I have one third cousin who has MS. (dad's cousin's daughter...from my dad's mothers side of the family)

I have one aunt who has rheumatoid arthritis (dad's younger sister)

My dad's brother had a viral infection that damaged most of his heart. He died of pancreatitis while waiting for a transplant...his wife told me that he also had some sort of autoimmune disorder that I cant remember the name of that made him susceptible to the heart problem...along with diabetes (diabetes was probably triggered by the heart problem)

I have a first cousin on my mom's side that has life threatening allergies. His niece also has life threatening allergies. My mom has an allergy to bees that she has a bee sting kit for. (we need to get her Epi-Pen Rx refilled)

I guess I have the double whammy of weird auto-immune stuff from my family. I also have a genetic birth defect (dad's side of the family, probably from his dad) that affects my connective tissue (my achilles tendons are not attached to where they're supposed to be. The tendons are shorter than they should be, and are weaker and easily torn...that's probably going to be a problem if my spasticity gets worse)

The connective tissue defect may or may not affect the autoimmunity. There isnt much known about it, other than the fact that it's associated with Glaucoma and glomerulonephritis (both can be caused by autoimmune disorders) My kidneys are healthy, and other than the optic neuritis, my eyes are fine. I still have a better than normal optic nerve according to my opthalmologist. (which is weird, because when I've had ON, I can barely see out of whatever eye is affected, but he still says I have a strong optic nerve...that may have explained why I could see and read road signs a couple of minutes before my parents could when I was little)

If the birth defect could have been the only thing wrong with me, I'd have been happy. (it hadnt given me any problems other than a ruptured achilles tendon about 8yrs ago) I'd love to give the MS back to wherever it came from.