How my life may have contributed to my MS

Well, I asked the Q? How did your MS first present itself, and have seen various, but interesting answers.

I'm 48 now, and over the course of my life I have had over 30 medical procedures, by the time I was 16 years
of age, I had been hospitalized 16 times and been in the hospital for every holiday, at least once.

I have had extreme headaches, since I was 4 years old and I would take 4-8 headache pills at a time, aspirin, Excedrin, etc. but to no avail, it didn't touch my headaches.

I was hospitalized for a week (when I was young, 10 maybe), so they could do tests, even a purple injection test into my brain to see what they could see.  After all tests came back negative, they said it must be in my mind, so they put me on an adult amount of valium I was to take 2 times a day.  It made me feel like a zombie, so I finally quit taking them myself.  About a year later, the Dr. who prescribed those pills, was arrested for writing illegal prescriptions, go figure.

I have always had, severe headaches, sometimes dx as migraines, cluster headaches, tension headaches, etc.
I had taken every possible over-the-counter medicine for headaches, and nothing ever touched them.  I would take up to 8 Tylenol or 10 Advil, nothing worked, still doesn't.

As an adult, I never carried medical insurance on myself, couldn't afford to.

Then when I started a job, back in 2002, I got medical insurance for me and my family for the first time.

During this time, I found out I had hypothyroidism (and given Synthroid/Levothyroxine), that I had a hiatal hernia (and Aciphex), also extreme high triglycerides and cholesterol (various fish oils, etc.).

I also was diagnosed with TC (Testicular Cancer), had surgery to remove one testicle, and 17 times had radiation treatment (basically covering my lower chest and abdomen).

About 5 years ago, while working a second job, I got a sharp deep bone pain, in my right arm.  I went to several doctors (beginning with a Workman's Comp. Dr) and all five had different opinions of what I did, but no answer on how to help it.  The pain in my right arm was so severe that it kept me awake at night, for days.
Then I even began getting  the same pain, in the same place, in my left arm, as well.  I still get the pain, sometimes in either arm, sometimes in both at the same time, but not as severe a pain.

[Note:  I have a spread sheet of all my medical procedures, so I can print it out and take it to Dr. appts.
They always want to know, every time you go see them, like they can't keep a copy in your file.  I cannot
remember all those procedures, dates, etc. or in what particular order, even when my memory was good.
It's in a very small font, and it covers more than 1 page, printed on both sides.]

I read, someone say, that there maybe a correlation between thyroid problems and MS, well, if that's true
then, I'm one of those with both, hypothyroidism and MS.

Hey, on the bright side, my Cancer Dr. told me, my chances of getting a different form of Cancer (even though I had a form of Cancer already) was the same as someone who had never had Cancer before.
Well, he did not say anything about getting MS.

Take care and God bless

[tonyad]

  So sorry to here of all the health problems that you have been through for so long.
I am very glad to hear that the chances of you getting cancer again is minute!
Praise God!!!!

Thanks for sharing your story. It just may be of value for someone out there who
also has thyroid problems.
Take Care,
~Tonya