Do you think you have Multiple Sclerosis?Or you are not sure what Multiple Sclerosis is, what it looks and feels like? Don’t worry, most people don’t really know what is Multiple Sclerosis and worse of all, there is a lot of misconceptions and flat out wrong information about this illness. LET’S GET SOME OF THE MYTHS OUT OF THE WAY AND START SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT RIGHT NOW:
In this particular case, the immune system attacks and destroys the protective cover of nerve axons called myelin, causing the interruption of the brain signals traveling from our brains and spinal columns to breakdown or, in the best case, to slow down. The slowing down of messages from the brain simply results in you experiencing all sorts of problems and a huge variety of symptoms attributed to this illness. Click on the following link to read more about What is Multiple Sclerosis, the types that are known and how it can be diagnosed. I think that what’s more relevant as far as facts about MS Is that by being a Chronic disease you need to know that this illness is:
Meaning that even though you might not see it or feel it, the progression of the disease is constant and always going on inside your body. The first drugs to come out for the treatment of this autoimmune disease were the interferon based Meds. The first drugs started to come out in the middle of the 1990’s. Currently what you will find is a series of treatments that are more focus on treating the symptoms of the illness than the underlying cause of the disease. There are over 2.5 million folks with Multiple Sclerosis around the world today. It is estimated that over 400,000 of them are currently living in the USA. Most of us have one of the 5 commonly known types of MS but there is one type called Malignant Multiple Sclerosis or Marburg Variant which is a particularly aggressive type of MS that it’s also very rare. This form of MS is defined by its swift and relentless decline to significant disability or even death, often within a few weeks or months after the first attack. WHAT IS NOT MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS There are several misconceptions around this chronic disease. A very common one has to do with the question about spreading or catching the disease. You should know right away that it is not a contagious disease. If your next door neighbor has MS, there is NO WAY you can “catch it” or become “infected” with it. As a matter of fact, there is no existing proof that MS is even inherited. There are just theories about the inheritability and the prominence of it amongst particular ethnic groups and certain races, but they are just theories and hypotheses at this point. Another misconception about it is the fact that having it does not mean that you will end up in a wheelchair. Nowadays, with all the medical advances and breakthroughs, more and more people afflicted by MS symptoms and the problems it causes, are living longer, happier and productive lives that ever before. If you think about it, just a little over 25 years ago, if you got a positive diagnosis, there was pretty much nothing your doctor could give you to treat the disease. A diagnosis then was pretty much a sentence of disability and life under the care of others. That is no longer the case and today it is clear to many of us (MSers) that there is life after MS. WHAT SHOULD YOU DO IF YOU THINK YOU MIGHT HAVE MS? This is not an easy disease to diagnose. MS can mimic more than 50 other diseases and quite frequently, folks that finally get a definite diagnosis of MS, have done so after several years of trying to get the definite and correct diagnosis from doctors. To start with, you should know that the current neurological criteria to diagnose the disease states that the patient MUST show 2 episodes (flares, relapses, attacks) separated by at least 30 days between each other. When I had my first attack, the neuro that saw me with my first MRI result said at the time that “if nothing happens in the next 5 years, I had nothing to worry about”. That sounded strange to me at the time but now I know that he needed a second episode before confirming his suspicions. Now, it is almost impossible to list all possible MS symptoms. They can vary from Optic neuritis and other vision problems to all sort of weird sensations such as tingling, numbness, electric shocks running all over the body. Some of the most frequently seen MS symptoms are MS fatigue and cognitive problems. SOME SUGGESTIONS THAT MIGHT HELP YOU Here is a list of things you can do in preparation to see your doctor. If your doctor refers you to a Neurologist, it is quite possible that he or she will prescribe any of the following tests to rule out or look for MS: There are 3 main types of evoked potential tests used in diagnosing MS. Each of these tests requires that electrodes are attached to your scalp and connected to an electroencephalograph (EEG) to record brainwaves in response to different stimuli. The tests are: The doctor is looking for both the size of the response and the speed in which the brain receives the signal. Weaker or slow signals may indicate that demyelination has occurred and that multiple sclerosis (MS) is a possibility. This test is also not specific to MS and abnormalities could indicate another problem. A series of all three tests could take up to two hours to complete. I took this test when I had my first attack but the results were inconclusive. Also called a spinal tap is done by inserting a needle between your vertebrae and extracting a little bit of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) from the spinal column. There are certain antibodies, detected in oligoclonal bands, which doctors’ look for in cases of suspected multiple sclerosis (MS). This is not a 100% guarantee test for multiple sclerosis (MS) but oligoclonal bands can be found in 79%-90% of all MSers. My test result came back negative, which put me in the 10%-21% group of patients that have the illness without a positive spinal tap result. Once again, that is why diagnosing MS is no simple task. YOU CAN ASK ANY QUESTIONS YOU MIGHT HAVE RIGHT HERE Knowing that this is a very individual illness, I am more than happy to help you in any way I possibly can. I would appreciate it if you go to my Why am I so tired page, which is my FAQ about MS page also and drop me a note in the space reserved for that. I will try to answer you as fast as I can.
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I do remember complaining about a strong headache after the procedure finished, so be prepared and take a couple of aspirins with you.