It seems every time I turn around someone is being diagnosed with MS. I imagine it is a real disorder but how many times are Drs just assigning this to someone to shut them up and give them a real diagnosis they can run with. I know quite a few people who seem to have gotten bored with it because they found a new husban or boyfriend or hobby etc and claimed that diet, or prayer for instance made it go away. My guess is a lot of these folks get obsessed with thier own feelings and make themselves sick.
MS is real.
Are you?
MS is a very real disease by any definition. Are you thinking of fibromyalgia by any chance? That one is a little more controversial and is poorly understood.
Then for God’s sake, quit turning around!
Thats another one even more questionable than MS. I know MS is real, I just have to wonder how often it is simply assigned to patients who don’t have it. If we take the time to examine the personality profiles of those who seem to get it their seems to be a general profile of someone mildly depressed, under appreciated and somewhat self absorbed.
It’s sometimes hard to diagnose. But it’s real. And, as it progresses, it is usually clearly established.
Doctors aren’t slapping the label on them, they’re self-diagnosing.
MS symptoms can go into remission for no particular reason and then return for no particular reason later on. These people could be telling the truth about their illness and just be wrong about why the symptoms cleared up. Of course they could also be taking drugs to treat it and the drugs could be working. I am not sure the medical professional has a handle on whatever is going on with fibromyalgia, but multiple sclerosis is well understood and is real.
Many doctors do feel that Fibromyalgia has a strong correlation with psychiatric illness (which, I might add, doesn’t mean that these people are not really experiencing pain - it can be that depression makes the perception of pain more intense and they really are suffering).
I haven’t really heard that about MS, though. There are characteristic lesions from MS that you can see on an MRI in many cases and physical exam findings that wouldn’t make sense unless it was from multiple neurologic lesions as in what you’d expect from MS.
I suppose any chronic illness might make someone seem self-absorbed, because they probably do spend a lot of time thinking about their illness and what to do about it.
MS can be hard to establish as a firm diagnosis, in some cases.
I’ve also had patients who faked MS. But I’ve had patients fake cancer too. MS is as real (and can be as devastating) as cancer.
Relapsing-remitting MS is a specific type of MS. I believe it is the type my dad has.
This. When the symptoms first show up, it can be confused with other problems, but over time there are tests that will confirm MS from actual physiological changes to the body, i.e. it’s not just a case of inferring MS from observing symptoms.
That said, if you think diagnosing MS is tricky, try diagnosing Parkinson’s. My older brother has it-- unless things have changed in recent years, there’s no ability to make a positive Parkinson’s diagnosis short of a brain autopsy. Essentially, they diagnose you with Parkinson’s after ruling out everything else, and seeing whether you respond to medications that have historically been used to treat Parkinson’s.
How in fuck does one convincingly fake cancer?!? Oh … it’s the “convincingly” part, isn’t it?
I’d like more explanation about how this happens. I can understand the appeal of a cancer diagnosis for someone who is attention-/money-seeking, of course. Is it possible to get diagnosed with/treated for cancer without actually having cancer? Do you document the file that they’re a faker? :eek:
Is it August yet?
September last I checked.
I can see why QtM’s patients could be the kind of person to fake about any illness (for those new around here, he’s a prison’s doctor). My local hospital has several people, all of whom have some sort of mental issue, who spend a lot of time and effort trying to get admitted for a physical cause because they like it better at the hospital than at home.
MS is real; I’ve got “not MS”, in that sometimes I get the symptoms (up to the trembling arms and legs - let me tell you, having that happen while you drive isn’t a joke) but there are no lesions in the MRI so it’s not MS, and even something as mild as what I get is a bitch. Are there people who self-diagnose? Sure. Are there people who abbreviate “I’m being tested for MS” and jump to the end of the movie (which may turn out to be “nope, that’s not it” as in my case)? Sure. Is MS an imaginary illness? No more than Parkinson’s (hi, davekhps) or Alzheimer’s, another neurological illness for which the only positive test requires a dead patient.
I’ll ask my sister-in-law. She says she has MS, but maybe it’s just been an excuse to sit in a wheelchair for 15 years, never get married or have kids, never move her limbs again, choke on her food, and let her family members feed her and wipe her ass when she soils her diaper. Yeah, probably not real.
And you’re lucky this isn’t the Pit.
Really? Perhaps some of the confusion, then, comes from your odd choice to entitle the thread:
I mean, I’m no fancy word detective or nothin’, but there does seem to be an implication there that you’re not sure whether or not it’s real. It’s subtle, but it’s in there.
You can fake having cancer, then go to a mexican laetril or other “alternative” treatment clinic and get fake treatment, all the while having fundraisers and getting sympathy for your disease.
And I saw more of this back in my 15+ years of private practice than my 10 years of prison practice.
no, no, you’ve misunderstood, Smeghead: badger5149 is asking if multiple scHlerosis is real or not.