Samantha’s MS Journey

Hey guys, I’d absolutely appreciate any help at all for a dear friend of mine Samatha who has been off work for some time with an unexpected diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis. What we have learned so far with this disease it affects everyone differently, and can be very unpredictable.

On April 3rd, Samantha woke up and while getting ready for work had noticed her left ear felt plugged and she was feeling slightly under the weather. She went to work and continued with her morning as normal. During the day the feeling of a clogged ear was not letting up and she had started to loose feeling in her right forearm, pinky, and ring finger. Samantha at that point started to get concerned because she has a history of bad headaches that would lead to numbness in limbs before. In 2013 Samantha was diagnosed with pseudotumor cerebri, and in 2015 had a VP shunt placed in. So, she left work and went home. The following days to come the clogged ear, felt more like hearing loss, and the loss of sensation in her right limb, still hadn’t come back. On April 13, she went to an urgent care seeking help. She was told her ear looked fine and to reach out to her doctor for a referral to an E.N.T. On April 14th Samantha was at work and started to feel very confused, and having sharp pain in her head leaving her disoriented. She pulled her boss aside who brought her to the office and waited with her for her sister to come bring her to the hospital. While waiting in the office, Samantha lost control of the left side of her body and was violently convulsing. Once arriving to the hospital they ran a CT and found nothing abnormal. She was sent home and told that she was having anxiety and hyperventilating. She was also told to follow up with her neurosurgeon. She did just that, on April 24. By April 24th Samantha had lost the ability to walk by herself and was still twitching. Her neurologist immediately ordered a lumbar puncture, a cisternogram, and an MRI with and without contrast of the brain and neck. On Wednesday May 3, Samantha got a call with her results, the had found multiple active lesions on her brain and spinal cord and she needed to get to the hospital right away. She was admitted and had more tests ran. Still with no definitive diagnosis on May 9th she was admitted into Mary Free Bed Rehabilitation Hospital inpatient, to start working on getting some strength back, Samantha was discharged from inpatient rehab to out patient rehab on June 1st. On June 8th she finally got a definitive diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis, and myoclonic jerks. While the Jerks are under control, Samantha is still working on her strength. She has made huge strides and is currently learning to walk with a walker instead of only relying on her wheelchair. Samantha has been off of work since April and with the medical bills still coming in I know she would absolutely appreciate any and all help to relieve her of that stress! She has shown tremendous strength and hope in this process! Thank you to all who help pray, share and give!