Just thinking out loud here...
Recently, I had the realization that my MS symptoms (foot drop) began @ 1987 rather than when I was diagnosed in 2009. I did see a neurologist at the time but MS wasn’t even considered. There were 3 treatment options in 2009 (2 interferons and copaxone). There were essentially no treatments in 1987. Had I known I had MS in 87, I wonder how I might have lived my life differently? What choices would I have made?
I've thought of this too and concluded that there isn't much I could've done different in terms of diet & exercise.
I followed a decent diet and exercised like a freak for some time before I was diagnosed.
If anything, I'd handle stressors differently.
As for meds, I probably would have taken them mostly out of fear.
The thing I would do that I miss would be golf. Every day, rain or shine, out on the course with my set of lightning rods....and running too. I miss fast movement.
Now, I'd have to take a lightning bolt to the noggin.
😜🤣
I am not sure what I would do differently except to NOT get in the line where they were handing out ‘ms’ and instead stay in the line where they were handing out almost anything else! 
Amen
😂👍😘
I was diagnosed 2 years ago in my fifties. I don't think I would have done much differently either. I did some traveling and moving around a bit all throughout my life. Very spontaneous. Active. Free spirited. Tried alot of new things. Never a regular anywhere or with anything. There was too much to see and do. Too many 'firsts' to experience. I enjoyed that. Then I believe God or my guardian angel set me up and prepared me for this. Took a stable job, stayed put in my condo (once locked the door and left for two years living in two different locations, one out of state), secured my pension, paid off my condo. Then bam! Diagnosed and had to quit working. I am very grateful for all I've done and seen. I still do things (not like before) but just at a slower pace and less resources. I truly am blessed. Everyone has something they're dealing with.
Thinking back to the mid to late 1980s, the MS gospel was to not fatigue yourself by exercising (I believe they thought it could worsen your MS ). So I wonder, would I have trained for and run 17 marathons?
Would I have stayed in a relationship because it provided security?
Would I have pursued graduate degrees believing that I should do less or that my career would be curtailed?
Or would I have taken more risks because I thought my life or mobility would be altered?
No regrets...just curious how knowing I had MS might affect the roads I chose...
I was diagnosed in 2006 and I would have taken that flu shot that was offered at work the following year and maybe I would still be working? Who knows, but I think a lot would be different. But it's in the past and there is nothing I can do to change it except to keep getting the flu shot every year.
Hi erash such a good question. I took the security path, in my marriage. If I knew what was coming I would have exercised more, eaten better, and probably gotten a divorce so I could be free later in life. Maybe stayed at a job with a pension rather than go out on my own. Would have liked to have traveled more, maybe buy a condo? 🙃
I guess that, with or without MS, we tend to come to points in our lives where we look back with some "shouldas, couldas, wouldas." Interferons were the only treatment when I had my CIS. In some ways, I'm grateful that I was not diagnosed then and just lived for many years without having to involve MS in every decision. I probably would not have adopted two children, adding to the three I already had and adding greatly to the stress level. But then again, they would have been in limbo, going from foster home to foster home for years, if they had not been adopted by us. I suppose I would have made some better decisions, but also some worse decisions by knowing I had MS.
I always thought you were a good person...now I’m sure of it 😇
Oh, darling! I’m pretty awful in reality!I hope this next year is a much better one for you.
Looking back to where there is no future in the past, I would probably be dead. I would have drunk myself to death as I am an alcoholic but I have been sober for over 30 years. But back when I started having problems & was diagnosed with CFS, I was still drinking & I would have probably fallen into a deep depression & never come out. That's just the state of mind I was in back then. I didn't know Jesus and that there was a whole other life waiting for me. I'm thankful that I didn't know about it then. 🦋
Congratulations on your sobriety 👍
Hi hairbrain4 many congrats from a friend of Bill
This post has really made me think. 🤔 Unknowingly I had 3 children but I do not regret one moment of it only I might if one of them gets ms, then I may regret having them. I would be really upset if I thought I had given ms to them. I have given up a lot like all of us, but the main thing is not being able to walk Razor my dog or play catch or soccer with my grandsons. Going out in the evening for a nice meal or having people over for dinner. It’s now come for lunch as I am in bed by 7pm. Oh, how things have changed, but the Lord has been good to us, I have a lot to be grateful for.
