[EricP]

I've been watching MS youtube videos and what people are doing and all that. On some of them, in particular, this one wear this guy was DXed at 19 with MS and 4 years later he graduated college in an power chair, paralysis like someone who is quadriplegic.

It's been over a year since my official DX and I feel fine minus some numbness in my fingers sometimes and some balance stuff..still no walking aids...not even close and I still don't park in the handicap zone.

My question is....damn I am lucky? to have a very light case? seems some get full on ****ed with MS and get disabled very fast.

I've just never read a case where someone gets the Dx of MS and a few years later becomes power chair dependent..... I was....shocked.

[ANNagain]

Hi Eric,

That's right. Some folk have Primary Progressive MS. Others have spinal lesions that effect the use of their legs. See "Transverse Myelitis."

I have had MS for over 40 years (started very young) and I am stillstANNding and walking w/o assistance mostly.

Don't drive yourself crazy,
ANN

[SallyC]

Apparently he had a chronic progressive type of MS. He may come to a platteau, however, as many progressive types do and be ok in his wheel chair for living life ok, for a long time.

Yes, if you are starting out RRMS, then you are lucky, as I am. I started out RRMS(lite) in 1964...no meds...turned SPMS in 1998ish and at 72, am still going strong.

[lefthanded]

I have transverse myelitis, and every minute is a game of roulette. I never know when a day starts out good (today did) if or when it will go bad. I meet many MS'ers here in the Pacific Northwest who are still out hiking and climbing and camping on the ground . . . but I can't even get up or down from the floor. I have known people with MS who were in remission the entire time I knew or associated with them . . . and I have known people with MS that my first knowledge of them was of stumbling, struggling, assisted, disabled.

[Erika]

Right there with you lefthanded on the TM roller coaster ride. Like others who have their own individual experiences of the ride with this stupid disease, we do what we can, when we can do it.
With love, Erika

[EricP]

Guess I'm lucky then.

On my rounds today I saw a woman coming out of the dollar store walking with those arm crutch things and her legs were just all over the place, arms going outwards ect ect. I didn't think it was MS, but mor elike Muscular dystrophy or something. All the MSers I saw before have altered walking gates, dragging toes and a bit slow on the feet, but I never saw one all over the place like that woman today. I was curious to ask her, but I was polite and just passed by.

[KittyLady]

Ive had MS for 20yrs now and would have a flare at least once a year, but they were so mild I barely noticed them. I became disabled from it this past October. You can live a long time and never have a problem. I stayed on my feet long enough to raise my 3 kids. Now I use a walker and cane to help with my walking but Im glad Im still on my feet, I just need alittle help now.

[Erika]

Originally Posted by EricP

Guess I'm lucky then.

On my rounds today I saw a woman coming out of the dollar store walking with those arm crutch things and her legs were just all over the place, arms going outwards ect ect. I didn't think it was MS, but mor elike Muscular dystrophy or ....

...maybe Cerebral Palsy? Also a very nasty and cruel condition.

With love, Erika

[EricP]

Originally Posted by Erika

...maybe Cerebral Palsy? Also a very nasty and cruel condition.

With love, Erika

Yepp, forgot about that and a lot of them do walk like that. One thing with MS I am discovering, is that people don't see it in me...I don't walk funny I ride a bicycle and look healthy so people wonder if I really have it.

I was talking to this one woman (she said she was 70) at a thrift store and I sat down doing a "whew" it was hot. She says "you're too young for that, but perhaps everyone needs to have a seat whenever they can on a day like this"

Well then I told her I have MS newley Dxed, but had for a while. She says I looked healthy and all that.

Well I didn't feel like explaining that just because you have MS, doesn't mean you turn into a sceleton or your skin goes pale. I can now see where this is going as the years go on... "you have a terrible disease?...nah....yerr funny Probably should put on braces and **** and hold a cane for the hell of it.....may as well get used to it I suppose. Nah, f'ck that.....

Sorry fo rthe language...it's humid ou there and I am quite crabby

[EricP]

Originally Posted by KittyLady

Ive had MS for 20yrs now and would have a flare at least once a year, but they were so mild I barely noticed them. I became disabled from it this past October. You can live a long time and never have a problem. I stayed on my feet long enough to raise my 3 kids. Now I use a walker and cane to help with my walking but Im glad Im still on my feet, I just need alittle help now.

Yepp I am eating all the right ways, doing my meds to the tee, doing research and crossing my fingers for a cure.

I'm sorry you became disabled from it recently, my friend.

When I first got word that I have MS I thought I would be immediatley in a wheelchair and if you read my first thread here....wearing diapers and all that.
Boy wa sI scared. I though tit would be like that and I guess some actually get it that hard, but I consider myself lucky that I officially have MS, that is solid, but it has been minimal in damage so far and the future looks good. It could of been a lot worse...a lot a lot worse.

Guess I'm kinda in the same position as Jack Osbourn....both lucky to not get diabled of fthe bat.