Well, you sure came to the right place--you won't be alone here!

Don't expect any quick easy answers to all the questions you're bound to have, IF it turns out you're diagnosed with MS. Many times the doctors will be doing tests to rule out MS, and maybe that will be the case.

A word of advice: don't let the "worst case scenario" stories scare the snickers out of you!! It's just like childbirth stories, where somebody always know the woman who was in labor for 42 hours with a twelve pound baby. You will hear the MS stories of people who got diagnosed and end up in a wheelchair immediately, and then right to the nursing home.

Are there severe cases that advance rapidly? Sure. But that's not usually the case. There are therapies available now that weren't even twenty years ago. And new things cropping up all the time.

I have had MS for at least ten years, and though I had to retire at 58, I can still walk (I do use a cane), drive, read, etc. My Dad was diagnosed in 1957 when he was 39 (though he probably had it a few years before diagnosis) and he was able to work until he was 62, and was still going up and down stairs under his own steam a couple days before he died at almost 80 (of emphysema).

Someone with more technical knowledge than I have can better explain what the MRI and spinal tap will show (or not show), but I do have some advice: don't give yourself a heart attack worrying about any of the tests! I worried myself sick about the spinal tap, and although some people have the bad headache after, I had absolutely no problems.

You'll get plenty of support here, and lots of good advice. Just remember, we're not doctors, just others in the same boat with boat loads of experience to share!