In honor of Multiple Sclerosis Awareness Week, I asked a few patients who live with both MS and RA (as I do) to share their stories with us today.  Diagnosed first with MS then RA, patients AM, ND, and PB share their stories below.  Stories from patients diagnosed with RA first can be found on MyRACentral.

When were you diagnosed with MS and when were you diagnosed with RA?

AM:  I was diagnosed with MS in May 2006 and with RA in January 2011.

PB:  The MS diagnosis is a bit complicated, but I am sure that is common.  I first became ill, to the point of needing a doctor’s help because I couldn't function in my day to day life, in 1993.  I did not get the diagnosis of probable MS until 2001.  I was finally diagnosed with definite MS in 2005.  I was diagnosed with RA just this past December 2010.  However at the age of 15, I was told I had Arthritis but they did not think it was RA.

ND:  I was diagnosed with "probable MS" back in 1975.  I was 25 years old and there were no MRI's to show proof positive.  I was told by the neurologist to think long and hard about having children and that I would probably be in a wheelchair by age 50.  Over the next 13 years I had such a mild course of MS that being in denial was easy, so I went on to have two children between the age of 28 and 32.  My pregnancies were normal and I had no serious MS problems until 1988.

I had become used to having numb fingers and toes and some weakness in my right leg, but in 1988 was what I would call my first big exacerbation which didn't go away with steroids and left me with definite weakness in my right side.  I'm pretty good at adjusting to circumstances so I just kept going and working and being a very active wife and mother.  I was much more aware, however, that MS was probably gonna give me a run for my money!  The confirmed diagnosis came later in 1988 with my first MRI.

What are your primary MS-related and RA-related symptoms?  Which disease seems to cause the most concern for you?


ND: By the fall of 2006, my MS seemed to be progressing. I didn't have the "official" seeming attacks but just a slow steady worsening and more troublesome symptoms that got harder to manage.  I was working full time at the same job I had done for over 20 years, but I was exhausted all the time and I was starting to make a lot of mistakes because I just couldn't concentrate or multi-task any longer.

It was at that time that the first symptoms of RA and Lupus appeared.  I was in so much pain in my joints and started a course of prednisone which helped so well and so quickly it was such a relief.  I tested positive for lupus and the main problems with that have been the RA pain in my joints and skin rash with sun exposure.  I also was so fatigued that I would have to nap every day or I couldn't keep going.