I was talking with my daughter earlier, and she admitted that yes, sometimes she thinks "what if". My dad had MS, diagnosed maybe in his late thirties (?). I was diagnosed when I was 55, symptoms starting around 50-52. Who knows how long I've really had it?

My daughter is 38, and (like probably half the world population) has "symptoms". Of COURSE she thinks about it. My granddaughter is 21. My daughter suspects that she thinks about it, too, though they kind of dance around the subject.

Statistics say that John Q. Public's odds of having MS are either 1/750 or 1/1000, depending where you find your stats. People with a "second degree" relative with MS (grandparent, aunt, uncle)--their odds are about 1/100. People with a "first degree" relative with MS (sibling, parent) about 1/40. And the odds increase if more than one relative is/was diagnosed.

I have to wonder...how many people have MS and never know it? In other words, they have mild cases and dismiss the symptoms without getting diagnosed, or have it but die of something else before being diagnosed.

We can't "find" anybody before my dad that had it. But what about various uncles, aunts, grandparents who died young in accidents or of other diseases? Who'd know? Or great-uncle Lester who used a cane but nobody can remember why. Lots of people use canes--so what?

Everything about this stupid disease is a mystery, isn't it? When you read the information that's out there, and I mean the LEGIT information, you still read "it is thought" and "research seems to show" and so on. *sigh*