Living with Multiple Sclerosis

Today, I will be discussing Multiple Sclerosis (MS). More importantly, I will be sharing what I learned from a teenage girl named, Breea, and her journey of recovery with MS. I watched her short documentary on Youtube titled, "Multiple Sclerosis-Breea's Story.wmv". I chose this because, it was recommended as great documentary to watch, but also because I have never met or seen anything about a teenager battling with MS. I wanted to see how her life changed and how she dealt with that to overcome obstacles. We are also discuss Multiple Sclerosis in my Neuro Aspects course this week, so I wanted to tie what I learned in class with this documentary. 

The video begins with showing a video of her cheering before her diagnosis. It then proceeds to people of her life saying who Breea is to them. Her diagnosis happened after her suddenly falling and becoming paralyzed on her left side, leaving her with Severe Onset of Multiple Sclerosis. She then became blind her left eye and could not talk or swallow. Her family was there for her every step of the way. They continuously pushed her to keep going and trying things she lost the ability to do. Breea began to gain enough strength to begin learning how to walk again. She knew that she needed to keep a positive mindset, in order to keep her condition from defeating her. After a few months, she began to regain some control of her left extremities, by doing various fine motor activities with her left hand. What really amazed me is watching her mom assist her in a back handspring 8 months after her injury, and seeing her walk away when they finished with barely any difficulties. This story truly is inspiring and I am happy that it was shared with the world.

Some of the symptoms that I saw with Breaa from what was discussed in class were intention tremor when she would reach for the spoon or placing the clothes pins on the strings, dysmetria when we she was tossing the bags, weakness, speech problems, and balance problems. But she honestly made a comeback from all of these things by the end of the video. I believe that Breea had relapsing-remitting MS due to the fact that her symptoms got worse in the first few days, and after that she slowly began to improve in her function. She also utilized a mobile arm support for her left arm when seated in her wheelchair. Overall, Breea made an amazing recovery with her intrinsic motivation, support from her family and friends, and her amazing therapy staff. I look up to people like her that show me never give up regardless of the circumstances. #GoBreea !!

breeareneebeatsms. (2012, September 8). Multiple Sclerosis-Breea’s Story.wmv. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfD9s1_TN0s