If a pill could be made that would cure only one MS symptom, which would you pick?

If a pill could be made to free me of the spinning, vertigo that makes me like a floating speck on a rolling bowling ball, then this would be great!!

Likewise, if a pill (cure) can be made to rid me of the fatigue which disables most of my daily functions, this too, would be fabulous!
My fatigue is often the reason for my vertigo as mentioned previously.

What a terrific poll! I'm betting that fatigue gets the greatest number of votes.

I would pick "Vision".

My eyes jerk uncontrollably, which causes me to not be able to:

1. Read
2. Compute
3. Watch TV
4. Work
5. Drive

Although "Cognitive/Emotional" is a tough one, too. I would classify that as a second choice. Without your cognitive/emotional faculties it could be (or would be) very difficult to function in life.

Great question, Art!

It will be interesting to see all the answers. It's a tough one!

KathyK

It depends. I'm very worried about vision loss. I get eye fatigue. And as a computer professional this is an issue, and I paint watercolors to relax. I used to hike miles only 2 years ago and I miss that greatly. I hate being hot and uncomfortable, etc. So it depends on what day it is and what I'm doing. MS is a great inconvenience and I am fortunate that after 22 years it is only inconvenient. I'm not looking forward to the next round of inconveniences since MS is so unpredictable.

I have had issues with each of the categories above at one time or another. I have been blind in one eye for months, had bladder urgency to the point of not quite making it to the privy on time, have been numb in my lower legs and feet as well as other places, have been unable to handle any kind of heat on my body, even from a simple workout, and have tripped and stumbled and been unable to make it up a flight of stairs without assistance before. But my vote is for the cognitive issue. A couple of years ago I had a flare that took my mental faculties away from me and that was by far the scariest and worst time of my life. I have since understood that I can handle all of the other things that this disease may throw my way, but please let me have the ability to think and talk like the educated adult that I am.

Cognitive issue is my constant problem the past 2 years. For example, my wife told me in the morning that we were invited to a friend's house for dinner at 4 o'clock . . . that would be in just 6 hours, She was going to a church meeting out of town and would meet me at the friend's house at 4. She felt real bad and said I didn't love her anymore when I never showed up. Damn memory! . . . getting worse. Not too many people understand that part of a MS person.

Guess this is a bit not n the subject...but if there were one thing I would like to have it is a suggested program of medication, diet and exercise that we should be using to deal with our ms. I seem to be getting lost in the coversations and comments about this drug and that drug. I want to know what the best thing to do right now is.

For my husband, we would choose SPEECH - the ability to communicate is vital. Fatigue, bladder, heat sensitivity - these are all important but can be "managed". Even cognitive issues pale when the ability to communicate is lost. My husband is wheelchair-bound and has only limited use of his left hand (he is right-handed by nature), can't feed himself or operate an electric w/c. His speech has become so slurred that even I can't understand him half the time. His mind is still sharp and he has so much to say but is locked inside a useless husk of a body. I am terrified to think of what would happen to him if something happened to me.

I would love to walk properly again. I hate holding people up because i am so slow. It really gets to me sometimes how people take their ability to just walk across - well anywhere - completely for granted.

Mine would definitely be congition... I hate it when you start to do something you have done for years and suddenly can't remember how to start. this comes and goes, but some days it is so bad that I just 'throw up my hands and give up!" I hae always been a 'planner'. I organize everything for everybody at work. But with MS there are days I can't even begin to plan my own day much less anything else. It is so frustrating!

Because of the fatigue I have lost almost all my physical strenght. I feel if I could just get past the fatigue, I could exercise and regain strength and maybe even regain some dexterity too as my hands are now almost as bad as my legs.

JO'C RRMS? 33+ years, current DMD Copaxone (5+yrs) I'd like to be able to walk better - maybe it would help my fatigue, and then I'd not get over heated so easily. However, I'd quickly vote for Fatigue/Heat sensitivity as a close second because those things make ALL my sx so much worse, or pop right up even if I don't have them all the time. My vision goes, by walking just really fails, sensory overload on all counts, cognition is shot, fatigue is beyond ridiculous. I'm worthless as soon as my temp rises the slightest bit. It has become very restrictive within the last few years and I have a rather difficult time adjusting my life around it. All in all I've had a benign course, and count myself as very lucky - but this part is driving me nuts in managing. Jeane

A pill? That in itself would be a wonderful improvement! - I hate giving myself shots.

I answered bladder/bowel, but after reading. I would love my gait to be "normal" I look drunk all the time!
I am having sexual issues I don't know how to understand. That's a bummer. Won't get int that here(sorry Art). And my cognitive skills have deterierated over the years! Inside, I am a smart, tall walking, sexually confident, woman who controls her bladder. That's all that matters(what's on the inside).

Holly, good question!

