MS is a devistating disease. You eventually lose all motor skills. The brain shuts down gradually until you are in a vegitative condition. It may take years for this to happen. My neice died at 25 and my son's grade 1 teacher died from it too.

There is good news though. Just in the last few months an Italian doctor discovered that all MS patients have a narrowing vein in the neck or chest so blood supply is cut off from the brain. MS patients are the only ones who have this. It is clearly visible on an x-ray.

He operated on many patients and put a stint in--like they do in heart patients to keep the artery open. All these patients showed remarkable improvement. It depended on the progress of the disease just how much recovery there was. The longer a patient had MS the less recovery they had, but all showed some recovery. Some became completely normal others less so.

Right now US, Canadian and other countries are studying it and I'm sure it will be the standard procedure in coming years. However the wheels of medicine move slowly. I am not an advocate of fly by night cures, but this is something you can see and it makes sense.

If it were my daughter I would seek out a doctor who did this procedure and have it done, even if it meant going out of the country to do it. The longer you wait the less recovery. I urge you to look into it. I'm sure you can find lots of info on the internet.

Good luck

I have a family member who was diagnosed 12 years ago & I want to offer you hope. She has occasional flares which for her cause weakness on her left side, mostly affecting her leg. At those times, she has occasionally used a cane to help with balance, but after a few weeks, the flare leaves.

There are many meds available, but she was unable to tolerate them, so takes nothing. She does stay healthy & uses her treadmill or walks faithfully every day, plus some strength training & is in really good shape. She is 39.

The diagnosis is devastating to receive, of course, but there are several types of the disease such as hers which is relapsing-remitting, and another is called progressive.

The National MS Society has a good website where you/she can get educAted & learn about the disease. It is unpredictable, and her main symptom has been fatigue, but she has learned to pace herself.

I would really encourage your d/law to educate herself, get a good neurologist, and listen to her body, Don't let the disease define her as she is much more than MS!

I wish you all well with this, and pray if she does have it, she will be one of the lucky ones who is not debilitated by it.

Thanx so much for your replies. She goes in tomorrow for the deeper MRI and the neurologist will be able to tell us more then. She is scared to death as she has two little boys 6 and 2. The neurologist told her not to read anything until he got the results of the new MRI and can make a diagnosis. He said there was no need in scaring herself to death with things that may not even apply to her which I thought was good of him to do. I will check on the things pointed out here and if the diagnosis is MS I will recommend the Nat'l MS Society website.

Please let us know what her MRI shows. I know how hard this waiting, etc. & fearing the worst is! Sounds like her neurologist has a level head, which will help her if he does. Our DD who has it, has an awesome neurologist & when she was diagnosed, he said something like, this is still a life journey, just a different one than you thought you'd be on. What part of the country is DL? I KNOW my DD would be more than happy to talk to her if she'd like that. We are in PNW, the worst part of the country for this disease. Something about the Northern States, I guess.

gypsy, there are degrees of MS and a diagnosis doesn't necessarily mean the worst. I have THREE friends who have dealt with the diagnosis for varying lengths of time and one of those learned of his illness 30 years ago, I've never known him without. He continued to work most of those years (careful to get adequate rest and monitor his diet closely), raised his children and has enjoyed his grandchildren, has only recently begun to use a cane for balance and employs the sometimes use of a motorized scooter if its a bad day. Please don't assume MS will mean immediate hardships, that isn't necessarily true...

It took me a while today to come up with the name of the doctor who was treating my friend with the long experience with MS who has done so well...

And of course I can't say if his good fortune is something he would have experienced anyway or if this doctors research played a major role, but I do know my friend considers the treatment under this man his blessing. The diet approach if approved by your DILs medical professionals could be worth investigating....if she even has a diagnosis of MS.

Here is a link that might be useful: Dr. Swank - MS diet background information