Ellen’s diagnosis
The first thing that happened was my daughter was diagnosed with MS. No one else however that I know of in my family had this diagnosis. She was almost 2O then.Three years later when I was 50+ I had transfer
Myelitis.It left me rather numb from my chest to my feet. Within a week or two most of the numbness went away, but permanently left my toes and the balls of my feet permanently numb . I had before that which I didn’t know at the time were MS hugs. I didn’t know what they were. Neither did my internist! It was probably my first MS symptom. So three years after my daughter was diagnosed. I had an MRI of the brain and was diagnosed with MS. That was about 20 odd years ago.
It’s actually quite rare for MS to occur in the same family. There is a genetic susceptibility, but MS isn’t considered a directly inherited condition where you simply pass it on. My neurologist told me she’d been in neurology for 20 years and had never personally treated a brother and sister who both had MS, although she knew colleagues who had. Families also share environments, so there could be common factors involved. Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is the virus you’re probably thinking of, and things like vitamin D, smoking, obesity and other environmental factors have all been associated with MS risk. But there’s still no single answer for why one person develops MS and another doesn’t. I’d try not to drive yourself mad looking backwards for the exact reason it happened. Put that energy into getting better, adapting and picking yourself back up. The treatments we have now are miles ahead of where they were 20 years ago, so there really is plenty of reason for hope. ❤️
@St1gzy I dont think it is all that rare. My Mother, Brother and I all deal with MS.