Multiple sclerosis

I am Antonija Koren, born in 1973, and I have multiple sclerosis. I live for today, for this moment, because in five minutes my condition could be completely different. I don't plan ahead, I don't expect the future, I just look forward to the moment I' m in right now!

The first symptoms appeared in the fourth year of secondary school. I slowed down a lot in my typing, I made a lot of mistakes, but I didn't pay much attention to it. After leaving school, I was getting more dizzy day by day, I looked like the worst drunk, I couldn't see out of my right eye and couldn't hear out of my left ear. The doctor sent me to neurology several times. Always after all the examinations they dismissed me as everything was BP, despite the fact that I could not stand on my feet, that I couldn't touch my nose with my finger, that I couldn't put my heel on the knee of the other leg. Unfortunately, I was 'lucky' that I always came to the same doctor. The paramedic who was driving me said that next time he will leave me here if I am not admitted to hospital, he didn't want to take me home again in that condition. Well, the next time I was examined in the neurological department, there was a different doctor who was a resident, and she hospitalised me immediately. I was told that I would only come out of the hospital in a wheelchair. The rehabilitation lasted two years. I came out of the hospital on my own two feet and the sight in my right eye was restored. Then a miracle happened, I made a full recovery overnight. I could hardly get to bed in the evening, and I got up in the morning feeling as healthy as if I had been born again.

The problems started again after the twins were born. I had a high-risk pregnancy, but I still felt fine. When I gave birth to the twins with the boy, they were too late, at six months, finding out whether this child had a spine at all, and they diagnosed him with cerebral palsy, and only after six months sent us for neurophysiotherapy, with the girl, two months later, they diagnosed her with bronchiolitis, and they didn't know whether she would survive. I had to fight very hard to be allowed to be with my baby. After all this stress, my condition started to deteriorate. They didn't even keep me as a patient in neurology anymore, because I hadn't had any problems for so many years. In 2006, when my children were two years old, I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.

When I went back to work after maternity leave, many people accused me of being drunk. I wanted to have canes to help me walk, but my husband said it would look weird, so I tried without canes, but I fell down several times. I got a four-hour disability pension, but I gave it my all when I went to work. I have 15 years of employment. Now I am retired and I live for every beautiful moment in my life.

~ Antonija