Hello MS World

[Hank93]

My wife has just been Dx'd with MS this week after a few years of not sure what was going on. She has her first Neuro appointment tomorrow and we are a bit nervous as to what it is going to entail. We are both in the Military and of course she has great concerns as to whether or not she will be able to finish her career (7 more years). This is probably not the place for our specific questions so I will add them to another thread area.

We have done a lot of reading on here and appreciate everyone sharing their issues and stories. My wife is 40 years old and extremely active with several symptoms from fatigue, neck and back pain, coordination problems, eye problems etc.. She is ready to get lined out on some mess with hopes of regaining and/or controlling her symptoms. We are both staying positive and praying for the best results. I am going to move on now to a more specific area and ask some questions. Thanks again.
Tim

[Seasha]

Hi Tim and welcome to MSWorld. It makes me so happy to see spouses come here to learn all they can about MS. You sound very devoted. There is a wealth of information here coming from very friendly people, so ask what you need! We are not doctors, but can share our stories to better help educate you and your wife. Staying informed and positive is crucial to your wife's wellbeing. There may be hard times as well, but you sound committed to being there for her!

We would love to meet your wife too sometime! Hopefully she will eventually want to join in. We are here to help and understand what it means to live with MS.

Keep us informed about her neuro appt. Hope it goes well and thank you both for your military service!

[freeinhou]

Hi Tim and welcome!

I appreciate the military. My 4 years in the Army bought me a career.

I'll share my story with ya. When I was 40, I was the bond engineer for the port of Miami and was designing drawbridges throughout Florida. I'm now 55. I'm one of the mission managers for the space station at NASA at the Johnson Space Center and also run the mission control center power plant.

I was dx'ed at age 30. I was working at a nuke plant at the time. A hotshot nuclear design engineer...

Fatigue, neck pain, eye problems. Yeap. That's where it started. My current biggest issues are numb legs and feet pain, but I'm still fully mobile (I'll even attempt to run if it's raining).

So that's my story. Sorry, no doom and gloom. There's always that chance. I wish you guys well.

Tom

[Bob698]

Tim, we have a sub forum here for active duty and vets with MS. It isn't the only place to post about MS, it deals more with the "nuts and bolts" kind of stuff specific to things like TRICARE and the VA, your rights as an active duty service member, etc. All of the other forums here are handy for one thing or another.

I have to be honest about something, IF your wife is DX'd (a Neuro really has to make that call) with MS it will probably be a crap shoot for her to make it to 20 year's retirement and the odds aren't in her favor. The military has to cut back anyway and MS is usually enough cause for medical seperation. Sorry, but them's the breaks.

All that being said, its actually kind of lucky for her to be DX'd now while she's active duty. It gives both of you a lot more options in terms of care (with or without the VA). One thing MS isn't is cheap.

One thing she really needs to careful about, I'm pretty sure all the branches now use VA Drs. for the basic eval process. Please play accordingly! At least make sure she understands that what she says now can have repercussions later.

MS is sometimes a tough disease to live with but most of us do it. Still, its best to plan ahead.