It is ok to be scared...MS is scary. I am newly diagnosed and have been going through a range of emotions these last few months. But at the end of the day, it will not define me and I am the same person I was was before. And so are you. Make sure to educate yourself and most of all remember MS is different for every person and someone else's story will not necessarily be yours. Take care 💛

First thing I wish someone had told me when I was where you are was to remember you're the same person you were a year ago. You WILL survive this and figure this out. You won't suddenly experience dramatic effects from what is different. Just because you have new factors to deal with doesn't mean your life as you know it is over. Maybe consider taking a brief break from trying to research what happens next as, unfortunately, no one, no matter how many degrees they have, knows. Consider you've been living with this "thing" for some time now and now it is just easier to see. I don't think you're life's over and would urge you to take a deep breath and a minute. As a matter of fact, take a minute to contemplate your life and give yourself a pat on the back as you did that WHILE you were dealing with this "thing with some guess as to what it is but no final answer YET" for years undiagnosed. Look at what you've done and from me to you, wow!

PART TWO So, after reading my story, having had it almost 30 years, I am probably one of the lucky ones, that I have had so many good years. Many MS patients run marathons, and are very active, of course there are some that have the flip side and have a lot of issues, we’re all different. The best advise I can give you is, don’t count your life as being over, it isn’t. As many issues as I have now, there are some problems that I have never had, like foot drop. Have your neurologist give you one of the stronger drugs that are better at helping prevent progression and make sure that you have a neurologist that is serious about tackling MS and listens to you. Keep as active as you can and exercise, do yoga, or something you like and will stick with and rest when you have to. Eat well, lots of fish, fruits and vegetables, like the Mediterranean diet, which I could do better at. I haven’t figured out that chocolate is NOT a food group. LOL! Most of all, keep a good attitude. If you get the diagnosis, you have MS, it doesn’t have you! It is not life threatening like cancer can be, there isn’t much difference in the life expectancy of those with and without MS. I think statistically they say 3 years. If you want to watch some very informative videos, go to YouTube and look up Aaron Boster MD. He’s with the Ohio MS Clinic. Join a MS support group and don’t listen to whiners that make you feel worse or more scared than you are. Your body will tell you how bad YOUR situation is. Good luck

Yes I agree it is okay to be scared. I was diagnosed back in 2015 with MS and it does affect people differently I learned how to become more educated on this disease and have learned how to live life to the fullest.

PART ONE Don’t be scared. If you are having your first symptoms and diagnosis, that means that more than likely you will be RRMS, relapsing, remitting, which means you are having symptoms and 6 months from now, you may wonder what all the fuss is about, time will tell. I was first diagnosed at 28, had a severe exacerbation, then 6-9 months later, I figured the doc didn’t know what he was talking about and didn’t have any issues for almost 20 years except for losing some sight in an eye for a few months. I had a very physical job, training horses, which may have helped. 13 yrs ago, I had a bad exacerbation and 7-8 months later, didn’t feel much different than I had most of my life other than having to take weekly shots. I didn’t have that many issues until I had 3 exacerbations in the last 3.5 years. The first one, 10/2015, I got back to pretty normal after a 5 day hospital stay, IV steroids, and a few months. The 5 days of high dose IV steroids takes a lot out of a person. 9/2016, I got to where I was doing really well, after the hospital IV steroids and a few months. Then it hit me hard 9/2017. The day before my exacerbation, I walked over 20,000 steps and rode my bike 10 miles. I had another milder one 8/18. Since 2017, I haven’t got back anywhere close to where I was, but I’m still not in a wheelchair, just the fatigue is awful, I don’t have a lot of strength and I work at staying as physical as I can and push myself really, really hard. I try to walk 10,000 steps everyday, I’m hoping to get back to biking and riding my horse, and it takes me about an hour to walk 1.5 miles. I’m now SPMS, secondary progressive MS, which means I won’t get much if any better, I have a stronger med, supposed to be better at preventing any more progression. It lowers my white count, so I have to be very careful around sick people. Normal WC is like 3.4-10, and I’m at a 2.