Fast forward seven years, and Katie is still managing her MS without a prescription. And though some days were better than others, she feels pretty good on the whole. In fact, through 2017, she was even jogging a few days per week.
"My MS was an annoyance and a frustration," explained Katie. "I had symptoms, but they were on and off. They were tolerable, and they'd last a few days to a week or so. If I rested, ate well, and didn't overexert myself physically — especially in the Texas heat — I felt pretty good. On the days that I felt bad, I would feel better after I relaxed."
"I feel like my mind is a bunch of note cards with information on them. It's like I dropped them on the floor, and they're all jumbled up."
As for the symptoms? While they vary from person to person, the list is anything but short. For Katie, skin pain — like the feeling when someone slaps a bad sunburn — joint pain, and numbness in certain parts of her body were among the worst. She also experienced severe skin sensitivity, during which anything that touched her would leave her feeling uncomfortable.
But the list doesn't stop there. Some days, Katie would battle flu-like symptoms — minus the fever — an overwhelming feeling of exhaustion, and a brain-bog she definitely wasn't used to.
"I feel like my mind is a bunch of note cards with information on them," explained Katie. "It's like I dropped them on the floor, and they're all jumbled up. Right now, I might pick one up and know exactly what I want to say, and then other times I'm searching around like, 'Wait, wait. What was that? What was I trying to think?'"
Image Source: Katie Merrick