I’ve been terrified of MS for my entire life. My father was diagnosed when I was born and I’ve watched his health deteriorate as I’ve grown up. Its been very hard watching his physical and mental state slowly get worse and worse over the years.
The thing that scares me the most is that my father’s sister also has MS, which makes me feel like its something that runs in my family.
I’m a 24 year old guy and lately I’ve been feeling a pressure behind my right eye, as well as some aching in my lower right leg for seemingly no reason.
These could be completely benign and unrelated, but as soon as stuff like this starts to pop up, I start immediately assuming the worst. I’ve got an appointment to see my doctor in a few days. I’d like to get checked out in order to get some peace of mind, but I’m not sure what exactly I should do.
I’m also not even sure I should be so worried. I got an MRI about 2 or 3 years ago to get checked out and it came out fine, and I’ve gotten an eye exam recently and that also came out fine.
I wish I could just stop worrying about it, but with the family history, I just have this overwhelming sense of dread that is constantly looming over my head.
Hi, my dad, great grandfather and I have an ms diagnosis and my brother and aunt show symptoms and are I undiagnosed as yet so it is very much in my family too.
my dad has quite bad ms and so did my great grandfather but my neurologist thinks that I will be mildly effected so I think that even if it is there you can’t always predict how bad it may be and you may be effected completely differently to your other family members.
Hello Newts I think it’s worth putting this in perspective. Have a look at the MS Trust info on your risk of developing MS when family have it: Risk of developing MS | MS Trust I can understand your fear, but it is by no means certain that you will get MS. I realise that it was your father who has MS but it’s far more prevalent in women than men. If you’ve been checked by MRI and recently had your eyes looked at, then in the short term there’s no chance that you have MS. In the long term, of course you could get MS, but equally you could be hit by a bus, or have a piece of masonry land on your head and kill you or give you some other life changing disability. If you did get MS, the picture is so much better now than it was 24 years ago when you were born and your Dad was diagnosed. There are loads of great disease modifying drugs available, and more are being investigated all the time. So supposing you were diagnosed tomorrow, you could be on a DMD which could completely stop relapses which cause disability. By all means, keep the thought somewhere deep in the back of your mind, by the sounds of it you can’t help that, but meanwhile enjoy your life as a healthy 24 year old. Sue