Mercedes

While a medical resident, Mercedes began having tingling and numbness moving up her foot and leg, along with vision issues. After visiting an ophthalmologist and going to the emergency room, she was told to see a neurologist. Because of her insurance, Mercedes needed to visit her primary care doctor first who thought she might have Lyme disease. Feeling like her primary care doctor was “listening to me, but [ ] wasn't hearing me,” Mercedes grew frustrated. Eventually, she says, her primary care doctor “caught on with who I was as an individual” and would bring research articles for her to read. After the medication prescribed for Lyme disease led to a worsening of her symptoms, Mercedes “pleaded with [her primary care doctor] to give [her] a referral for a neurologist.” Eventually, Mercedes was able to see another neurologist [RG1] who told her that “a real diagnosis” would come after she had another episode of symptoms. About six months later, after another episode of symptoms, Mercedes got the diagnosis of MS.  [RG2] Mercedes wasn’t too worried and felt confident being treated in a “stellar health care organization.”

After her diagnosis, Mercedes took “a couple of different shots” to prevent relapses. When she was in Law school, she had another bout of optic neuritis. Because of her student insurance at the time, she had to see the school physician who didn’t have much experience with MS and gave her oral steroids; Mercedes “knew that would not work” and felt oral steroids “[were] a waste of time” that “cost (her) vision.” After finishing the oral steroids, she paid out of pocket for an appointment with a neurologist who admitted her to the hospital for intravenous steroids. “Really into research,” Mercedes likes to have all the information: “like when I went to medical school and when I went to law school...I just wanted the knowledge so I could do with it as I choose." Overall, Mercedes’s neurologists have been “receptive to the fact that...I’m very in tune with my body” and trust her to "make the right decisions.” “Knowing... my level of intellect,” she says, “they were appreciative of the fact that you know I'm not going to make a decision that's going to negatively impact my – my abilities.” Mercedes also has found benefit in having a group of supporters with MS who are African American and can “relate culturally.”

Mercedes has been in remission for eleven years and currently doesn’t experience many symptoms. As stress can make Mercedes’s symptoms worse, she has tried to “learn how to let go of things that (she) can’t control” and “ask for help.” Sometimes she gets fatigued and if she is overly tired, she may have “word finding issues” or feel like she has “marbles in (her) mouth” and can’t form the words she’s trying to use. During one relapse lasting around two weeks, Mercedes just didn’t speak at all because she was “afraid of (what was) coming out of my mouth or not coming out of my mouth.” Mercedes speech challenges have made her “a better writer” who can “express (herself) more eloquently in words on paper versus speaking.” Otherwise, MS has not affected her life as she can still do everything she did before her diagnosis: “No disabilities. Or inabilities rather.”  

Mercedes’s experiences have helped her empathize more with the students she sees as a pediatric occupational therapist. “Just a happy person in general,” Mercedes doesn’t “even think about even having MS.” “As a matter of fact,” she says, “I claim that I don’t have MS...mind over matter, like yeah I really don’t have it...if something presents itself, I’m like yeah that’s got to be that old MS, but I don’t claim it.” Mercedes has a strong faith and believes in having friends and family members who share her faith and “mindset that I don’t have that [MS].”  Mercedes wishes to tell other people with MS, “you have to speak up for yourself. And you can't let people tell you what they think that you feel or what they think that they know about you. You just need to voice your – your concerns, voice your feelings, and voice your hurts, your you know positive feelings, et cetera...speak loudly and clearly so that you're heard.”

Maybe a bit too potentially revealing?  Could you make it a little more vague? [RG1] [RG1]

Was the dx after another bout of symptoms, as predicted by the chief of neurology?  Might be good to tighten a bit here and clarify that point. [RG2] [RG2]