Hello, Richard.

Yes, I have a viable theroy as to why. The question is am I right, the answer - I don't know.

I was 4 years old when I started having urinary tract infection - retention. I was cathed numerous times and even put in the hospital to have it done. It never made a difference. I lived off meds for a good portion of my childhood. I was abused as a child starting at the age of 2 1/2.

I had other symptoms of MS as a child but, my mother termed me a hypochondriac and never bothered taking me to a doctor. I believed I was a hypochondriac until I had my first severe exacerbation and a neuro who knew something was wrong. I had my diagnosis of MS when I was 25 years old, three months after my first neuro appointment.

This could be anyone's story with or without MS but, add in the theroy of predisposition and a history dating back to childhood of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and for me there is a connection.

I tend to look at it as - it is what it is for whatever reason and I believe when research finds more answers each of us will find a different cause or trigger.

I have never had the EBV (mono)

never had mono, never had EB, never had lyme or the other titers. I have always rung up negative. the best I can come up with was in 1990 we were required to have the Hep B vaccine. The first two went well, and no issues. The last one I had a horrible fever, rash, and just felt punky for a year. It was like it just smashed my immune system. I struggled ever since that vaccine. Now, did I have it, and that vaccine just triggered it? well, I will never know. That is the only incident I can point to that makes me scratch my head.

I have pondered this a lot and thought I was sure and always said it was the house fire I went into in 1999, 6 months later I have suffered from MS SX ever since, and then I read about back injuries and Nero the Neuro said that possibly the house fire triggered it, and it may of been with me since 82 when I broke my back, then I think of times as a kid when I had this heavy tight chest feeling, that the docs seem to attribute to my MS cause they cant find any answer for it, so as time goes on I wonder less, cause there are too many factors of could be's

Ahem! Reading through this and happening to watch a PBS special on the polio vaccine reminded me of something else...

I have had 5 smallpox vaccinations. I have had both the Sabin and the Salk polio stuff. Twice. Each. I have had every shot known to man and most of them more than twice.

Wonder how I did that? My Dad was in the service for 38 years. Every time we were shipped overseas or returned overseas after a visit home back in the 60s, we spent a week getting shots.

I have my records from when I was a kid (not easy to find when you are a service brat!) and when I showed them to my doc, he was shocked at how many vaccines and preventative shots I had. He said it's no wonder my immune system seems to kill everything that I get within a day or two!

Too bad it didn't kill the MS!

I did get a vaccination about two weeks before I had my first experience with numbness in April of 2006. I had an MMR vaccine because the mumps were going around Nebraska and Iowa at near epidemic proportions.

Two weeks later, my right thigh went numb while on a trip to the Omaha Zoo. (boyfriend and I got to ride in the engine of the steam powered train that is at the zoo) Stood right behind the firebox where they burn the wood/coal, and it was a fairly warm day for April. It was really hot riding on that engine. After I got off the train (practically fell off, feet felt weird) I realized my right thigh and hip were numb. Got home and was in serious pain in the thigh. (apparently sprained it or something when I fell off the train...actually fell twice, getting on, and getting off)

I do think that MMR vaccine had something to do with the MS. I think I already had the MS, but the vaccine might have triggered an exacerbation.

At the age of 38 I had a bad case of mononucleosis (Epstein Barr) which I never really got over. After 9 months it morphed into chronic tonsillitis, and then a year later it morphed into MS. I really think it was the nasty Epstein-Barr virus that made my immune system go haywire. Prior to that I NEVER got sick and had no identifiable MS symptoms.

I think it's very interesting about the number of people on here who had mono. I never had it, but was exposed to two close friends in high school who were both hospitalized because of it.

I grew up in Canton, Ohio. We had very few sunny days compared to other parts of the rest of the country. It is also an industrial town. I had the usual measles, mumps and chicken pox as a kid. I also had a lot of chest infections for which the doc would give me a shot of penicillin in the behind.

In high school, I fell a few times. In my 20's, I started falling more often. I just thought I was exceptionally clumsy.

My DIL grew up in Kenya, and she told me that MS is very rare there. They are exposed to the sun a lot, do heavy outdoor work, and eat all natural foods. She used to plow a field with a wooden plow and a cow, and cut grass with a machete. Maybe that has something to do with it. I won't, but I could go on and on about Lenny. The stories she tells about her life are great.

I grew up loving vegetables, but we also ate a lot of junk food. I played outside, but never really worked hard as a kid.

David Osmond stated on his website bio that he had West Nile Disease and that was what caused his MS. He didn't go into detail or explain why they think that is the cause of his condition. I looked up West Nile and it says that the neurological damage can be long lasting or permanent. Some of the sx of West Nile are headache, high fever, neck stiffness, stupor, disorientation, coma, tremors, convulsions, muscle weakness, and paralysis.

My DD had Shingles as a teenager. I think that is rare, so young.....It followed all the nerves around her back...very painul for her. Shingles, as Mono..EB..CP..etc, are all related to the Herpes 6 virus, I believe. Thus, why I think our particular MS was caused by this Virus.

I have come to believe that there is more than one cause for MS, more than one type of MS and many triggers, from meds to chems to food to stress to injury to.... whatever.

It's like asking the question, what came first, the chicken or the egg???????????

Weird that a few people had scarlet fever as a child as I did (I remember my mom calling it scarletina, which I believe is essentially the same thing). I had pneumonuia and strep a bunch too as well as chicken pox. They always seemed to come around Christmas time. By the time I went to middle school, I was completely healthy, most of my illnesses occurred from 4-8 years old.

Other than that, i grew up in a "cancer cluster" in New Jersey.

I have no family history of this disease, and tons of cousins that are fine.

It depends on my mood what I blame for my ms on any given day