Well this will be my fourth or fifth time doing the MS Walk. When I was around 10 years old my mom quit work cause she got to sick.Like 8-10 years prior to her leaving work doctors had told her that they thought she had MS,but she didn't want to believe them, so she didn't get any tests done. After quitting work it all went down hill. She started having less and less energy, she couldn't play baseball with me and my brothers anymore. A couple years later she started walking with a stick(or cane if you would like). And still her sickness progressed to having to use one stick on each side... And through out all these years the doctors have done a few tests and couldn't find anything, so they stopped calling it MS and claimed that it is a psychologic problem... Thankfully this last year she has been gettin a little better to the point in which she uses only one cane, and she even started driving again. I know in my heart that my mom has MS, I mean all the tell tale signs are there, the slurred speech, the fatigue, the loss of memory, and having to use her sticks. I mean it came to a point where I didn't want to go out and visit with the rest of my family(cousins,ants,uncles,grandparents) because when we left the house, mom would get really sick and tired to the point where they would have to feed her. Like I said I know that my mom has MS,that is why I take the walk for her because she is without a doubt the strongest person I know. But here's the problem, because they haven't actually diagnosed her with it yet, she wont come on the walk with me and my dog... What can I say to get her to come?

JudyKayTee

Probably nothing - some people don't want to face the diagnosis; other people keep a low profile and don't want to "advertise" their medical problems; sometimes simply avoiding the subject is how people survive.

One of my best friends has MS and she only faced it when she began to lose her eyesight.

I'm sure your Mom has her reasons and the best you can do (in my opinion) is do the walk and support her in other ways, as you have been doing.

And, yes, without a diagnosis she always has the hope that it's something else - anything else!

breazy03

i have ms myself. i do have plaques on my brain unfortunatley. but it is possible to have ms without seeing them on the mri. min e didnt show up for several years, but if i had payed attention to the signs then i could have slowed it down.ms has a wide variety of symptoms and there is quite a few diseases out there that can mimic it. doctors should know what they are and test for them also. she might just not want to deal with it. i went through that for a time also. it wouldnt hurt for both of you to do the walk and if nothing else your supporting us that do have it, and we would greatly appreciate it. hope everything works out.