Hello all. I was about to start an "Autoimmune Support" thread when I saw this one. I am currently going through a diagnosis for MS. I have had one brain MRI come back positive, then a Lumbar Puncture and MRI of cervical spine both come back normal. I have my first appointment with the MS Specialist tomorrow. I had also suffered from high blood pressure, Type 2 diabetes and high cholesteral but got those under contrl by losing 70 pounds starting in Oct 03. I now have those three issues udner "lifestyle control" - how cool is that? I did my own program that was the "best" of WW and South Beach. WW mut have been watching me, because now they call my plan "Core"
BTW - if you read "Thin for Life" by Anne Fletcher, you will see a lot of people lost their weight and keep it under control by devising a plan that is "right" for them. I do believe that that is the secret. WW is great as far as learning what a portion size is and how to eat healthy and varied. I also think a meeting with a great leader is invaluable. But you need to make it work for you.
In Sept (while training for a marathon - how much does that suck?) I had my first "documented" possible flare by having optic neuritis. I actually think this was my 3rd flare. Since then I have gained back almost 15 pounds since the fatigue has stopped me cold. Before my flare I ran 4x a week, lifted 3x (I hang out a lot on the Ladies Who Lift section), and did Pilates or yoga 2x a week. Now I can barely make it to yoga once a week and if I do 30 min on the treadmill the fatigue gets me for 2-3 days. I am having a hard time accepting where I am physically. I know part of the fatigue is caused by the Neurontin I am taking for the "buzzing" in my leg. I have heard there are some good medications for fatigue and plan on asking about them.
So, based on what the doc says tomorrow, I am back trying to get my body as healthy as possible. I plan on starting WW again (for the accountability hand discipline), easing back to cardio and using my yoga as weight training for a bit.
I know in my heart something is very wrong with me. I do not know for sure if it is MS or something else, but I have now had shingles 2x within 13 months of each other, and I know this is not normal. I also know the difference too well between "I am tired and need a nap" and "I have body numbing, total exhaustion fatigue and I need to put my body down right now". Hopefully I will have some answers soon.
Looking forward to meeting you all and working through all this together.