Trying to make ppl with ms fears feel better

[Leah88]

Lots of people on here help me come out of panic attacks so I'd like to offer some reassurance to others. Ms is not one of my fears so I can think a bit more logically about it. I worked in a physio dept for 5 years and saw many people with ms. Very very rarely would the disease become fatal and debilitating. There is only one pt out of dozens I could remember who ended up in a wheelchair. Things to keep in mind are
1. Treatment is becoming exponentially better since stem cell therapy/immunotherapy is out
2. Only a ridiculously small percentage end up in wheel chairs
3. Living healthily with the disease ( low calorie diets), excercise and medication can hold back the disease for a long time before relapses occur.
4. Some people don't know they even have ms until they die of old age and it shows up in an autopsy. ( a head surgeon at my hospital informed us of this during a lecture)

I'm not trying to lessen the devastation caused by people being diagnosed, and sound insensitive, just trying to imply that it is not a hopeless disease.

Now I'll go back to my cancer worries ;)

[KaalynJohnson]

My 52 year old mother has been diagnosed for 8 years, and other than some minor annoyances (like she needs to urinate a lot) - she's completely normal and probably always will be.

Most people who get MS get diagnosed with Relapsing-Remitting MS and newer drugs can help manage it so you'll live a mostly normal, long life. There are much scarier things to be diagnosed with. There have been times when my health anxiety is bad where I actually think (illogically) "maybe it'll just be MS", instead of cancer or whatever other horrible idea I've gotten into my head.

[Stecakes]

this is a good post!
I've had a dabble of the ms fear when I got some strange small joint sensations.
but I've pretty much let go of my anxiety and gotten back on track now .
I'm sticking around to try and offer help to people who aren't back on track yet.