Apr
6
Doctor has hope despite multiple sclerosis diagnosis – MontereyHerald.com
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — She still remembers the denial, fear, anger and depression that followed her diagnosis of multiple sclerosis in 2000.
“When you’re told you have MS and you’re 34, that’s a big deal,” said Dr. Kym Orsetti Furney, of Charlotte, N.C.
Eight years later, she has a more hopeful outlook, and she shares that with other newly diagnosed patients in a book that mixes her personal story with medical advice.
“When the Diagnosis is Multiple Sclerosis: Help, Hope and Insights from an Affected Physician” was published in December by Praeger Publishers.
“I did it as a message of hope,” Furney said. “A lot of it was to tell people, ‘Don’t think the worst.’ Look at me. Things aren’t perfect, but they’re pretty good.”
Furney’s MS journey started in 1994, when she temporarily lost partial vision in her left eye.
Doctors knew the condition, optic neuritis, is often related to MS, but her MRI scan didn’t show any brain lesions.
She continued with life, planning her wedding and working a hectic schedule as an internal medicine resident at the University of Michigan.
Then in 2000, 15 months after the birth of her first child, Furney developed overwhelming dizziness that caused her to collapse one morning. She felt numbness and tingling in her right arm and leg.
This time, she got an official diagnosis — relapsing/remitting MS.
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