It took three years for Michael Healey to be diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS).
In April 2018, just one month after the birth of his first son, Healey was told the symptoms he had been feeling for several years were related to MS, an often disabling disease of the central nervous system that disrupts the flow of information between the brain and body.
“Three years ago would have been when I would have shown symptoms. My first flare, at the time of that, the doctors in Bonnyville didn’t know what was going on. I ended up having to go to Edmonton and they finally did an MRI. They found a lesion on my spine… but because it was on my spine and I only had one, and MS normally presents itself in the brain or at least it presents itself in the brain first, the doctor there didn’t think it was MS and that I didn’t have to worry about that,” detailed the Bonnyville man.
“I ended up missing a bunch of work. My legs and abdomen were numb and tingly. It wasn’t good,” he described.
Roughly a year and a half ago, Healey started experiencing tingling in his legs and abdomen.
When he called the MS Clinic about his symptoms, he was told he already had a follow-up appointment booked.
By the time his appointment came around, everything was back to normal.
“The doctor said I probably didn’t have anything to worry about, that it was probably a cold that had bothered the old lesion. They weren’t even going to do an MRI of my spine… but I asked that they check that too,” Healey explained. “They did the spine MRI, and when they got the results, there was a second lesion.”
That was when he was told he had MS.
“It was quite an emotional rollercoaster, because that year, my son was born in March… and then a month later, not even, I was diagnosed with MS. A month after that, I did the (MS) Walk.”
Healey had heard about the walk through James Purdy, another local who had been diagnosed with MS.
“I decided to tell people about being diagnosed with MS by participating in the walk last year.”
Part of his role was sharing his story.
“It was fairly close to when I was diagnosed, so I didn’t have too much time to prepare or think about it,” he noted.
It was the first time Healey had participated, and he wasn’t sure just how much fundraising he would be able to do.
He decided to set a reasonable goal of $1,000.
“I didn’t really know how much I was going to raise when I was getting into it. I didn’t think it would be as much as it was. My initial guess was $1,000. I thought ‘oh, that would be great if I could raise that much. That seems doable.’ By the end… it was over $10,000,” he expressed. “It was encouraging to feel the support from people after telling them what was going on.”
This year, the MS Walk will be hosted on May 11 in St. Paul.
“I would encourage people to come out to this event because it shows a lot of support for those affected by MS and there’s quite a few in this area,” expressed Healey. “This is a disease that affects Canadians and western Canadians more so than other parts of the world.”
He added, “It’s good to see Canadians come together and show support for everyone who’s affected, not just the people who have MS, but friends and family.”
For more information, or to register for the upcoming event, visit mssociety.ca or mswalks.ca.
