b'When I asked the woman about alternativesgoal every day. She didnt know at the time to high heels, she said no, and then went onhow she would get there. Maybe she would need to talk about setting a goal. Her goal was tophysical therapy, start an exercise program, one day wear a pair of high heels again. Sheor go to a podiatrist, but as long as she had a bought a new pair and kept them visible ingoal, she knew could achieve it.her closet so that she would remember thatHow long did it take to get an MS diagnosis? What challenges did you experience?Diana Dowacter - I was diagnosed within a few weeks during a very highly stressful time in my life. I started having weakness in my legs, muscle spasms, ne muscle tremors in my hands when trying to draw blood (bad timing there, LOL), writing, vision changes, and very high fatigue. I was examined by a neurologist. He ordered the MRI, and I got a call a couple days later with the answer to it all. Relapsing-remitting MS. He did think that I probably had it about 15 years prior. I had a very abrupt loss of bladder control in the middle of a store at age 22 years with no prior issues, no infection, no births, or other issues that would cause this to happen completely out of the blue. Urologist said I had spastic bladder syndrome and put me on a medication for it. I took it for more than a year with a very dry mouth and I realized that I wasn\'t having any more problems. I asked my new doctor if I could stop the medication to see how I would do. I did and never had problems again until six or seven years after being diagnosed. The exact same thing happened and has been worsening over the years. The other weird thing was about four years before I was diagnosed, I started having vision problems with pain. The opthomologist said that I needed surgery to correct the issues, so I had it, Bilaterally, and within a few months everything was worse, which led to another repeat of the surgery, which completely failed. Less than three months later, I was diagnosed with MS. The neurologist couldn\'t believe that the urologist nor opthomologist bothered to look at the bigger picture as to why someone was having these neurologically related problems and look at my history , aunt with MS, and my total lack of reason for the diagnosis on their own. Both were completely out of the norm for my age, and the eye doctor was incorrect, which put me through two major eye surgeries for no reason! Sad to say, but it did take the highly stressful time to set off the exacerbation that led to my diagnosis subsequent hospitalization to get IV steroids, etc. It was quite a difficult way to be introduced to the disease and it was a high learning curve, but 19 years later, there still seems to be no end in the learning. It\'s truly amazing how the nervous system in its innumerable ways can reek havoc in so many ways, in so many areas of the body. ever1der_y - Twenty years. Despite repeated MRIs with lesions and abnormal neurological assessment, abnormal lab values. Been seeing pain management for eons for other issues but these symptoms are the same. Last year it was a bad bout of vertigo and MRIs abnormal AND the NP of this neurologist office looked me square in the face and said "I don\'t think you have MS." Thankfully she referred me to someone that did specialize in MS and I nally secured the diagnosis. But I have been struggling for at least 20 years with things getting progressively worse. I just had my second dose of Ocrevus last week. Hoping it works.33 msfocusmagazine.org'