A Little Bit About Me (or a lot?)
Hey, friends! My name is Chaila (pronounced Shayla for those of you who are wondering) and I was diagnosed with Remitting/Relapsing MS in April of 2024.
Around the time I graduated college in 2019 is when I started noticing some changes in my personal health. I started struggling with more frequent headaches, joint paint, and fatigue. I also started to struggle more with dry mouth and dry eyes. I was referred to a rheumatologist to further explore my health issues, with the main reasons being my joint pain and dry mouth/eyes. I was tested for all the main things through bloodwork and everything came back negative, though my inflammation markers were elevated.
In March of 2022, I woke up one Sunday morning and I wasn’t able to see very well out of my left eye. It made me think of the sensation you get in your eye when you press on them too hard and everything goes dark and blurry. But throughout the day, nothing was improving. I called and got into my eye doctor the next morning and he referred me to an eye specialist with the mentioning of optic neuritis and multiple sclerosis. This led to a STAT MRI that didn’t show any lesions, and I was put on steroids to clear up the inflammation on my optic nerve.
Around the same time I was also diagnosed by the rheumatologist with fibromyalgia. My main symptoms being my sensitivity to touch/textures, headaches, and several other things (oh how the list goes on!). By 2023, I was struggling mainly with my headaches and was trying different prescription medications to alleviate my near daily headaches. I was then referred to a neurologist to see if they would be able to help determine the cause of my headaches. Which led to me getting another MRI in January of 2024 (main concern was cranial pressure causing my headaches), and that led to the scan that showed a couple of lesions (confirming my MS diagnosis).
At the age of 28, and in the span of 6 years, I have graced the offices of too many doctors to name and it’s been an overwhelming journey to be sure. I know I wouldn’t be where I am at today without the comforting hand of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I have a mantra I say when times are tough and hard “God only gives you want he knows you can handle.” The Lord wouldn’t have put me where I am if I couldn’t carry the load.
I have always enjoyed reading and writing, and being diagnosed with MS has given me niche to really explore and delve further into as a blog. I want to be able to help myself process everything I deal with everyday, and possibly help someone else with my thoughts and words.