Why /t/multiplesclerosis?

Even weeks after creating the tribe, I'm not sure what the answer to this question might be. Snapzu has shown itself to be an amazing and supportive community platform, and it just felt right to begin the process of building the foundation for a little corner that may be useful to anyone impacted with MS in their life. With an abundance of scholarly articles, biographies, and news snaps flooding the tribe, it may be time for a personal introduction.

I'm /t/trails, a fairly recent initiate into the world of MS and 1.5 years past the point of passing the McDonald criteria for a diagnosis. Odd neurological happenings had been cooking since 2012, but it wasn't until one eye literally went sideways and most of my limbs stopped responding to my commands before the MRIs surfaced enhanced lesions up and down my neural highway. Not one to ease the process of clarification, my spinal tap came back oligoclonal band (OCB) negative. Dissemination of time and space played into my diagnostic favor (let alone future attacks), and a label was finally hung on my world that had been short-circuiting from the inside.

My heart forever goes out to anyone in the midst of a diagnostic netherworld, where life is far from normal and yet you hang onto a precipice of conjuncture and conclusions made possible only by confusing lab results, internet searches, and anecdotal evidence. I never knew how important support systems were before that time of uncertainty, and frankly, a time of panic and darkness.

Symptoms come and go, I have become zen with the song of an MRI machine, and injections guaranteed to ruin weekends with side-effects are now a de facto part of my life. I'm blessed to have a sardonic sense of humor (as is my wife), and now I just feel fortunate to be in a place where "it is what it is" and adaptability takes the place of fear. That said, I'm still a little pissed that life insurance is all but impossible to acquire now.

I'm thankful to all of the MS communities out there that provide comforting support and information for folks with MS and the people around them. It's no small favor being able to hear or read about another's struggles with insurance, disclosure decisions at work, relationship troubles, reactions to steroids, the latest news, identity confusion, cane reviews, fears, jokes, depression...you name it. These experiences or pieces of information are likely important for someone going through a variant of their own journey, and such shared connections are a great way to not feel alone in their own condition. Maybe with time, this little corner of Snapzu will do that for at least one person, and that's a pretty good reason for /t/multiplesclerosis.