... you got your own particular Multiple Sclerosis?

What I am asking is if anyone who's had this disease for more than two or three years, has some idea in the back of their mind, about what it was that triggered the demyelination process.

I'd really appreciate hearing from anybody.

Richard

Vancouver, B.C.

I believe mine stems from Mono. I believe it all started with Mono (18), then I had chicken pox (25). I wasn't dx until 2005 (45) but believe I've had it much longer than that.

That's just my theory. I've had ignorable sx since 2000. Finally in 2005 I had double vision and HAD to find out what was causing it. Couldn't ignore it any longer.

After that I had a whole plethera of sx all at once. Double vision, L'Hermitt's, spasticity, numbness.

I could be wrong but I truly believe the EB Virus is the key.

Same as Kitty. I had mononucleosis in late 95/early 96. Also had shingles at the same time, but didnt realize it was shingles till just a few years ago when I recognized the symptoms of shingles when reading another person's post about having shingles.

It was probably mid 1997 when I had my first experience with vertigo. (actually, I had vertigo one year when I was about 9 or 10...everytime I rode in the car for about a month or two, I'd get dizzy and sick feeling)

I was working in a telemarketing place (taking inbound calls) when I got dizzy at work one day. Went home early, went to the doctor and was told it was an ear infection.

So, for about the next 9 years or so, I thought I had a lot of ear infections every year. (3 - 5 bouts of vertigo a year!)


I really do think mono was the cause of all this. I had mono about the same time my former boss at a fast food job had it. She was diagnosed with MS in 2000 or 2001...and I've heard from another person I worked with at that same job that was also diagnosed with MS. I'm pretty sure that same person also had mono around the same time I did.

I think either the mono causes MS in people who might be genetically predisposed to getting MS. Or, the mono and some other illness work together to trigger the MS (and there might be a genetic component in that combination too)

Hi Richard.. How are you doing?

I believe as the others that my particular MS was caused by the same Herpes Virus that causes Mono, EB, Shingles, CP...etc...

To me that is probably the cause and the triggers can very. My big trigger is STRESS!! There are different triggers for different folks.

What do you think, Richard?

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.