Mom, I think you're partly right, that your mom doesn't want to know she has ms. so she certainly does not want you to have it.

She can't control what is by wishing it away and putting her head in the sand though.

And you can't change her.



Part of it though is people of older generations were SO like that about not going to doctors and having the attitude "I'm not sick!"

Think about it, we (our generation) get it pounded in our heads that there's something wrong with us. Drug commercials all the time on tv, ads in every magazine. Yikes!

And the older people are looking at us as if we fall for all that stuff - you know they do. Just because there's more info and more meds for diseases does not mean we're a bunch of hypochondriacs, but the old folks like the docs seem to think we are sometimes.

I never heard anyone talk about my older relatives' illnesses until I got sick and asked. They just didn't bring that up. They didn't know medical words like we do, and it seemed like they though it was shameful to be ill.

Being the youngest, my older sibfreaked when this happened to me. Some would not even let anyone talk about it. I had to corner one of them and say this,

"I'm not looking for attenion or sympathy. But you should know that if I have ms, you wanna keep that in mind because you have kids. It can run in families. So if by some horrible long shot, something comes up with your girls, you can tell their doctor their aunt has an auto immune disorder. That could save them a lot of horsing around getting a diagnosis."

Similarly I got info about the relatives by saying I'd figure out what was wrong with me faster if I had a complete family hx - not because I wanted to be nosy, but because I wanted the right dx.