I had an eye doctor, who when I told her I had MS, asked me if I drink diet sodas. As if quitting that would cure me. She also asked me in a later visit if I had fillings in my teeth. Face it, they aren't brain surgeons, just ignore the comments.

General I'm a fairly calm and peaceful person, but I do have a few come backs at the ready for situations like this one; if it is appropriate to even respond...
Mostly I just accept their fear and ignorance with pity.

My personal fave come backs:

"On what do you base that assertion?"

"Your ignorance is breathtaking."

"Sometimes it is better to remain silent and appear the fool rather than to open your mouth and remove all doubt."

"What color is the sky in your world?"

"The deluded won't let facts stand in the way of their beliefs."


Now I'll be adding a couple more to the list for those who 'think' like this woman and feel the need to express it:

"You do realize that your thinking may be seriously flawed, right?"

"Your own head is like a bad neighborhood, and you really shouldn't go there without an escort!"

With love, Erika

Oh wow...there's not enough swear words for me to call her bad names with, and the forum censors would either just ** the words out, or ban me for swearing. What a moron.

Will this "friend" be enjoying your lake house again?

I have also occasionally considered MS a catch-all disease. It's easy for those on the outside, heck, even some who have MS, to be leery of a diagnosis that has no definitive test. Think about so many who come here who were diagnosed because everything else was ruled out. Doctor says "You don't have Lyme disease, these lesions aren't from a stroke, so you have MS."

Her stating her opinion of MS, I could easily forgive. Not so much the other part.

Not only is it an uncaring, rude thing to say to you, Karilann, her shows her stupidity by contradicting herself. "I don't believe there's such a thing as MS, but it kills all the people I know who have it" is what she's saying.

You asked how to respond. My question would be, "How many people have you known that died from MS?" and/or "I sure hope that doesn't happen to me." or "I hope I can defy your odds."

I'm sorry you had to experience that. Even though I went most of the way through nursing school and knew about MS, I really didn't know a whole lot about it. After quitting nursing school, on of my 1st jobs was at a company whose owner's wife had MS. She was completely bed bound. This was in the mid 80's. He would tell me about her and tears would come to his eyes. Fast forward several years, I worked in the hospital for a long time and still didn't have too much knowledge of MS. My brother did research for MS as well as other neurological diseases and we would discuss the diseases and still I didn't know a whole lot about it. It wasn't until I was dx that I learned about MS.

My point is that I think many of us here didn't know much about it until we became MS patients.

With that said, I think I would have responded sympathetically and said, "I'm so sorry you have been so misinformed about MS. If you want to learn more about it let me know so that you can have a better understanding." And just leave it that.

IMHO:

I just think to myself "You're an ******* and I'm not" THINK.

Then I think, "AND it's not my job to educate you."

I discuss details about MS with very few people. Religon or politics too.

Kicker, you should have said butt aperture.

had a cowroker friend say this to me once - all I could blurt out it

"You think?!?- holy crap, alert the media!"

I then got up and walked off. Left her her dumbfounded. When she complained about my behavior to fellow coworkers they really tore into over about her assinine comment.

Needless to say, you won't have to worry about her coming to your cabin (just be conveniently unavailable over & over until she gets the hint)

Your wording is priceless! Wish I had thought of that myself. Now we know what to say when someone blurts out something stupid! ginnie

There are more opinions based in ignorance than on fact...if it weren't for people, this planet would be a great place to live