So I sat down a few minutes ago to read and enjoy a book I bought a few weeks ago. It is written by Marcia Mueller, and I have enjoyed her books in the past. It is a series that is based on a woman who owns an agency that does investigations (mystery). So I get to the second page and read this sentence,

"His thought flashed back to his first wife, Julie, now many years dead of multiple sclerosis. Toward the end she'd also had been unmoving and silent, but there had been an absence about her, as if her essence had already left her body."

I swear it seems like MS is the popular illness in novels. And whenever someone has MS, they are either dying from it or have died due to MS. TV shows are not any better. Has it always been this way or am I just noticing this trend now?

I will probably pick the book up again. But it is a bit tattered now since I threw it across the room.

Maybe write the author and ask them to research a little more about ms or any disease before their next book?

I guess we notice anything that has to do with MS more now than we did before we knew we had it. Honestly, I don't ever remember hearing about MS or even reading about it before.....but now that I have it I notice it seems like it's everywhere.

I agree with Sandy. I'd write the author and ask if they did any research before writing about it. I'd also let them know how annoying it is for people who don't know about it to make generalized comments and assumptions about it.

I've started saying it before House "check for MS", but it never is. Always something weirder and more interesting.Humph.

Remember when Judge Judy was grilling this poor woman about working? She said "I have collect SSDI" and Judy grilled her! she finally said "I have MS." and JJ said "you look fine to me! you should get a job!" OMG!

As my mother used to say Money and Education dont always buy manners.

Or intelligence!!!

Barb,
Seriously, write the publisher and let them know how outraged you were at the portrayal of the MS patient. They need to know that we're not all in a nursing home, waiting to die...although some are, bless their souls.
But anyway, squeaky wheels get the grease...let them know...

If the public is aware of how horrible this disease is for so many of us maybe there will be increased support that will lead to more medical breakthroughs.

There are many times when we are hurting and people just don't get it. Personally, jmo, I'd rather have this be people's original thought when they think of MS than the more popular "but you don't look sick".

Maybe not a popular opinion but I think the sad truth is that most of us do end up like this in the very end. Just look at the causes of death for people with MS, sigh.

Jules...really? The NMSS states that it is not usually fatal...I don't even entertain the thought that I might die from MS...

I'm not too concerned about what I'm going to die from but the NMSS is splitting hairs, imo. I guess the MS itself would only be considered fatal in the many cases when it affects our brain stem, breathing and swallowing etc. however...

from what I've seen most of us pass from complications of MS like pneumonia which is often the result of being bedridden and sadly there are also the skin issues, lack of gi motility etc. These are things most of us would not have gotten at younger ages if not for MS. I guess I'm just saying that it is a nasty disease and in the end most of us will be hit hard by it so I don't see much sense in candy coating that.