Multiple Sclerosis

You need to go to your doctor and learn for sure.

I have many friends and co-workers living with MS. Most of them are living and working with this condition in a productive way. A few of them have experienced severe issues with tiredness and one has lost her ability to walk. But the treatment of MS has improved greatly.

If you begin treatment early, you may not have to deal with the ordeal that you mom has.

God bless you and good luck!

Syddy, so you aren't feeling well and have these worries. First of all, MS appears NOT to be hereditary. It occurs in geographich clusters rather than being evenly distributed in large populations. This suggests that it is caused or triggered by environmental factors. So, families tend to live in more or less the same environment (town, state, geographic region) and so family members may be exposed to the same causes. It may run in families due to that reason. There has been some recent research that strongly suggests that MS clusters follw tick populations. Ticks are nasty and carry all sort of diseases including rocky mountain spotted fever, babesia, cat scratch fever..... However, the biggie in this country is Lyme disease. Lyme can look a lot like MS but is a bacterial infection that can be cured or managed with antibiotics. I know. I have had it at least sixteen years but more like twenty and it is well contained and I am essentially symptom free. My first definitive lyme symptom was numbness and weakness in my feet and knees. I could barely walk and could not climb stairs. This came on over a couple of days. I was sure I had MS. I know a person who had an MS diagnosis for four years and spent a significant part of that time in a wheelchair. She's very bright and started doing reearch and came to the conclusion she could hae Lyme. She found someone to treat her, got IV antibiotics for a while, and got up and walked. She still has foot-drop on one side and wears a little plastic brace. Other than that, all the weakness and paralysis is gone. We both take maintainance antibiotics but that is a small price to pay considering the alternatives. I won't take over your blog with all of this, but if you want to know more, just PM. This could have implications for you and your loved ones.
Dave

There are MRI tests that can show it right off. And a friend of mine had it diagnosed very early on, and because of that, and her will, she has been carrying on for 26 years.

She was given an MRI as a test, to show others how it was done. The anomaly showed through and she underwent further tests.

And in reference to the previous comment, if you've ever been bitten by a tick, have it checked out.

And if you are a hysteric, worrying about winding up like Mom, please remember, you could be wrong.

It's too bad I have no medical insurance. :s

Lyme can also cause lesions or plaques on the brain and both are ultimately clinical diagnoses. There is no definitive test for either. There is research going on where they are experimenting with treating people with MS diagnoses with antibiotics. NIH just funded a huge multi-site study of treating people with ALS diagnoses with IV Rocephin, which is an antibiotic.
Dave

Good luck man, I hope you're just seeing what you fear to see and you're alright.

If your paranoia is really getting the best of you then go for testing.

No point in learning later on in life- do it now.

You say you're feeling symptoms of MS but you're not sure you're not being a hypochondriac.
What symptoms are you feeling, SyddyKitty?

Actually, it seems that MS is somewhat hereditary. Here's something taken from the website of an MS society in the UK:

Although MS is not a hereditary condition, there is some research evidence to suggest that there may be a genetic link.

Twin studies have shown that if one twin is affected with MS, there is around a 30% chance that an identical twin will also develop the condition, but only a 3-4% chance that a non-identical twin will be affected. These studies suggest that genes play a role, but are certainly not the whole story.

Current research suggests that the risk of someone in the general population developing MS is 1 in 1000 or 0.1%. The risk for individuals with one parent with MS developing the condition is 2%, meaning that there is a 98% chance of not developing MS. This risk becomes even lower if it is a male child, as MS is more common to females than it is to males (2:1). At this level, the risk is not much greater than risks in the general population i.e. in a family where there is no evidence of MS. The situation is very different for individuals who have both parents affected by MS, where the risk is much higher and has been estimated at 20-30%.

What a terrible thing to have on your mind - I hope you can get tested soon.

With everything fatigue or pain related, I always tell people to try keeping a food journal, and after every day, indicate on a scale of 1-10 how bad their fatigue/pain is or just how they're feeling that day and see if you notice some patterns.