My Introduction to MS

 In the early 80’s, my knee went numb. How strange. I still had control over its movement, it was strong enough to hold my weight, but it was numb. That wasn’t right. My doctor sent me to a neurologist who scheduled a test, an EMG.

I wasn’t familiar with EMG then. Even now I don't know much about it. But I knew EKG because my son was born with a hole in his heart and had EKG’s as part of his checkup routine. No problem there. I sat in the waiting room, listening to a child scream. I hadn’t realized what a trooper David was, because he never even complained, much less screamed. Then it was my turn.

The technician put the little disks around my body, my head, my chest, my foot, and I’m not sure where else, but I was ready. This wasn’t so bad. Then she turned on the machine. Wait. This wasn’t like an EKG that wrote squiggly lines on a lined paper; this thing shot electrical currents through my body. They didn’t tell me that was the plan. I thought of the screaming child. Paradigm shift: I had judged him too quickly with too little information. Suddenly I understood his screams.

She did this three times, maybe four, increasing the charge each time, then looked at me questioningly. She placed her hand on my head, my stomach, my legs, then took my temperature, all in silence. Then she told me I was cold. Surprise. The air conditioning was on, this being Texas in the summer, and I was dressed in a thin little paper. She left the room and returned with some blankets, covered me, then covered me again. I was warm and cozy. “I’ll let you warm up and we’ll try it again,” she said as she left the room. Oh, boy! Something to look forward to.

Apparently, cool body temperatures slow the current as it travels through the body. Well, my normal body temperature stays in the 97’s, so I would have wrapped up had I known, and maybe the number of tests could have been reduced. I’ll put that in my mind in the event I need any more of these lovely tests.

We finished the test in only two or three more tries. She said the signal was still weak, even after I was left to cuddle in the blankets for about twenty minutes. But right before she removed the little disks and declared us finished, she asked, “Is there a history of nervous system problems in your family?” No, why? What if I said yes? What is she not telling me? Of course, she couldn’t tell me what the test said, the doctor needed to interpret the findings. So why did she ask that question?

Okay, the test was somewhat inconclusive, maybe a nerve was dying, but we would have to “wait and see.” The intermittent numbness lasted about six weeks, but most of the time it was a nuisance and nothing more. A few times I had to stop and sit, and at least once, I needed someone to go get a car and pick me up. That wasn’t so bad. And while we were waiting and seeing, the numbness faded away. My knee was fine and we didn’t have to worry after all. Well, that was a strange episode of my life, but it was over, or was it?

That was my introduction to MS, but we didn't know it until years later. I now know the fading away of the numbness is called remitting, and I also know that painful test was just the beginning. Ah, medical science -- If we only knew then what we know now, . . .