When I first saw my regular doctor about all the weird symptoms at age 42, I said offhandedly, "At least I'm too old to get MS!"

Because I'd read that you get it between 20 and 40, and really I knew nothing about MS.

She looked at me and said, "You're never too old to get MS."

She was a brand-new doctor--I think I was one of her first patients in the clinic--and I thought scornfully, what does she know? She's still wet behind the ears! Plus, she wears high heels and dresses; how serious a doctor can she be?

I just looked at her and didn't say anything more, and MS never entered my radar screen until the day I saw the second neurologist.

I'm ashamed now of what I thought of that young family practitioner! She was right, of course.

Nancy T.