A Hike, a Doctor, and a Diagnosis: The Beginning of My MS Story

Life Before the Diagnosis

At the beginning of 2004, my husband, Jeremy, and I were enjoying life as carefree young adults. I worked as a teacher’s assistant in Nashville, Indiana, while Jeremy was in his second year of sales with Bounds and McPike Flooring. We spent much of our free time exploring the forests near our home—hiking was our passion.

The First Signs

During our long hikes, I began noticing something odd: my vision would blur, as if crinkled cellophane had been placed over my eyes. Eventually, it would clear up, so I brushed it off as an annoyance rather than a serious issue. A little internet research led me to suspect glaucoma—scary, but manageable, though I was young for such a diagnosis.

A Visit to the Eye Doctor

Concerned but not alarmed, I scheduled an appointment with an ophthalmologist at Southern Indiana Eye Center. The visit felt routine at first. The doctor listened to my symptoms, ran a series of tests, and dilated my eyes. Then he asked me a question I hadn’t expected: “Do your eyes get blurry when you take hot showers?”

I paused, then realized—yes, they did.

“I think you might have Multiple Sclerosis,” he said, explaining a phenomenon called Uhthoff’s Phenomenon, where increased body temperature temporarily impairs vision—often an early sign of MS.

I had no idea what Multiple Sclerosis was.

“Is it treatable?” I asked, my heart pounding.

He reassured me that the symptoms were manageable but left out the part about MS having no cure. Instead, he gave me a brief overview of the disease. It was one of the scariest, most overwhelming moments of my life. My next step was to see a neurologist, so we scheduled an appointment. I left the eye center with a possible diagnosis, an upcoming neurology visit, and a million questions racing through my mind: “Will I be able to have children? Am I going to go blind? Will I end up in a wheelchair? What does my future look like? WHAT IS MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS?!”

Breaking the News

With my eyes still dilated and hidden behind those awful oversized sunglasses, I drove straight to Jeremy’s workplace. Tears streamed down my face as I sat at his desk. “He thinks I have MS,” I choked out between sobs. Without hesitation, Jeremy told his boss he had to leave, and we went home together to process the news. He didn’t know anything about MS either, but I’ll never forget what he said that day: “It can only affect us as much as we let it.”

Little did we know then how much those words would be tested.

Waiting and Worrying

The next few weeks were a blur of anxiety, stress, and endless questions. Without internet access at home, I spent every spare moment at work Googling Multiple Sclerosis—a terrible mistake. The list of possible symptoms seemed endless, and instead of finding comfort, my fears only grew. I was 27 years old, married for four years, with no children and my whole future ahead of me. Now, this looming diagnosis threatened to derail everything I had imagined for my life.

I didn’t have a definitive diagnosis yet, but deep down, I already knew the answer.

Unconditional Love and Selflessness