"For two weeks, I gradually lost my ability to walk, speak..." Lexi's harrowing story with MS

My first symptoms of Multiple Sclerosis (MS) were unsteady walking and a slight slurring of speech. I was an athletic 14 year old, so it was quite unexpected. I confided in my grandmother that I couldn’t walk and that my speech was worsening. We visited our local pediatrician, who initially thought I had vertigo or a double ear infection until my symptoms worsened. For two weeks, I gradually lost my ability to walk, speak, coordinate my movements, and more. I convinced myself I was just being lazy. Two more days passed, and I was walking in school when the school police officer and vice principal noticed my unusual limp and slurred speech and suspected I was drunk or having a stroke. They sent me home and immediately took me to urgent care, then straight to the emergency room. At that point, I couldn’t walk, so I was placed in a wheelchair and had immediate MRIs done on my brain. However, the hospital where I was admitted couldn’t interpret my brain scans, so I was ambulanced to the next hospital, an hour away. After some time, testing, and my inability to walk or speak, they finally diagnosed me with MS. Despite this diagnosis, the hospital where I was initially treated neglected my condition and sent me home. A few weeks later, I was rapidly progressing with blurry vision, loss of walking ability, severe speech difficulties, and extreme fatigue. After two to three weeks, I finally got an appointment at my children’s hospital, three hours away. Little did I know that I would be hospitalized within the next three hours. They informed me that I needed immediate plasma exchange (Plex) treatment and three rounds of rituximab or I would be permanently disabled. And guess what? Christmas was just around the corner… great. To summarize, I underwent treatments, struggled in the hospital, spent Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s in the hospital, but I finally got “cured.” I regained my ability to walk and speak, but I will always live with the lingering effects of fatigue and the constant worry that this illness may return.

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