@Iain_Sherriff 

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Iain_Sherriff

Just saying helo :)

Hi everyone. My son has MS. Aged 39 Matt's symptoms started 5 years ago with him saying during a Sunday family dinner "My hand feels a bit numb". He is now a full time wheelchair user and has returned to live at home with us as his wife decided she could no longer cope with his care. Matt has two kids (7 and 10) and was a Tree Surgeon/Farm worker/Printer/LPG fitter prior to MS taking hold. He hasn't actually worked for 8 years as he broke his back in a work accident. He recovered from that (Rods and screws etc) and was ready to restart life when he had the numb hand incident. He has been on the full range of MS drugs at various times but has not responded to any. He voluntarily came of the lasy (Tysabri) 18 months ago and massively cut down on his other daily drugs. We are waiting for a Council grant to (hopefully) come through to build a downstairs wetroom and space for Matt. At the moment he can transfer and I installed a stairlift for him and we have a bathroom hoist, power and manual wheelchairs (WCS) and I adapt whatever we need to make the cottage work for us all.
@Stumbler

Hi @iain_sherriff and welcome. It's good of you to join us on behalf of your son. He's lucky to have you as life can be unkind. It knocks you down and when you pick yourself up, it knocks you down again. Unfortunately, there aren't any drugs that can treat Secondary Progressive MS (SPMS) yet. There are some in the pipeline, so watch this space. Otherwise it's just medications to deal with symptom management. Good luck with the Council grant. I hope it comes through quickly so you can get this work started.

@Iain_Sherriff

Thanks. Matt was classed as Relapsing Remitting for the first few years, in fact he still officially is so he could have options if/when new drugs appear........... his consultant has always said "your symptoms are atypical and whilw I am not 100% sure it is MS I don't know what else it could be". We are waiting to see anew consultant !