This Is MS Multiple Sclerosis Knowledge & Support Community

Hello, my name is Max. I'm a 37 year old male in San Diego with a fresh MS diagnosis as of last week. Everything I suspect so far makes it seem relapsing. I've always been active and relatively healthy with diet and exercise. I'm not sure what my future holds. I have a very supportive and loving wife which I'm happy to have more than ever. No children, but I do have a needy cat and dog. I've been searching for a diagnosis to the following symptoms for almost 3 years now:

- Optic Neuritis. I'm an avid bicyclist. When I heat my body up bicycling, my right eye gets blurry. I now know that's due to optic neuritis. I'm about 10% blurry all the time and blurry enough when my body heats up to not be able to read license plates in front of me or the computer screen with my right eye. My left is ok so far and I have a new appreciation for it.

- Double Vision. Episodes of double vision about once a year for the past two years. Usually in August when it gets hot. The first episode was about 2 weeks and not too bad. The second episode was worse to the point of not being able to drive at night and lasted about 6 weeks.

- Tingling in extremities. My right hand and right foot have experienced some minor tingling and numbness a few times.

- Cognitive. For the last few years my memory, ability to find words, and general mental process have not been as good as they once were. I talk on the phone all day at work, about the same subject I've talked about every day for 13 years, and now find myself speechless and not able to remember what I'm supposed to be talking about. I thought this might be due to aging, ADD diagnosis as a child, or my 20 year history with occasional pot and alcohol. I quit both for a month and my head didn't clear up at all. Now I'm suspecting MS has something to do with it.


Moving Forward:

After confirmed lesions on brain and spinal MRIs, my doctor (an MS specialist that also works for most of the MS drug companies giving speeches about the drugs) has recommended either Aubagio or Tecfidera in the coming weeks. I asked him if his working for the drug companies would affect which medicine he would recommend for me. His answer was that he worked for ALL the companies so his bias is even. I'm here on this forum to do research. I asked him if I would take these drugs for the rest of my life. His answer was a resounding no due his confidence of a cure for the disease in my lifetime.

My aunt gave me the best advice so far, and it seems to be common to this forum. Take some time to soak in the new information, stop to smell the roses, renew relationships with people I'm close to, and figure out how to use the diagnosis for positive changes in my life instead of focusing how it might negatively affect my future. I have plenty of time to focus on those when they happen.

My wife and I are doing as much drug research as possible these couple weeks. I will start on something soon.

So, hello! I'm here to learn and discuss. I have a lot of respect for the history of this disease and the people that came before me to help create medicines and cures that are available options for me today.

Cure soon? Not likely, but there have been effective regimens that seem to work well for many. You can read about them in the various topics on this site. Diet, exercise, supplements and the reduction of stress all seem to contribute to positive results for may. Good luck!

I LOVE what your aunt said. I basically did all that when I was diagnosed last year. I am only 26 years old and male too. I have made a lot of changes in my life and all for the better. We cannot change what happens to us, but we can control how we react to it.

There are a lot of different choices for medication if you take that route. There are some injection forms of medicine, pill forms or IV infusions. Personally, I am on copaxone. It is the only drug I feel comfortable taking. It is a 3 time a week injection with a subcutaneous needle (very very small). It is one of the original drugs that has ever been available for MS (20+ years). There are very limited side effects when compared to some of the other drugs.

Choosing a drug is up to YOU and you only. You should research every different treatment option and decide for yourself. There are a lot of different things to consider such as side effects, efficacy, how its taken and the severity of your ms. Once you have learned about all the drugs you can make an education decision. There is a sub-forum for each treatment option on this website where you can learn about each drug.

Best wishes,

Chris