Sad news, but it’s the first step towards getting treatment. Medical science is making progress in this field, and hopefully an effective treatment for you will be found soon.
A friend of mine is a nurse and is tangentially involved with this area of MS research. I think it’s fascinating; wouldn’t it be nice if it could be cured by an autologous stem cell transplant?
Now that you know, BMalion, you can go on to treatment.
Until earlier this year, my sister worked in drug trials for MS. There are some pretty amazing drugs out there. I also have some friends who don’t let it stop them. One is ex-military, just published her first book, and is currently out on a book tour.
The cure may not be out there yet, but the treatments…yeah, they’re there. Be aggressive with finding treatments, and have fun living your life.
So sorry to hear the bad news, BMalion, but glad you’re taking it well. And your symptoms could certainly be worse, so I’m sure you’ve counted your blessings. And just think: someday you could become President!: Jed Bartlet - Wikipedia
I don’t even know what to say. I understand the jangly, not-able-to-control what’s going on. But for me those periods were brief.
I had a great friend in my writing group who had MS. Sometimes he came in using a cane, sometimes not. He was very intelligent, intuitive. I think he had the same spirit as you.
Take heart. All is not lost. People care.
Thank you. I’ve been using a cane for the last 2 years, I hope I can avoid the walker for awhile. I don’t know about president, how about Lord High Executioner?
My wife has secondary progressive MS, so I’m very sorry to hear of your diagnosis. Hopefully you have the relapsing-remitting kind and one of the drugs will do the trick for you and keep the flare-ups to a minimum and your quality of life as high as possible.
Within the first year of my wife’s diagnosis she did half of her lifetime dosage of Novantrone to slow what was a fairly rapid progression (even though this is a heavy-duty anti-cancer drug, she said while she was one it was the best she’s felt), she is on Rebif and receives prednisolone infusions once per month in an attempt to keep the progression down; so far, it’s worked pretty well. She is getting a little weaker over time, but is still able to move around some. The lesions are not increasing in number by very much year-over-year.
Her primary symptoms are fatigue, some spasticity from time-to-time, and a general inability to feel her arms and legs. Even with the last she’s retained her ability to walk, likely due to large muscle memory. She uses a rollator (a walker with a seat) on the rare occasions she leaves the house, but tires so easily that it’s not something she does very often, as she gets exhausted just getting cleaned up.
To the best of my knowledge, there’s no familial component to MS.
Keep us abreast of the situation, and best of luck!
There is, but it’s complicated by environmental factors. If a first-degree relative has it, you have a 4% chance of getting it. If your identical twin has it, you have only a 40% chance. High enough not to be random, but low enough to be clear that genetics is not all that’s going on.
Ah, I see. There just has to be an environmental component to it. My wife blames it on her multiple trips to the Far East. I don’t believe anyone else in her family has a history of MS, and most of her relatives lived to ripe old ages.
I have MS with very similar symptoms as yours. My treatments of Ampyra and Rebif have (so far) been very successful. Insurance has been a bear. Fell free to PM me for my e-mail if you need someone to talk to.