Any good MS resources?

My wife was diagnosed about 9 years ago at the age of 30.   She was having some tingling and numbness below the knee and elbow on the left side.   Amazingly, other than an intense, multi-day migraine last summer (treated with prednisone) and some random tingling... she has been symptom-free and her MRIs have shown little-to-no progression.  

Her doctors continue to be amazed.  She is not taking any of the interferon injections at this time.  They contend that this would actually reduce her quality of life since she has no symptoms and the disease is not progressing.

There are 2 "stages" of MS:  Relapse/Remit (the symptoms come and go) and Secondary/Progressive (symptoms flare up, and then reduce, but not go away) 

The disease is called: "The disease of 1,000 faces" because it affects everyone a little differently.  There are a TON of resources out there.  It is ESSENTIAL to find a neurologist that specializes in MS.  My wife's first Neuro (in addition to having terrible bedside manor) also had no real idea about MS.  Her doctors now (at Indiana University) are specialists and leaders in the field.   If he finds a good doctor, they will get him hooked up with all of the resources out there.

The very best things that he can do, daily, are:

1. avoid stress

2. avoid excessive heat

3. Get plenty of Vitamin D. (lots of evidence that the disease is linked somehow to vitamin D deficiency)

4. get plenty of rest.

5. have some steroid available to take when he thinks a flareup is starting.  If you nip them in the bud, the duration and severity are reduced.

6.  Do the best to remain emotionally and physically balanced.  While in the past, the disease was not well-known, not well-treated, and not well-controlled... that is no longer the case.  Quality-of-life for MS patients is much better than it was in the past, and there is a TON of research in the field.  It affects 1/1000 people! That drives a lot of spending.

The very best thing you can do for your friend is let him know you love and support him, and then treat him the same as ever, unless he indicates otherwise.

Good luck.

Thanks a bunch MD. Good to hear about your wife too. So far he's got the stress thing. He does have a good support network and we are going to do our best to help him out. He's a funny guy... we call him Captain Inappropriate. That should give you an idea.

Funny about the Vit. D... mine came up short a couple times, I don't drink milk. Finally decided to get some. Figured it could not hurt.

Wow... 1/1000... thats not that rare considering all the other "rare" stuff out there.

I second the higlighted points above. Everyone is different and this is something that many people are able to keep moving forward with.  A friend was in a bad way (temporary blindness, wheelchair, etc) a while back and has none of that gong on now. You look at her and don't even know she has anything. Never underestimate the power of ones own positive outlook on things. Best of luck to your friend.