A bride has shared her horror after the “really bad hangover” she was experiencing on her hen do turned out to be early symptoms of a neurological condition.
When Emily McColgan-Upfold struggled to bend down the day after her hen party in March 2023, she understandably assumed that she was experiencing nothing more than a few aches from the night before.
But over the next few weeks and months, the 30-year-old’s strength, balance, vision, hearing, and speech rapidly deteriorated.
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Just three days before she was due to marry her partner of 11 years, Stephen, in May, she had an emergency MRI – leaving her wedding day in tatters as she awaited the results.
Three days after tying the knot, while at the airport shopping for sun cream for her honeymoon, she was handed the devastating diagnosis of multiple sclerosis (MS).
“I cried and completely broke down,” Emily, an education specialist from Northern Ireland, told Need To Know.
“I’m sure people were looking at me, but it was as if time and space had ceased to exist.
“They told me I had enhanced lesions on my brain and spinal cord and demyelination, which was most likely MS.
“I felt like my whole world had just collapsed.”
MS is a condition that can affect the brain and spinal cord, causing a wide range of potential symptoms, including problems with vision, arm or leg movement, sensation, or balance.
Even before diagnosis, the worrying symptoms had tarnished Emily’s big day.
She said: “Our wedding day was supposed to be such a special, happy day, but it had such an ominous grey cloud hanging over it.
“I thought I’d be more excited and giddy with nerves, but instead, I was very aware of not giving it away that I was in pain and exhausted.
“I had bad muscle weakness due to the numbness, so I was anxious about falling and I struggled to get into my dress, so my mum had to help me.
“I [also] couldn’t really walk steadily or hold anything too heavy in my left hand, I had migraines and dizziness on and off and had constant back, hip, and leg pain; and I struggled with my hearing and vision.
“I look back on the wedding with mixed feelings because it was everything I hoped it would be.
“I just wish I could have felt the way I thought I would, and I feel sad for the girl who was scared of what was to come.”
Determined to enjoy her honeymoon, which was in Rhodes, Greece, Emily waited until she was home before undergoing further tests and deciding on treatment options.
The options depend on how severe and active your MS is, as well as how many relapses one has had – split into first-line and second-line treatments.
She said: “Relapses are when you experience new or worsening symptoms over a period of more than 24 hours.
“There is no way to know when you will relapse or how long you will relapse for.
“Things like managing stress can help minimise risk.
“Treatments also do not stop relapses they just slow down progression.”
Most likely expecting a second-line treatment, in the meantime, Emily has started making changes to her diet and exercise routine, including integrating cold water swimming and ice baths to help with her pain.
She has also started an Instagram account (@themultiplesclerosismillennial ) to document the highs and lows of her journey.
She added: “If you asked me six months ago what my future would look like, I’d have said bedbound or in a wheelchair with no hopes or dreams.
“An MS diagnosis brings with it a lot of uncertainty.
“I will never know if I’ll relapse again or if my disease will progress, but I have learned we shouldn’t really worry about things out of our control.
“Yes things might take me a little longer, sometimes the house won’t be as tidy as it used to be but living with MS is just that, living.
“I still enjoy and do the things I used to I just have to make a few adaptations along the way.
“There are, of course, times I feel sad, especially when there are things I used to be able to do with ease that are now a struggle.
“Such as putting my shoes on, opening bottles and jars, cooking or preparing a meal, and cleaning my house.
“But I choose every day to wake up and fight back at MS and to do things that make me happy.
“The future for me is hopeful.
“I’m hopeful there will be breakthroughs with research, hopeful I will travel more and say yes to more exciting and new opportunities, hopeful to spend a long and happy life with my young family, and hopeful to grow and become the strongest and happiest version of myself.
“I want to continue raising awareness for MS and building a community of chronic illness warriors that uplift and support each other through the good times and the hard times.
“When I was first diagnosed, I went straight to Google, and the images of elderly people in wheelchairs, the horror stories of falling and choking, and discovering the average lifespan of 40 years post-diagnosis sent me spiralling into a dark place where I had given up.
“But if you look, you will find that there are hundreds if not thousands of MS warriors online choosing to find joy every day, choosing to fight back at the stigma, and choosing to keep going despite all the odds.
“They helped me realise that MS doesn’t have to be as bad as a Google search tells you it will be.
“We didn’t choose to have MS, but we can choose how we respond to it.
“For people who have MS or have recently been diagnosed with MS, I would love them to know that MS is of course a life-changing diagnosis but it doesn’t have to be life-ending.
“It certainly doesn’t have to be the end of your hopes and dreams.”
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