TV portrayals of MS
Anyone else been annoyed by portrayals of MS on TV?
I was trying out a new show - Hart of Dixie - where a New York doctor has to move to a southern state where she's an outsider trying to fit in. She ends up finding a woman on the floor in the toilets at a bar and discovers that she has MS (and hasn't told anyone). This was followed by the statement from the woman to the doctor that 'we both know that my life is over' (or something along those lines). Cue me shouting at my TV 'of course it isn't!'
Susan in Neighbours only mentions her MS when she needs to have a relapse for story reasons, but at least it's a more optimistic view.
I suppose it's realistic of what happens sometimes. Is bloody depressing, but it's our lives....guess all we can do is not live up to those wrong depictions
Funny that. When the nurse from the company who are supplying my Copaxone came to give me my injection training, we had exactly that discussion. Obviously, he's seeing mainly people with RR, but even so, his contact with "game-over" (my term - sorry, don't mean to cause offence) disabled sufferers has been significantly less frequent than the mainstream media might suggest. While near total disability maybe a possible eventual outcome, there's nothing more likely to crush the hopes of the newly diagnosed than the inference that it’s an absolute inevitability. Obviously, it does no harm to be realistic. But with DMDs, I’m hoping to avoid the worst excesses of the disabling effects of MS. Unrealistic? Maybe. Positive? Definitely!