Belated Anniversaries

Uh-oh. Here I was thinking - Oct 15, Oct 15, Oct 15 - I will talk about the anniversary of my diagnosis. Remembering that week. On Tuesday night I was attending the monthly newly-diagnosed meeting at my neurologist's clinic and the discussion came to 'when' we were each diagnosed.

It was our first meeting of 10 months of 2 hours undivided attention from the fabulous nurse Carol Saunders and my neurologist, Dr. James Simsarian. (Sadly, Carol finally retired this summer. She was always MY go-to person.) This group provided an opportunity for each of us to learn about a new topic related to MS, to ask questions of the professionals, and to compare notes with each other.

It was one of the best offerings my clinic had and I'm sure saved a lot of time from their perspective in being able to answer the most common questions outside of office appointment time. Most likely this extra time was financed by educational funding from a pharma company, but that aspect of the meetings was never mentioned, thankfully.

So in that first meeting, we were learning something about each other. BTW, caregivers and spouses were invited and present. Lots of support all around.

The question came up - When were you diagnosed with MS? My response - I haven't been just yet. I will probably get the diagnosis tomorrow when I come in for my appointment tomorrow (with Dr. C who I originally saw before the official diagnosis).

I knew what my most recent MRI report said. And I had already been receiving invites to MS-related offerings from the clinic since August when I had the lumbar puncture and 5-day round of Solumedrol. My diagnosis was not a surprise, I saw it coming from "a mile away" so to speak.

But somewhere in my head the 12 in October 12 turned into a 15 as in October 15. Silly me missed my anniversary. LOL. Seems like I mix up letters and numbers too much, or more than I would like. So many other people with MS talk about that very same thing. I'm not alone, thankfully.

So Happy MSiversary to me!! Four years and counting, although it seems like much longer. Almost seems like a lifetime. LOL.