It drives me crazy sometimes to hear expert doctors go on about being pregnant as being beneficial for MS. At a speech given by Dr. Caroline Whitacre, PhD at the National MS Society's national conference, she said, "Pregnancy is the best treatment for multiple sclerosis."(I read that in the most recent issue of Momentum, the National MS Society's magazine) For me, it was the WORST treatment for my MS. I have been pregnant twice. And in my 11 years of MS, the worst 2 attacks happened when I was pregnant. And they happened at the same time in the pregnancies. A statement like that probably drives guys crazy too because they can't get pregnant - a hardship I know they probably lament all the time - at least my husband does - NOT. He actually feels like he got a raw deal because I had 2 c-sections and didn't really go into labor .

When I got pregnant, all I heard was how great it would be for my MS and I believed it. And my MS really wasn't bad. I had had 2 attacks prior to getting pregnant in the 5 years of having MS and neither attack was one that stopped me from doing most things (Ok - Tae Kwon Do was out, but I stretched in the back). I could walk, my legs were just a little bit weak and definitely tingling all over. I used my crutches for maybe 2 days during the second attack but I probably didn't need them, it was more of a security thing for me. So when I started having double vision 2 months into the pregnancy, I chalked it up to a weird pregnancy thing. It couldn't be the MS. All anyone ever said is how great pregnancy is for MS. Just the week before, I had lost taste in the left side of my mouth, also a weird pregnancy thing so I figured the double vision was the same.

Then the next day, I took a 2 hour nap. That was when my husband started worrying - I NEVER take naps unless I am sick. Later that evening, I convinced my husband that I was ok to attend a party given by his boss. I definitely shouldn't have done that. At the party, I knocked over a bottle of red wine because I thought it was one place, and it wasn't. At this point, my husband said I should talk to the host's husband, an oncologist. So I began by telling him about the double vision. Then I told him I was 11 weeks pregnant and he said, somewhat skeptically that it COULD be a weird pregnancy thing. Then my husband kicked me and said I had to tell him everything. So then I said, "oh yeah, and I kinda have MS." At which point, the doctor confirmed my husband's thoughts that this was an MS attack and I needed to call my neurologist first thing the next day. So, long story short, I went to see my neurologist. We waited 10 days to see if the attack would start to get better without the steroids since he didn't want to give me any medicine if he didn't have to. But it got worse, a lot worse. I lost 13 pounds and use of my right side - writing, eating, etc. which was difficult since I was right-handed and probably lent to the loss of weight, that and getting sick since my equilibrium was off with the double vision. So I went on prednisone 10 days after the attack began for a 10 day period. And the eye sight returned to almost normal by the end of the steroid treatment and 100% a couple of weeks after. The right side got better, but I would say it was a few months before my handwriting returned to normal. And then the rest of the pregnancy went great. The 20 week sonogram was scary, but everything looked good. I spoke to a doctor who is doing a study of Estriol (which is showing great promise) a hormone that is thought to help the MS that has an increased presence in women in their late 2nd/early 3rd trimesters of pregnancy. She said she wasn't surprised to hear I had the attack in the first trimester because the beneficial effects of the increase in Estriol didn't kick in until the later trimesters.