I've signed up for Walk MS--a charity walk that is changing the lives of people with MS and helping fuel progress toward a world free of MS. I'd love your generous support as I prepare for my walk.
My name is Blaire Covington. And have a fairly recent diagnosis Of Multiple Sclerosis. This month marks one year since I have been diagnosed. But to be quite honest,..I can almost say I'm certain, that I had been having symptoms for a year prior to my diagnosis.
I would often get fatigued and under the weather,..along with numbness and tingling in different areas of my body. So I started to research my symptoms. When I got a little crazy with "Google" , I started to see that my symptoms were more serious than I thought....All the while, ..my emergency room/ doctors appointment visits would often result in the writing of 2 prescription medications for "vertigo" and "sciatica".
By this time, I had started to become very dizzy most days. Sometimes I couldn't even get out of bed. The doctors assured me that I had sciatica & vertigo,.. And rest & meds should do the trick in a matter of 6 weeks. After my "diagnosis" they sent me on my way. For months, I would have symptoms only "sometimes". So when my symptoms got worse, I started to lose my vision in my left eye, as well as tingling pain, fatigue, nausea, light sensitivity, and slow mobility. My walking had been effected tremendously. I was so afraid. It wasn't until I gotten unbearably ill. that I was properly diagnosed. I demanded to receive the proper tests, only to find out the neurology team at this hospital was pretty much,.. non existent.
I was told to seek a second opinion. So I did,...& received my diagnosis through a lumbar puncture procedure the very next day. Everything was happening so fast and it frightened me. It was so new. I was only 23 years old, and had no idea I would be facing one of my life's greatest challenges. This was altering! I became so frightened. . I had to make a choice. I had to decide what I would make of this diagnosis. What I wanted my life to be like discovering my disadvantage....or if I was disadvantaged at all.
I was not. I had to accept the challenge. I didnt want MS to define me. It doesn't. It will not. I will be the exception. We will be the rule of the change!
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an unpredictable, often disabling disease of the central nervous system that disrupts the flow of information within the brain, and between the brain and body. MS is different for everyone, and that makes it all the more challenging to solve. The first Walk MS event was in 1988, and since then more than $970 million has been raised for research and programs to improve the lives of people living with MS. Today, there are treatments where there weren't any before, and the dream of ending MS is becoming a reality. But there is still so much to do.
Thats why Ive decided that the success awaiting me is far beyond what this disease has to offer. Because I have things to do and High Heels to wear! There will be a cure! And this is not a forever thing! I have accepted and claimed the cure. I've changed my mindset of fear!
That's why I'm walking. I've set an ambitious goal because I know with support from people like you, I will have a great chance at reaching it. The money raised will drive groundbreaking research, provide life-changing programs and guarantee a supportive community for those who need it most. This cause is really important to me. I have MS, IT DOESN'T HAVE ME. Lets own it in a different way! Please support this cause to cure MS! Please join my team! Or donate what you can! Walk with me! I'd love to have the support of ALL of You!
Sincerely Yours
Blaire
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