Laura's Story
Laura is living with MS. However, like many, it took her a long time to recognise that her bladder and bowel symptoms were connected to her MS. Now, Laura uses both intermittent catheters and transanal irrigation to manage her symptoms and she feels these treatments have improved her quality of life.
Laura leads a busy life and is a huge fan of photography, always enjoying exploring new places, taking photos of both nature and architecture, and of course, photos with her family. In the past, Laura has completed half-marathons, and whilst her physical condition makes this difficult now, she is once again building herself up so she can run more often.
Laura’s experience with MS started with a tingling sensation in her fingers. She had pain in her arm and what she describes as “strange headaches”, it was almost like a burning sensation in her head. After multiple brain scans that ruled out a brain tumour or a stroke, and lumbar puncture, Laura was finally diagnosed with relapsing-remitting Multiple Sclerosis.
Recognising her bladder and bowel issues were symptoms of her MS
When Laura thinks back now, she realises she had probably been experiencing bladder and bowel issues for a lot longer than she was aware of at the time. However, like many living with MS, only when these symptoms became more extreme, did she begin to make the connection.
"When I went for appointments with my nurse, she would ask me, ‘How is your bladder? or ‘How is your bowel?’ and I would just say ‘okay’, because to me it was okay." - Laura