I was talking about this on the show last week. But me and my entire family, the Zamchuri Family, which is the little team name we came up for. I took part in the MS Walk Run role, which is it's kind of like there's many different steps you can do. You to a five K, ten K mini marathon, quarter marathon, whatever you want to call it, raising money and funds for MS research here in Australia. My sister Becky has MS, was only diagnosed very recently with in the last six months.
Also pregnant. A lot going on.
I just firstly wanted to say thank you to you girls end of the pickup listeners. We smashed our goal. We like tripled our goal of fundraising and racist under ten thousand dollars.
Well, that's amazing.
You guys should be so proud really honestly because what you're doing raising awareness, raising money. I know we're going to speak to Becky more about it, but it's yeah, you should be really proud, and I'm sure Becky feels a lot of love.
Yeah, well that's I wanted to get Becky on to join us because here I am telling her story about it being diagnosed with MS, living with MS walking and they run and roll with MS.
But I wanted to bring out of the show. So Becky for the first time pick up debut.
Welcome show, Hi, Hi, Hello, Hello, how are you guys?
I can't believe this is your debut. I think maybe because I know you. I feel like you've come on well literal family and you know. Yeah, Becky, you were diagnosed with MS. What was that like for you?
And I say that because I think there's a lot of people that don't know much about it. But like, at the time, did you know something was quote unquote wrong? What led you to be diagnosed?
Yeah, definitely, Like I had a three year battle just to get diagnosed. So by the time I got diagnosed, I think I was actually relieved that someone finally believed something was wrong. Initially I had It was around the COVID time I got COVID. I got a vaccine and then I just like causes some people with immune kind of responses to flare up, and I started losing my vision. I was at work and saw like we'd stars and
I went to the neurologist. I had an MRI and he was like, look, you just have anxiety, like relaxed, dude, some mindfulness come back. So then me and my husband pretty much fought for like three years because I was having like severe migraines to the point of losing vision on the way home from work, like it got really bad fatigue, numbness and pins and needles down my arm.
And then yeah, I pushed and pushed and pushed, and eventually they did a lumber punk show which actually came back negative, which is like one of the criteria to diagnose. But the main thing in the NAY found was I had progression of one lesion over a three year period, which is very minimal. I'm very lucky a brain. They were yes, a brain lesion, so I only have them in my brain, but I had had one more lesion
in my brain. My neurologists was like, look, I think it's still anxiety, and I was like, look, I'm getting a second opinion. Mitch actually put me onto a really great neurologist who had me with an MS specialist the next day. Mitchell in his connections, I don't know where fun.
Everything.
Well, she kept saying, at the doctors are saying you don't have anything. So I called everyone I knew and we got her in and that's when she got a diagnosis.
So this is my question, Becky, you would now have spoken to other people who have been diagnosed with MS. Is this something like is this experience of being told oh, you know, it's not this, or it could be this, or kind of it being downplayed? Is that a common experience or is that just something that was unique to you.
Look, I think it's hard because unfortunately, it's such a weird disease that presents in so many different ways. Like I've met one hundred people with MS, and probably five people have the same symptoms, So I think it presents so differently. You can either have brain lesions, spine lesions both and it really it really depends then on what
your symptoms are. But I mean, I spoke to a lady this morning, just randomly, and then she was telling me that like her thirteen year old niece or something that were investigating her for MS and she'd been gas lit and I told her it was, you know, migraines as well, and I was like, keep pushing, like, go
see this specialist. You need to get to the bottom of it, because ultimately, starting any treatment early is the key to not well, hopefully if the treatment works for you, it's not progressing as sick as you.
Yeah, yeah, Becky. And I mean for anyone who doesn't know what MS looks like, and I think that that would be a great deal of people. What does that like for you if you were to say, if those symptoms were to progress, what does life look like without treatment?
Well, I think it's really like for me personally, and I can only speak to me. Like my everyday symptoms is I have really bad static vision in my eyes, so when I'm in a room, everything white is static and everything black is static. I have problems like the lady next to me today at work is wearing a multi colored shirt and I can't look it up because I'm like, it's making me feel like I'm going to pass out, you know, like reading a book. I can't read a book because I can't see the letters they
all move. But for other people, like I know a girl that woke up one day and couldn't move for legs. So I think the problem is that it's an invisible disease and that I can be feeling terrible but still turn up to family lunch and put a brave face on and smile, you know, whereas other people they can't even you know, they need a wheelchair or they need a cane to help them out. I just really want to spread awareness for it, and they're people out there that it is a bit too late and the medication
doesn't work for them. Like so, I mean, the closer we get to research and money for a QR, and there's some amazing clinical trials going on at the moment, the better.
Bye guy, Mitch.
You should be so proud of yourself as well for raising awareness. I know how much this has affected you in your family, but you guys are the best.
Yeah, it's I mean, I've got a brain condition too, and I feel like Becky got MS, which is greater than my brain condition.
I'm like, great, I just have to sit here. I just get headaches. And again I'm not even bringing attention to my own brain.
Mitch's brain actually comes out the bottom of his We can talk about that.
Updates my brain Becky's brains.
All right, Well, look, speaking of brains, I have something that I need to admit after this.
I forgot a really really really.
Important event, a really important anniversary, and I feel horrible about it and I need you guys to make me feel little bit better.
Okay, we can do that, no promise, it's easy. We'll try. We might double down.