MS in Japan

by Samantha
(Tokyo)

As of this year (2016) February, I finally went to see a neurologist about symptoms I was having. Thinking it was something to do with a pinched nerve, I was astounded and heart broken to be told it was most likely MS by my Japanese doctor who was struggling to communicate with me. Living in Tokyo for over 4 years, I could never have imagined I would have to deal with this situation sitting in a waiting room in Japan, with my phone that had just died and tears rolling down my cheeks as I kind of knew what MS was...

Away from my family, fearing for the unknown and dealing with the Japanese language. That day was definitely an outcome I did not predict for my future...

So lets go back two years ago when my naivety prevented me from checking out the issue then and there. This was my first bout of symptoms. At the time I had symptoms were my left leg would start to tingle like you had just been sitting on it for an hour and get up and have those horrible pins and needles. This would occur when I walked or ran. The feeling would pass but it would always occur again when I started to move. It got to the point were the tingles were so bad I couldn't walk very far with out stopping and starting and stopping...

But silly me didn't go and check it out. It finally did stop and life seemed to go back to normal and I forgot about it and it went into past memories. But the party of bliss didn't last long...

So, lets come back to February shall we. Ah, this was the month I was determined to lose my extra belly fats and started a heavy course of exercise and strict diet and by Jo did it work! I lost 5 kilos in less than 3 weeks. However, to ruin the celebrations this was also the trigger to my second set of symptoms.

These symptoms I found out were called "The barber Shop Syndrome". For all of those fine people who aren't aware of this bag of joy, basically it affects your neck/spine. Every time you look downward you feel an electric pulse/tingles that run all the way down to the back of your legs. On top of this, my left hand had kind of a dullness to it.

By this point, I threw in my towel and got to the bottom of it! How I wish it weren't this outcome though...

So for two weeks I was hospitalized all while dealing with a team who couldn't put an English sentence together. Very stressful indeed. But to add to my stress a heartache occurred. My dearest coworker was hospitalized at a different hospital (an hour away) and was in a coma. After getting my spinal tap the day before (and we all know what a treat that is) I let myself out of my hospital and rushed over to him. I wasn't aware of the severe headaches you can get from a spinal tap and was in agony as I held is hand in his bed...

Finally I had to leave as the pain was too hard to deal with. I gave my friend one last kiss on his forehead and left. When I got back to my bed in hospital I received a call that he had passed an hour after