While we're asking about MS, questions (long)

[Rafiki Rafiki Rafiki]

These questions are for people who either have MS or know people who suffer from MS. These aren't really questions about the info you find on WebMD or some other site.

Have you known anyone who went from having no symptoms to severe disability over a period of a month or two?

My sister-in-law is telling us that she has MS, but she really appears to be prescription drug-addicted instead. I don't know how to tell the difference.

Here is the case of something that happened during the late fall. I was visiting at my mother's house and was getting ready to leave with my family for lunch when she showed up at my mother's house. She couldn't really walk, her speech was slurred, and she couldn't make a coherent thought come out of her mouth. I didn't know what was going on, but I put her in my car with us to go have lunch when she told us she would have to pickup my nephew at school about an hour later. She passed out in my car but came to when we roused her at the restaurant. She then collapsed in the parking lot.

I called my brother who told me to just bring her to him. We stopped and got my nephew at school, and she started to perk up. She acted completely fine by the time we got to my brother's office about an hour later...and she didn't want us to tell my brother what happened.

I chose not to meddle in their affairs on that occasion, but she still has a car and is still driving...even when she shouldn't be driving. I've heard through the grapevine that police have found her on the side of the road passed out, mothers on the playground have refused to let her get back into her car when she acts this way, and people have found her laying on the floor of a department store.

She chooses not to open up to me about whatever is going on, but man, I'm concerned! If she wants to live recklessly with her disease or addiction, I can't change her. But I want my neice and nephew to live!

Are these episodes typical of newly-diagnosed MS?

 

[Luckymommyx2]

The most difficult thing with diagnosing MS is how different it effects each person. Some may have very mild syptoms and never get much worse. Others relapse and remit while the disease progresses. Most common is the tingling/numbness in the extremities, loss of balance, memory loss, vision problems to name a few. I'm not familiar with passing out as a common side effect of MS but I wouldn't rule it out. I know that there are other DIS'ers with MS that may be able to chime in and help through their experiences. Your sister-in-law should really have some tests done, starting with an MRI. Sorry I can't help more...Good luck!

 

[BethR]

I have MS, but that doesn't make me any kind of authority on it.

But saying that, I would say that what you have described COULD definitely be MS. And yes, sometimes symptoms can come on overnight.

A MRI and complete neurological work up is in order. Preferably by a someone who specializes in MS.

 

[disneynutt1225]

I don't believe my mother has ever passed out, but I will say that on occassion she has slurred her speech. Not to the point where one minute she's slurring and the next minute she's fine, but it's more over a few days and then it will get better.

Unfortunately, MS hits a lot of people in different ways. While there are common symptoms, sometimes things that one wouldn't even consider as part of the illness wind up being part of the illness after all.

I would say at this point, you're going to have to take her word for it. I don't understand why anyone would go around and say they had a seriously debilitating disease (or any disease really) and not really have it.

 

[Rafiki Rafiki Rafiki]

I don't understand why anyone would go around and say they had a seriously debilitating disease (or any disease really) and not really have it.

Well, this same SIL refused to let my brother have contact with me because she thought I had an unnatural attraction to him. She is also estranged from her family.

She slapped my mother across the face once for showing up at their apartment for not calling in advance...and ranted about how Mom was so inconsiderate later.

She was once a nurse practitioner, and then magically she wasn't one under some very curious circumstances.

She let it slip once that she was previously married, but then she acts like it never happened if someone asks her a question about it.

Last year before all this came down, she kept showing up at my sisters' houses looking for prescription pain medicine...and from what my sisters say, she appeared to be in serious drug withdrawal at the time. When I confronted my brother about it, he brushed me off.

There are dozens and dozens of other odd (at best) or downright strange (at worst) things that she has done or said that lead me to believe it might not be MS.

Part of me wants to believe it's MS because it would explain a lot...that is, except for her reasons to refuse help from anyone in our family. But I know MS can be dibilitating and is a lifelong sentence. Drug addiction, on the other hand, can be fixed.

I know she is seeing several doctors because of all the different drug and receipt-type papers that fell out of her purse when she was having one of her spells...so this is not a case of determining whether or not she needs medical help. Thanks for the suggestion, Beth...even if she wasn't getting the proper care, she wouldn't listen to me!

 

[BethR]

Well, then I would be questioning anything this woman would do/say as well.

I am sorry that you have to deal with someone who is so difficult...

 

[sugarpie]

I wouldn't jump to any conclusions if I didn't have all the facts. There are medical conditions that can cause drunken behavior.

I was worried about a friend who was having a hard time walking, slurred a lot, and just seemed to behaving really strangely. I finally said something to a mutual friend & she told me that the friend has a neurological disease.

Your SIL sounds like she has some issues, though. I think I would try to talk to your brother about it.

 

[disneynutt1225]

Well, then I would be questioning anything this woman would do/say as well.

I am sorry that you have to deal with someone who is so difficult...

I have to agree.

 

[freckles and boo]

Have you considered that she may have MS in addition to her other problems? My MIL had a chronic, progressive form of Multiple Sclerosis that, over a period of twenty-five years, gradually took away much of her better judgment along with her ability to control her body. I never knew her when she was healthy and walking but my husband says that the disease amplified her worst traits. She was a little domineering before she was affected and very, very domineering as she became incapacitated. She became more difficult and angry - probably both as a result of the frustration and the lesions affecting her brain. Please be patient with her, you really don't know what she is going through. If you don't think she should be driving (I KNOW that feeling!!! My MIL would put her foot all the way to the floor, get the car up to 70, take her foot off, slow to almost a stop, repeat, repeat, repeat), call around to see if there is anything that can be done about it. There are too many dangerous drivers on the road as it is.