03/03/2025
Happy MS Awareness month! I love being vulnerable and real about my diagnosis and talking about MS with anyone and everyone. My favorite thing is to connect with other people living with MS and instantly feeling that sense of camaraderie, that exhaling feeling of no longer being alone in this very moment š§”
To kickstart this journey of spreading the word, Iād like to share with my new followers a little bit about my diagnosis and what this funky two-letter word is all about it. Firstly, hi! Iām Kaci! I live with Multiple Sclerosis and having a great time! š
Multiple Sclerosis, or MS, is an autoimmune disease that attacks health nerves in the brain and spinal cord. The damage to the nerves is the immune system mistaking healthy myelin sheath for ābad guysā and eating away at the fatty coverings protecting the nerve itself (think of rags chewing through a wire and leaving it exposed).
The āexposed wiresā then have difficulty relaying appropriate signals from the brain, leading to strange happenings in the rest of the body. Symptoms typically associated with this are numbness/tingling in extremities, balance and gait problems, cognitive issues like thought processing/decision making, vision issues, sometimes speech problems, incontinence, nerve pain and even memory loss.
MS looks different on everyone! While two people may experience a handful of similar symptoms, the journeys are not the same and do not have the same outcome. There is not a cure for this lovely anomaly as we know it, but we are able to slow the flare ups/progression/disability of this disease with disease-modifying therapies, or DMTs. MS can affect anyone no matter race, gender or background. It is NOT contagious and is a lifelong illness that affects everyone differently.
Thanks for coming to my TEDtalk šš¾ If you or someone you know is newly diagnosed, or suspects that MS could be a factor, donāt hesitate to reach out to the MS Society to speak to an MS navigator and discuss your options. š§”
