. I got there at lunch time and by 4pm I was in the MRI machine! The MRI took 1hr and 20mins! They scanned my spine and my neck and then my brain.

The next day I went back to the hospital and they gave me steroids by IV. 2 days later, they managed to squeeze me in to see the Neurologist. The Neurologist showed me the MRI of my Brain on his screen. It had white spots scattered through it, which he told me were typical of the disease. At that time, he told me I had experienced an episode of De-Myelination and if I had anymore it would be called Multiple Sclerosis!

Next, I went blind in my left eye in the July that same year. Then the TM came back in October of the same year. I’d rather blot that year out now as it was so scary the way one thing after another was happening to me. It just wasn’t fair. I didn’t understand what was happening to me. I’d been so fit and healthy or so I thought.

I got the diagnosis of MS on the 13th of May 07. They say you never forget the day you got diagnosed! I havent returned to work since I left that Friday in March 06. I feel bad about that, but I have been left with altered sensation in my feet, and I feel like I’m burning on my upper thighs and around the Groin area. When I walk too far, my skin feels as if it is bubbling around the Groin. It is hard to explain!

I have been told I have been very lucky to have escaped being permanently disabled, but I also think I haven’t totally gotten better either! I have learned about a new vascular disease called CCSVI (chronic cerebral spinal venous influx). The Verecous Veins blood pools in the head around the brain and there is too much Iron building up in the Blood Brain Barrier. Therefore, the body attacks the excess Iron which causes MS. I have my name down for the scan to see if my jugular veins are blocked or twisted, so fingers crossed one day soon I’ll feel like good old super Mandy!!

Thanks for sharing, Mandy (Super Mandy!)