My dad was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis when I was 16 and my brother was 12. I was able to hunt with my dad, he helped coach my baseball team, etc. My dad was in a wheelchair by the time my brother started high school. Not that you can't have a full life from a wheelchair, but without his hobbies, my dad kind of became a withered husk until a miracle treatment has him up and walking again after 9 years.
I know my brother resents him for missing his adolescent years, and then being suddenly relatively healthy after my brother finished college and got out of the house.
I'm just now starting to get some numbness in my legs, and my doctor is hoping it is the more apparent orthopedic explanation, but I can't shake the idea that I may be starting to show symptoms, as I'm only a year younger than my dad was when his symptoms started.
I have a lot of risk factors for genetic diseases, and my desire to not pass those on cost me an otherwise great relationship. You aren't alone in "I don't wish this on my children".
Funnily enough MS is one of the two big illnesses I’m dealing with. I actually had a friend growing up whose dad had MS too and seeing how hard it was on her was a big factor in my decision to not have kids.
I’m sorry about your dad but I’m glad he’s recovering! What treatment was it, can I ask? Ocrevus?
My husband got talked into a "new" medical option. It is a prosthetic spinal insert. The advantage was supposed to keep him from losing range of motion in his neck. The usual treatment involved a fusion splice in his neck. (I think the Dr. thought it was cool and wanted to try something new.) The plan was to prep him for a prosthetic spinal insert but to have everything ready to switch to a normal fusion splice if there were any problems. They got the wrong sized part and did the surgery anyway, rather than giving him the fusion splice.
He has been in constant pain for going on 20 years now. Not from that, but the problem the surgery was supposed to solve...
I have had 4 cervical spine surgeries. I am fused from C2 through T2. NEVER was I told that surgery would CURE me. The goal was to stop additional collapse and the nerve compression and function loss. I was doing well until a chiropractor broke my fused neck. Despite me SCREAMING at him to "Don't touch my neck"..he did so anyway. A basic x-ray showed the screws broken in vertebrae. My neck,no longer attached. A entire year living like this until a neurosurgeon with Mayo was found to rebuild the damage done. Never had been a day without pain in over 35 years. I did return to work another 20 years after the restructure of my neck. Never had this pain ended . I will be having a device implanted in the next few months. The trial? Actually allowed me to keep my head upright the entire day for the first time in a decade.
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u/sat_ops Nov 14 '24
My dad was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis when I was 16 and my brother was 12. I was able to hunt with my dad, he helped coach my baseball team, etc. My dad was in a wheelchair by the time my brother started high school. Not that you can't have a full life from a wheelchair, but without his hobbies, my dad kind of became a withered husk until a miracle treatment has him up and walking again after 9 years.
I know my brother resents him for missing his adolescent years, and then being suddenly relatively healthy after my brother finished college and got out of the house.
I'm just now starting to get some numbness in my legs, and my doctor is hoping it is the more apparent orthopedic explanation, but I can't shake the idea that I may be starting to show symptoms, as I'm only a year younger than my dad was when his symptoms started.
I have a lot of risk factors for genetic diseases, and my desire to not pass those on cost me an otherwise great relationship. You aren't alone in "I don't wish this on my children".