Learning to live with MS, one step at a time

IRELAND’S 2005 Eurovision entrant, Joe McCaul, made an emotional announcement last week — he has been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS). The baby- faced McCaul (25) did not fit people’s idea of a person with MS. His anguish reminded me of my own diagnosis, two years ago.

On the day Queen Elizabeth visited Dublin, I was in the neurology ward of Beaumont Hospital, with intravenous steroids pumping into my arm. In the previous week, I had problems with my vision, and nausea and blinding headaches.

“Optic neuritis,” the ophthalmologist said. Too sick to ask questions, I went home to wait for an appointment with a neurologist. I didn’t ask why she was referring me on. When I googled ‘optic neuritis’, multiple sclerosis came up again and again. It was a slap in the face, but a jigsaw of seemingly unrelated medical complaints made sense. Nonetheless, it was a big shock to hear a neurologist in Beaumont tell me that I had lesions on my brain. My poor husband Ray thought I had a brain tumour.