ms and how it has affected me

A detailed Summary of ms and how it has affected me

My mom was just recently diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. I didn?t know how to react and was very upset at first. The only things that I knew about this disease were all horrible. My aunt has been fighting MS since before I was born and she is very sick. So all I could think about was that mom was going to be the same way. But then I started thinking about all of the new advances in medical studies and how far they have come since my aunt got sick. MS isn?t really even related to genetics. There is obviously some sort of link in genes to being more or less vulnerable to getting it. But, it is originally started with a virus. Mom got very sick after my grandfather died about nine years ago and the doctors say that is probably where it started.

Multiple Sclerosis is a disease where the natural insulation around nerve fibers is no longer produced and can cause symptoms such as brain damage, muscle weakness, fatigue and loss of vision. The symptoms vary from case to case but basically MS is scarring of the brain and all of its little parts. With MS, patients experience attacks brought on by stress, being overworked, or just because. These attacks consist of more scarring and damaged nerve

I can remember being a little kid and wanting to go visit my aunt. She lives in a nursing home in Daphne, AL. But before we could even think about going, mom would always make sure that none of us had been sick recently or had been sneezing or coughing. I never really understood this, except for that she didn?t want me to look like the typical snotty nosed kid. But, there was a reason for her caution. People with MS are very susceptible to getting the flu. And once they get it, it is very dangerous. I suppose that it is due to the breakdown in the immune system and weakness.

There are four different levels or types of reactions that MS affects. Benign Sensory is the least damaging type. It affects the nerves that distinguish between pain, touch, temperature and body position. There may be some optical damage too, but in this case, MS leaves little or no disability and the patient usually recovers. Relapsing remitting is the second type of MS. It shows repeated ?attacks? and severe symptoms. There is a good chance of someone with this type of MS recovering partially or even completely. This is the most common type of MS but it takes on different forms and occurs at different times. Relapsing-remitting with secondary progression is the third type. This is a very damaging form and often, patients never recover from the attacks. With each fresh attack, the patient experiences a greater level of disability. The last and most severe, but most rare type of MS is Primary-progressive. This type is almost like a continuous attack. The MS never goes into remission and the patient never recovers. A small portion of patients with MS have this type of the disease.

The drug that my mom has been prescribed to is called Copaxone. She told me that the doctor gave her a very informative video to watch on it. She also explained that it was a synthetic mixture of four different amino acids that our bodies naturally produces. The disease instead of attacking the brain, attacks the Copaxone. In a sense it is tricking the disease. It must be injected just under the skin once a day. This is not as bad as some of the other drugs because it wont hurt or bruise as bad since it isn?t going directly into the muscle. There are hardly any side affects and the ones that do occur go away by themselves and do not

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Approximate Word count = 1555
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Miscellaneous