This page is dedicated to my journey living with Multiple Sclerosis. What is Multiple Sclerosis (MS)?
- MS is a chronic, typically progressive disease involving damage to the sheaths of nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord, whose symptoms may include numbness, impairment of speech and of muscular coordination, blurred vision, and severe fatigue. My MS journey:
- I was diagnosed with MS October 11th, 2007, four days after I turned 30 years old. I had been having random medical issues including uveitis, partial body numbness, cognitive difficulty, speech issues, fatigue, and vertigo.
- I visited numerous specialists over a span of almost two years. I had countless blood tests to rule out Lyme disease, and other diseases. I had four MRIs during this timeframe, and nothing was conclusive.
- In September 2007 I was at my wits end. While dealing with vertigo after three months straight and barely being able to work, my neurologist sent me for another brain MRI. This MRI finally showed nine lesions on my brain, this clinically diagnosed with me with Multiple Sclerosis. A month later I had another flare and lost complete use of my right hand. I was at work at the time and ended up having to receive IV steroids (solumedrol) to treat that flare. In two days, I had my hand back. A month later I began my first disease modifying drug; a three day per week injection called Rebif.
- Soon after diagnosis, I started meeting others who knew someone with MS, and usually gave me recommendations of what their friend does to treat their MS.
- I was introduced to a friend at work named John, who had been diagnosed only seven months before myself. He invited me to join his Walk MS team that upcoming April. I wasn’t prepared for that event.
- I really did not fathom what MS was when I was first diagnosed. At my first Walk MS event in 2008, I saw patients walking with limps like me, using canes for assistance, and even some in wheelchairs. I became very concerned about this new life that I was tossed into without a choice in the matter.
- John invited me to join a corporate Bike MS team the following year that participated in the local Bike MS event called the Chesapeake Challenge, held at the time in Chestertown, MD at Washington College.
- I had an old mountain bike that I used to ride to work seven years prior in Virginia Beach. So, I put on some hybrid tires and set out to ride. My first event, I rode 57 miles in one day having not been on the bike in years. I was sunburnt, and exhausted.
- The next year I came back and rode 67 miles on day one of the event and thirty miles on day two. I was in my better shape since I was prepared this time.
- One day one in 2010, while riding by myself I met a solo rider who was going for a century (100 miles). We started talking about my MS, and everything that you can talk about while bored and riding a bike for 67 or 100 miles. Little did I realize that Jill Eisenberg would change my MS mentality forever.
- She was out there riding just for the charity, she did not live with MS. She didn’t have a personal connection to MS. She was just doing good for the cause. We did some photos after our ride with her and her friends who were on a team.
- I was admitted to Washington County Hospital September 12th, 2010, due to what doctors diagnosed a minor stroke caused by a blood clot and a PFO (Patent Foramen Ovale) which is a birth defect of the heart. The PFO was repaired and the same time I was also diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis, another autoimmune disease like Crohn’s a month later. I would later find out that this was not a stroke, but my second MS flare. MS lesions and stroke lesions appear the same on an MRI. The symptoms and lasting effects are what the difference is.
- I changed my exercise and eating habits after the second MS flare and purchased a road bike in January 2011. My new friend Jill, with the help of Keely and Jason helped push me to complete my first century in June 2011 at the Bike MS Chesapeake Challenge. It was a great achievement and one that I will never forget. There was a sense of relief, and I had my MS breakthrough moment that day.
- I stated cycling full time, as well as working hard to maintain a heathier lifestyle. I focused on educating myself about MS. Educating others about MS. While trying to break the MS stereotypes that I had when I was first diagnosed.
- There are no two equal patients with MS, however, we may have similarities. MS effects the central nervous system, which makes up the brain, spinal cord, and your fight or flight nerves. Depending on which nerves are affected determines one’s symptoms.
- I fundraise and cycle as much as possible for those who cannot. I welcome those who have abilities still to take action for MS patients around the world. Show them that we will beat MS in our lifetime. When I was diagnosed there were only four medications to treat MS. Thirteen years later, there are over twenty and breakthroughs happening yearly. Why Mike Bikes for MS? I started this page to share my story, track my history, educate, and inspire others with or without Multiple Sclerosis. Please share my page and my efforts to help educate everyone about Multiple Sclerosis. Join me as a walker, rider, or volunteer with us, and help inspire others to create a world without MS. If you would like to donate to any of my numerous events posted throughout the year. At the end of the day the relentless always win! and Stay positive and love your life! ~ 311