My mom (a type 1 diabetic) used to blame herself for my type 1 diabetes.
What!?
I never once thought about it that way but did threaten to put her in a home if she kept it up!
(that never would've happened)🙂🥰
My decisions would have been different. I would have opted not to push myself and I would not have reached my full potential. So glad that I didn't know." I'm grateful that I was not diagnosed then and just lived for many years without having to involve MS in every decision." as greatexp stated above.
Those thoughts probably occur to all of us from time to time, because in hindsight we see the early symptoms of what became a MS diagnosis. But without better diagnostic processes and (at least in my case) doctors who listen carefully, trust their patients' self-reports and are curious enough to explore, I don't want to go there. Would I have felt defeated or more inspired to accomplish my goals in life? Would I have been less adventuresome or bolder, wanting to go farther and faster? I don't know. I hope, had I known, I would have taken better care of myself (diet, exercise, sleep) but not let a diagnosis keep me from the mostly joyful life I've been given.
had i known i would have pushed myself to the max.travling, long walks,just doing things i long to do now.but circumstances wouldn't let me have done that anyway.i was already pushing myself to the max,working 10/12 hours a day,raising 2 teenage girls(yikes).i try not to regret anything like not taking better care of myself!
Had I known I would have stayed off that bicycle! I fell over when my legs stopped working and broke my arm in 4 places! I would have rather have fallen from a standing position that off that bike! But... spilled milk...
If I had known back in 1999, I never would have taken that job in Oak ridge TN. That job would sell more souls to the Devil with no positive output to show for it. The stress was huge, and that is when the symptoms came marching in without the diagnosis, that came about 12 years later. I was actually overjoyed that I finally had something that could be treated! And that I wasn't at a higher level of crazy than I really was!
Okay, the crazy might have grown a little since then!
i feel the same way you do what would my life been like if i started the meds when the dr told me to. should i have considered it or why did i ignore what was happening thinking it was just going to go away when the symptoms started showing
we didn't know what we didn't know.
If I had been diagnosed with my first optic neuritis, I’d probably be in a miserable marriage living a boring life in the town I came from.
I was diagnosed fairly quickly two summers ago at 28. When i was first diagnosed i always told my family i wish i did not know. I do feel like its always in my decisions now. Wanted 4 kids have 2 both pre diagnoses and i am afraid first want to make sure i am stable, can i handle it will i be fatigued. Its in my decision wanting to move does a new home haveto many stairs? Will i be able to do the stairs in the future? Etc. My husband tells me dont let ms control me and i try not to let it but i cannot say its not in back of my head when making big decisions. I remind myself i am alive and people have worse illnesses in life. As i write this i think count your blessings one by one and see what the lord has done and though i have hard days im grateful for the hope i have in Jesus, my family, life and this support group. Blessings
I would do the same thing. When I was diagnosed symptoms are mild. Had my second child and life went differently. But I am grateful for all my experiences. In 1987, I would have listen more about stress. But that wasn’t in the cards with a husband with end-stage kidney failure. So I went on with life and did as many dreams, God willing, that I could with what I had. I didn’t get my dream completely, it was just packaged differently. God has been good to me. I more than blessed with this disease. Now my husband does his best for me. My two sons still add joy to my life and concern. There are worse things than MS. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t suffer in some way before they leave this earth.
I have answers now to my back problems 
I'm new here...but not to MS!
I had my very first video phone chat today. 
I HAVE FIVE.. HOW ABOUT YOU?
Have you had a lumbar puncture to confirm MS? Or just the symptoms in different times/places where they tell you it’s MS? 
