Re: Morbid question..reply Terri

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It IS auto-immune I love to be able to reply when I feel I know the answer:) I read so much on this topic. My first symtoms showed themselves when I was 22 with optic neuritis as a student in nursing school. I read all my textbooks on anything that resembled my symptoms. And that was 30 years ago. "Google" was a term most didn't know so the only way to get info was to read a book...lol:) MS wasn't didn't even have 30 pages or so in my neurology text that most doctors knew much about or studied about.

We know so much more now 2011 than before. I remember reading about linseed oil and diets, etc. One thing I'll never forget were the 1 paragraph that said 50 to 75% of patients who present with those symtom will develop MS in their life time in a persons 20's. Children and dysability was a guess as well so maybe it may not be a good idea. I did read heat can make a person feel worse and then I thought I live in Florida. But spent my first few years in PA where the equator had something to do with it. And also SX show up after a virus infection. That was also when auto-immune response came into play. My MOM had her first episode of herpes zoster that I read after a virus or even the flu sits and in the spinal system and can come out years later. Now, at 52 I get it but back then I didn't. That was way before MRI's was a way of seeing symptoms. I was hospitalized in patient on the neuro floor and had spinal puncture and other tests that was suggestive of possible MS and at that time was a guess because I had "bands" in the fluid they removed.

I also remember being scared shit-less when my daughter was so sick from Lyme disease because MS was discussed as a possible diagnosis especially with a family member who has MS!! Or possibly Lupus that a cousin had and died when her spine and heart were involved. That I knew was possibly terminal and she was Told by her doctors pregnancy was frown'd upon which happened to her when it went systemic and she died at 30 ish after many years being so sick. Her unsaid goal was to see her son graduate highschool and she died 6 months after that. Her son who I changed his diapers in now in the medical field after college/gradschool. She would have IS very proud looking down and smiling. That reminds me I need to call my aunt and see how she's doing. She's the same age as my aunt ine who is now 85 . My Mom's sister who is 72. I'm getting those pangs of guilt especially knowing she lives in center city philadelphia about an hour away from me..I know guilty!!!

>> That's kind of weird tho and asks the question why can't these people be treated with antibiotics as the rest of the population. I keep vacillating whether I believe ms is an autoimmune disorder or not. I do know or rather, knew 3 people, one of which was 's mother who had Parkinson's. All 3 developed sudden bad colds very quickly and passed away within a day or two.> > I'm mulling over Tom's article now. Btw thanks for sharing Tom. And it brings up the question of how many of us smoked or grew up in secondhand smokey environments?>