Hello EmmaJess
MS, as Juniper said is such a perplexing disease. It’s different for everyone.
But, the way it works is in general, people have either the relapsing remitting type (RRMS), or the primary progressive type (PPMS).
Relapsing remitting is the most common, something like 85% of people have this variety. Relapses can come and go relatively quickly, or can take simply months to either completely or partially remit, ie get better. When suffering a relapse (which could be a repeat of a symptom you’ve had before, Eg when you’ve had optic neuritis), the only real treatment is steroids, which aim to shorten the recovery time. Some people begin with RRMS and after some time, generally years, their disease pattern changes and they develop secondary progressive MS. This means in general relapses stop and there is continued progression, which can be fast or slow.
The other type is progressive from the outset. People with PPMS never have relapses exactly, they may have small fluctuations of their disease, but generally there is just disease progression, again either fast or slow. Disease progression isn’t exactly the same as disability progression. Some people have PPMS for years and don’t have significant disability, others become disabled more quickly.
For more detailed information, see https://www.mstrust.org.uk/about-ms/what-ms/types-ms
There are always oddities who don’t follow either of these patterns, some have a one off occurrence, this could be labelled clinically isolated syndrome (CIS). Others are diagnosed in retrospect as having had benign MS, where relapses are so small and mild they don’t really fit the RR definition. Then there is relapsing progressive MS, where relapses continue, even with some remission, but there is also continued progression. This is actually what I now have, after years of RR, it seemed that I had become SP, but then I had a couple of very clear cut relapses.
The world of MS is strange and peculiar. As we know, each persons MS is as individual as they are, so while we share symptoms, no two cases are identical. Even your brothers experience of MS will differ from yours.
The other thing to know about the classification of MS is that, there are many disease modifying drugs (DMDs) available to reduce the number and severity of relapses. See https://www.mstrust.org.uk/about-ms/ms-treatments/ms-decisions-aid The majority of these are available for RRMS only. Ocrevus is the only DMD that is also licenced for PPMS as well as RR.
Once you’ve been officially diagnosed, it is likely that you would be treated as having RRMS initially at least. Having had ON several time which remitted, this would be most likely (in my non-professional view). Your other symptoms could still improve over time, especially if you start having some physiotherapy. Most people tend to be given the RRMS label at least to begin with as it’s not an exact science, defining which subtype of MS you have, and that way you have the benefit of DMDs.
Hopefully some of this information will help. The more reading you do on the subject, the better informed you’ll be, although when first diagnosed the volume of information is a bit overwhelming. It’s best to stick to reputable sources of information, for example the MS Trust or the ‘About MS’ tab on this site. Try to avoid random googling, not every site is exactly correct. I’d also take all information you get from us on this site with a pinch of salt, try to back up what we say (including my own posts - I’m just another person with MS, not an official source!).
Best of luck.
Sue