Ever since I started treatment this summer, I’ve found myself constantly asking, “Am I better yet?”

When I got IVIG, I’d hoped maybe I would start getting better within a few weeks. Whenever I had a good day, I started to think I was getting better. But then the symptoms would come back, and I’d be disappointed. I’d been told it could take me up to a year to get back to 100%, but I hoped it would be sooner. Wouldn’t you?

Six months later, I’m still playing the am-I-better-yet game, and the answer is still no. Certainly, I’m “better” than I was in a lot of ways, but I’m nowhere near where I want to be. I was doing really well, but now that I’m finding out where I am with less of the anti-inflammatory and immunosuppresent qualities of the steroids, I really don’t like what I’m seeing.

At 10 mg, I went back to not being able to walk normally. I ticked a lot. I couldn’t remember simple words and often had to pantomime things to get my point across. I kept seeing everyday things that had a “bad” texture, and looking at them made me sick to my stomach. If I took Nuvigil to keep me awake, the symptoms I was left with were close to the level of impairment I lived with for the three or four good years I had since getting sick—better than I was this summer.

At 5 mg now, things aren’t looking so good. I’m having bouts of depression where I hate doing the things I usually love. I sometimes start shivering all over when I’m not cold—a symptom I hadn’t had since September. Some days, I’ve had as many as ten or twenty falls because I can’t walk normally now. As I’m riding my kick scooter across campus, my fingers involuntarily lift off the handle bars for a couple seconds (my thumb doesn’t, so I’m not going to fall off), and it looks like I’m giving passersby some weird sort of wave—but this is just a new choreiform movement.  Having this one new choreiform movement is better than that constant full-body dance I did a few months ago.

Worst of all, my cognitive symptoms are becoming more severe and obvious. Instead of forgetting words, now I just say the wrong word and don’t even realize it until after I’ve done it—if I realize it at all. I’ve had a lot of people ask me to repeat things I say lately, which makes me think I’m messing up my words even more often than I realize. Sometimes, I say something and watch people think about what I’ve said and then ask me, “Oh, do you mean…?”

Sometimes, it can be as simple as me calling a bagel a doughnut, but other times, it’s much more disruptive. Someone asked me for directions recently, and I meant to tell them to make a left turn, but I ended up saying “right turn.” I tried to set up a time to hang out with someone else and tell them Thursday didn’t work but Friday was good, and instead I said, “We should get together on Thursday.” I don’t speak up in class anymore because I’m sure I’ll say something stupid.

My concentration is possibly at its all-time worst. I was trying to pay attention to a lecture the other day, but instead, I completely checked out without realizing it. Ten minutes later, I came out of it and had absolutely no idea what was being discussed. I tried to get back into focus, but it was impossible, so I just sat there in another world for the rest of the class. And then during my choir’s rehearsal this week, I lost my place in the music every few measures and had to rely on the girl next to me to repeatedly show me where we were. I had to call my mom and have her read aloud an assigned reading and help me parse the meaning of the text. And while writing this post, I’ve been noticing an unusual amount of typos and grammar errors.

As bad as some of my symptoms are, I’m happy to say that I barely have OCD anymore—if I have it at all. I’m also having more days when I hardly tic. I haven’t had a full-blown panic attack since October. I’m running more and more and have even joined a local running club (you don’t really have to talk when you’re running). I was so ill and exhausted from being malnourished this summer that I could barely run a 12-minute mile, but now I can run eight miles non-stop at a 9:40/mile pace.

As I continue to ask myself if I’m better and over-analyze each symptom, I’m going to try to remember how much I have improved—and I’ll keep hoping that someday, I’ll ask myself, “Am I better yet?” and the answer will be an indisputable yes.