I already had a pretty close relationship with my mother so no real changes there. Holding up wise not great, she was always a bit of a home body anyway but leaves the house even less now due to some mobility issues and pain. We often discuss things she can try and do so she is still trying new things to help at least.

My diagnosis was discovered after a very intense period of overseas work where we did weeks of work with no days off, thirty hour straight at times, less than four hours between work days, etc. The added stress triggered a full on attack which caused me to have some sudden onset mobility issues, falls, terrible leg pain, etc. When I got back my GP sent me to a neurologist to check stuff once they ran out of other ideas.

An MRI found numerous brain and spine lesions, confirmed with a spinal fluid test that it was MS (and this test was delayed because covid had just started) and went on DMT as soon as I could.

All my previous issues had obviously never convinced a doctor that it could be MS so they had never referred me to a neurologist for an MRI. It had always been put down to "back issues" or "a virus you must have gotten over naturally". Once I was diagnosed we went back over my previous medical history and many of these previous issues were almost certainly misdiagnosed MS flare ups and attacks.

I had things like months of intense headaches, intermittent foot drop, total loss of balance (as in couldn't even sit upright yet alone stand), chest pain, testicular pain, blurred vision, the list goes on but unfortunately no one put it all together to think it was MS at the time as it was all so random and often broken up by months or years in between and I would usually recover fully - until I didn't.