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Student Life

Medicine, multiple sclerosis, and me

BMJ 2007; 334 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/sbmj.070130 (Published 01 January 2007) Cite this as: BMJ 2007;334:070130
  1. Jenna Louise Duffy, third year medical student1
  1. 1Brighton and Sussex Medical School

What's it like being a medical student with multiple sclerosis? Jenna Louise Duffy shares her experiences

Why is it that when sometimes your life seems to be running smoothly, and you have so many plans of how you would like your life to be, something bad happens?

“Jenna, you're not a child anymore now: you're 16 going on 17, and I think you are at the age where you can deal with certain things…” “Blah, blah, blah,” I thought as my consultant droned on with the same dreary comments, and I stared out of the hospital window. These appointments were becoming a bit tedious. It was like having déjà vu. I stared out of the window. I kept thinking how excited I was about my plans for the weekend. My exams were approaching, and I just wanted to relax and have fun with my friends.

Garo/phanie/rex

Bound to this chair for life

My parents and I had come in for my routine appointment at the University of Wales College of Medicine. I had been called in for my appointment 10 minutes early, so my father was still outside parking the car. I had been unwell with “unusual symptoms” at 14 years old. Magnetic resonance imaging and lumbar puncture had confirmed lesions on my brain. The doctors suspected a virus or just a one-off illness that could not be explained. I therefore had to attend appointments every six months “to keep an eye on” me. I was never given a diagnosis.

Since then I had been free of symptoms. The initial symptoms of vertigo and optic neuritis I had had at that age had disappeared about four months after they started. That is, until two months before my routine check-up at 16 years old. I had been worried about my AS …

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