march is multiple sclerosis awareness month! as someone with ms i wanna give some lesser known facts about the disorder:
the full cause of ms isn't known. there is a genetic component (my grandfather had it), which, when combined with a viral infection, can sometimes lead to the development of the disorder. this is what happened to me, i got shingles (at 22 which is crazy rare btw) and it triggered the disorder
there are multiple types of ms: relapse remitting, primary progressive, secondary progressive, and acute. rrms is by far the most common, which sees "attacks" which is the onset of symptoms and corresponds to developing lesions in the brain, and remission where most if not all of ones symptoms go away. ppms, which is what my dr suspects i have and is much rarer, does not have periods of remission, symptoms just progressively get worse. spms sees a period of attacks and remission followed by a steady progression, and acute isnt super common but sometimes people develop one or two lesions out of nowhere but they heal themselves or don't develop further, often also a result of viral infections
while there is an established set of symptoms very common with ms, basically any neurological symptom under the sun can be attributed to it, from migraines to seizures to full blown paralysis
while chronic pain can be present for a lot of folks with ms, not everyone has it. they can still have extremely debilitating symptoms like vision issues, muscle weakness/spasticity, limited mobility, fine motor control issues, insomnia etc etc. the main reason i use my wheelchair isn't chronic pain (which i do also have to be fair), it's muscle weakness. my legs get so weak i can't move them if i stand/walk too much. ms can be extremely disabling without any pain at all
ok thanks for reading <3
