Adding Up MS: Hey, What Does That Number Mean?

Two doctors looking at brain MRI

Did you know that estimates indicate that as many as 2.5 million individuals across the world may be living with MS currently? MS is generally referenced as a “rare” disease, but that number doesn’t seem small to me!

Where you are living in the world will determine a number of factors, including what diagnostic tools are available to accurately evaluate and diagnose a person with MS. After all, those figures might be harder to estimate in countries that do not have trained neurologists, MRI equipment, and other supportive medical testing. If people are not diagnosed or seeking medical care, then they are unlikely to be “counted” or projected into estimates.

Another major challenge is that many countries – including the United States – do not have an official MS Registry, which is a legislated or mandatory accounting of each person diagnosed with a particular condition within a particular country (or other geographic area such as a state). Without a registry, scientists and epidemiologists must rely on other factors to try and “guestimate” how many people in any particular area may be diagnosed with MS. These types of disease registries do exist in the United States for other conditions, such as ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease).

Countries such as Denmark do maintain an MS registry. Since the 1950’s Denmark has collected specific information on anyone diagnosed with MS. This type of registry has provided Danish researchers and scientists of other countries valuable information for clinical research and prospective studies. Hopefully someday the United States legislature may agree that a national MS registry could bring many benefits to individuals living with MS.

So, when you see that 2.5 million number, think of all the people who don’t see a doctor because they can’t access one or cannot afford medical care. Think of all the people who are diagnosed with something else because their physicians don’t have appropriate diagnostic equipment. Yes, researchers have tried to extrapolate an “accurate” number, but who is being left out?

When I hear that figure, I think, what does that number really mean, and how does that number impact the MS community? Does the lack of a registry leave researchers without critical information which could be collected to better understand the MS process and who is diagnosed with MS? Is less funding spent on MS research, including causes, treatment options, and individual quality of life and well-being because MS is perceived as “rare”? These are questions that cannot be answered because the true number of people living with MS is unknown, but it is still important to pose the questions.

For more information regarding projected figures of individuals living with MS around the world see the Atlas of MS 2013.

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Communicating Effectively with MS

By: Matt Cavallo

One barrier to accepting that you are now a person living with multiple sclerosis is communication. When I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, it seemed that every conversation I had ended up being about my MS. Whether it was family, friends or co-workers, inevitably during the conversation the person I was talking to would pause and ask, “So, how do you feel? You look great.”

While these conversations were well-intentioned, no one picked up on the fact that I didn’t want to talk about my disease. All I wanted was to do was have regular conversations about sports, work or the weather. The kind of conversations we would have before I was diagnosed. More and more I found myself avoiding conversations rather than reliving my diagnosis over and over again.

This was causing a tremendous amount of stress in my life and that stress was affecting all the relationships in my life. Whether it was at work, friends, family or my wife, all these relationships were suffering as a result of the breakdown in communication. I then realized that I wasn’t going to be able to control the way the people talked to me about my disease. If I wanted to end the stress of talking to people about MS, I was either going to have to cut everyone out of my life or change how I communicated my illness.

For me, change does not come easy. One of my 7 Steps to Living Well with a Chronic Illness, is Learning to Communicate Effectively. I believe that when you are diagnosed with a chronic illness, like MS, you go through five stages of grieving: denial, anger, fear, grief and finally, acceptance. Learning how to communicate effectively is what helped me go through these stages. Instead of losing relationships because of my MS I started to make changes that allowed me to accept my MS.

Excerpt from 7 Steps to Living Well with a Chronic Illness
Rediscovering My Purposematt blog

I remember sitting in my doctor’s office in the spring on 2007. I had previously shared with her a draft of my memoir, The Dog Story: A Journey into a New Life with Multiple Sclerosis. She loved the passion in which I describe my writing. She said that I had an articulate, succinct way of telling my patient experience story. She also said that there was an opportunity to share my story at an upcoming patient support group meeting. Without thinking about it, I agreed to speak at the meeting.

Then on my way home, a rush of anxiety and fear overwhelmed me. What had I agreed to? I had never given a speech. I didn’t know what to say or where to start. When I got home, I talked to Jocelyn about the upcoming speech. Given all that I had been through with my disease process, she thought that it would be good for me to attend the support group in general. She also thought that I would be good as a speaker. I was skeptical…

… I put on a blue blazer, a button down white shirt, a pair of jeans and some blue tennis shoes. My cousin came with me to film the event. As we drove, the butterflies started to mount in my stomach. I walked into the hotel lobby and followed the signs to the meeting room for the support group.

In an instant I had forgotten everything that I was going to say. I started sweating and paused for what seemed like an eternity. All eyes were on me and the projector beam was like a white hot piercing spotlight in an interrogation room. The doctor introduced me and I walked to the front of the room, raised my right hand and waved.

“Good afternoon everyone!”

I collected myself and began again. Eventually I started to feel my rhythm. The sweat was no longer pouring and I found my confidence and timing. The crowd even erupted with laughter when I interjected a joke. I was surprised. It was a subtle joke, but they got it. When that happened, the words started rolling off my tongue and I told my story better than I ever had rehearsed it. The audience loved it. Everyone came up to me afterwards and said how much my talk meant to them. I was touched.

Looking back, standing up in front of that crowd and sharing my story changed the way I felt about communicating my MS. Up until that point, I was not comfortable talking about MS at all. And it wasn’t because I was sharing my story in a front of a room full of people that caused the change in me. It was everyone in the audience who shared their story with me after the talk that helped me understand that I wasn’t alone. People shared similar experiences and how hard it was to talk about their illness. Since that day, I have made it my mission to spread the word about living with MS.

If you are going through difficulty with you MS or having a hard time accepting your diagnosis, it is OK. You are not alone. Learning to communicate your story of living with MS will help you in accepting your condition. Once you learn how to effectively communicate your story with MS you will find that you are not alone and that you really do look great!

*Matt Cavallo was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2005. Matt is an MS blogger, author, patient advocate, and motivational speaker. Matt also has his Master’s degree in Public Health Administration. Matt is the proud father of his two sons, loving husband to his wife, Jocelyn, and best friend to his dog, Teddy. Originally from the Boston suburbs, Matt currently resides in Arizona with his family. To learn more about Matt, please visit him at : http://mattcavallo.com/blog/

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