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At the end of October I started to feel exhausted every day, I slept all day every day I had off, I consistently cancelled plans, called out of work, on days I did work I was a sluggish mess and would fall asleep immediately after I got home.
At first I thought It was depression, I just rolled with it. Towards November I spoke w my fp about it telling her I thought I was sick but maybe it was just the hypochondriac in me being dramatic and she agreed saying I always thought I was sick. Which was true.
So I made it to the end of December all the while doing nothing to maintain my relationships or life balance because I felt like shit. Then what I thought were migraines started hitting every night. I didn’t take it seriously and I kept going.
By the time January hit my fp had enough of me being distant and was over all my shit (understandably) and moved on. I had already started losing my appetite mid December but figured it was stress but by now I had lost it completely and attributed it to us separating.
I went off the rails in a depression spiral and continued to not listen to my body. I lost 25lbs in January and didn’t care because my body dysmorphia was rejoicing. In February I lost 30+ lbs and then I collapsed, went to the hospital and got diagnosed
With an unknown degenerative brain disease but was confirmed to have nOH which usually comes with Parkinson’s related brain disorders. So I did more tests and waited three weeks until I was diagnosed with MSA w/nOH.
Whatever part of my brain is responsible for producing my appetite and sleep was getting messed with by the disease and I was too ignorant to notice so my brain just said nope and shut down. The symptoms of MSA are now obvious to me, such as passing out when I stood up
My hands and feet are freezing cold all the time, my blood pressure skyrockets when I lay down and drops dangerously low when I stand up and others, and these are just the early warning symptoms. So now I am one of the youngest people in the US to have been diagnosed with MSA.
The avg age range for It to be found is 40+ and most commonly in those 50 and up but has been found in rare cases in those as young as 35. It’s a rare disease that has only affected 15,000 - 50,000 people in the US. It does not go into remission and there is no cure.
The entire reason I made this thread is to give some general info about MSA and say that if your body starts giving you warning signs, LISTEN. Take the time to get it checked out. Spending the time is worth the peace of mind rather than finding out two years later like I did.
I’ll probably end up making an in-depth thread about Multiple System Atrophy (MSA) in the future to help myself and others affected find eachother. Thanks for reading all of this!
