This Is MS Multiple Sclerosis Community: Knowledge & Support

Hi everyone my name is jerry and about 9 years ago I was diagnosed with ms and I went through a few really horrible years .When I was diagnosed I lived in WA. and was getting sick a little more than once a month.My dr had me on rebif (beta interferon 1 a )and it was just horrible the side effects of the rebif were just as bad as the symtoms for me.About 6 years ago I gave up the drug and moved to texas .Since my move to texas and quitting the rebiff i have not had a single symtom and have been enjoying a happy "normal" life but I am haunted by the fact that i seem to have just got better.I am so scared of the day that my symtoms may return that it is starting to really affect my happy "normal" life. I guess my question is , is this normal ,to completely lose all symptoms for such a long period of time? Has anyone else expirenced something like this and how long could it last? It has me spending so much time worrying that im not a very happy person anymore. Dont get me wrong i dont want things to go back to how they were im just scared.

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Jerry

Hi Jerry,

I think I can relate to your comments, a little! I was dx'd in 2005, started Copaxone in 2006 have remained on Copaxone. We made a household move in 2007, within the province of Alberta. The move took us from a more northern part of the province that is quite often very rainy & usually very cloudy... to the southern part of the province where it is a lot sunnier. We moved ourselves and I started noticing a pattern - every trip we made with a loaded trailer out of the North, it seemed that after a week of unloading & settling these belongings in our new locale (in the south), I saw a reduction in some of my little nagging symptoms. Go back for the next load & spend a few days at our old home, those symptoms came back only to leave again when we returned south.... It took us about 5 loads to make the move and that was what I noticed. I have not had a relapse since our move.... it really has me questioning some kind of environmental factor, or maybe more sunshine is the difference...???

well my neurologist told me (when i was diagnosed, because i havent seen one since i quit the drugs) that washington state had the highest reported cases of ms in the world and the closer you get to the equator the less cases you see and we all know that sunlight really helps (in WA. there isnt a lot of sunlight to go around). Theese were a major part of the decision to move to texas. But to have all symptoms completely dissapear for almost 6 years is really odd to me .It would be one thing if it just lessened the symptoms but to dissapear alltogher. Well im glad moving south helped you as well maybe there is something to this.

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Jerry

Not to rain on anybodys parade.....I was dx in 2001 with rrms, was on copaxone then rebif. My walking sucked but I never had any symptoms to write home about. My last two MRIs showed now I have black holes and I recently had my first exerbation. I fell and broke my wrist. Then I couldn't walk. A new neuro. said I have primary progressive MS. Now a couple of monts later my walking has improved and my wrist has healed. I went to see another neurologist for another opinion and he said I have primary progressive relapsing MS. I'll take this dx over the ppms at least now I can take a medicine and hope for improvement.
Congrats on not being sick. The dx of ms doesn't mean the end of life as we know it.
Sandra

Maybe it's to do with fluoride in the water.
Found this for Washington
http://www.doh.wa.gov/ehp/dw/fluoride.htm
and this for Texas
http://www.fluoridealert.org/pesticides ... texas.html.
Just a thought.

I live in Houston, and in my case, the humidity has been the biggest issue for me, only second to stress. I'm bracing myself for summer. If you've moved here and have been asymptomatic, consider yourself fortunate. As soon as my boys finish highschool I'm out of here.

The way you are feeling is completely normal and depending on the day the same thoughts race through my head. It sounds kind of cliche but I try to live each day to the fullest knowing that on any given day things could change for the worse. The way I look at it is at one point in EVERYONE'S life something(heart attack,stroke, cancer,etc,) will sneak up on them and kick their ass so it is pretty much not just people with MS that could dwell on what is going to happen to them physically but the entire human race so we are in good company!