I've had MS for 30 years & have had all the mentioned symptoms. I would say I'd love a pill to help my mobility. I am kept house-bound by the fact that I can't walk & I hate this disease. Did anyone ever try hypnotism on a cellular level to tell your body to stop destroying itself? How embarrassing & ridiculous this disease is!

Give me the ability to walk. Just about everything else is manageable. The ITB pump restored my energy level and four years of stability (and counting.) Most important, it gave me hope again!

I was one of seven guys to be blessed with this lovely speed bump MS and I'm
still trying to fight it off. My wife & her sister are registered psycologists in Edm. AB. ca and I have been their test subject for hypnosis and it did help with my walking somewhat. If anyone else has tryed this email me and we can chat. Daryl

It was hard for me to choose. Heat sensitivity is a BIG issue for me. I need it to be no more than about 62 degrees in order to function properly. Unlike someone's comment about being able to hanbdle this and function around it, I haven't been able to do that. I know all about the coolinbg devices but they don't kep me nearly cool enough. This affects all aspects of my life becasue when I'm hot my muscles turn to jelly, the vision is my left eye goes(I wish I knew where it went!!), my energy level is zero, my cognitive problems are worse, and the list goes on. At the same time, cognitive problems are a major issue for me. I get sensory overload from the simplest things and my brain goes haywire. I get panicky and anxious. I used to devour books--politicaldramas, legal thrillers, historical dramas, complicated books. I haven't read one of those types books in a very long time because I can't keep up with what is going on. This is the reason I had to give up teaching. I couldn't take the normal chaos that goes along with teaching secondary science. I had a mental meltdown. Both of these two topics are the onesI would want the pill to cure.

Fatigue is just something that you can't explain until you experience it-and I think it makes my walking worse. I've been diagnosed for 5 years and cognitive issues have been really minor for me luckily. I would also like to get rid of the foggy/dizzy feeling that I wake up with every day, kind of like feeling as though I really have to concentrate in order to focus. The person who likened it to a hangover is right. And I really am starting to dislike the word REST...I don't want to rest, I'm 38 with a 2 year old. There's way more stuff to be doing than resting when I haven't DONE anything.

To me, the reaction I get to heat makes all the other symptoms worsen. I have only lived with this thing for about 18 months. I know that when I'm cool and comfy I feel better and can function more like a human being. When I'm hot, I find it hard to do much of anything. I have been like this as long as I can remember. It's hard for me to overcome this as I live in the humid south. It gets so bad sometimes, I feel sick to my stomach and can barely walk, see or think. Maybe I should move to the North Pole?

Even though for this survey today I picked mobility (I would love to be able to walk again) I have a fear of going blind. A couple of months ago I began to feel something not right with one of my eyes. It felt as if "something" was in it; it felt "heavy"; my vision in that eye was becoming blurry. Being well aware of the fact that not everything that happens to me is due to my MS I called my opthamologist. Last week she diagnosed blepharitis in my right eye, a common and highly treatable condition. She told me what I needed to do; I went to web.md to learn more. This adventure reinforced the lesson I have learned with MS - not to let fear stand in the way of hearing what my body has to say, then taking the steps I can to do address the message. I'm so glad I did.

I am getting ready to get started on a new medicine called, TYSABRI. I WAS JUST WONDERING IF ANY ONE ELSE HAD TAKEN THIS MEDICINE AND IF SO HOW WAS IT.

THANK YOU,

BRANDON HENDERSON

i would choose fatigue but my vote is biased because fatigue is the only symptom that challenges me daily. i’m currently taking provigil for fatigue and it definitely helps but it doesn’t help as much as i would like. cognitive is a close second. it is so frustrating when i can’t put thoughts into words or remember something i was thinking about only minutes ago. i've learned to accept it when i'm at home or amongst family/friends but it threatens my level of performance at work which worries me.

Oh, to be able to feel my feet again! Instead, in them I feel numbness, tingling, tightness/banding, pain, and they're freezing cold from the inside - and all of this at the same time, each and every day! So - I don't feel them when I walk; they don't give me any "information" about depth of stairs or curbs, rocks, sweetgum balls...
That said, I still selected bladder/bowel - I didn't want to get lumped into the "Other" category!
Bladder is manageable with the right thickness of pads (thank G-d for Poise!) and not drinking herbal tea/soda... or soy milk before bed. Bowel can be manageable at times with Miralax - except I often have back pain bad enough to require narcotic painkillers - and of course that throws off the routine with Miralax. (thank G-d for Dulcolax!)
I think my husband would like for my heat sensitivity to be normal - since I control the thermostat, *he* is always cold - and he HATES being cold!
Oh for a pill to restore the degree of health I enjoyed when I was 24 - now *that* would be the BEST pill.

Yet each and every day I give gratitude for the things that are *not* affected: eyes are fine; hands/arms are fine; vision is fine; I can still walk a bit; I can still get in the pool; I only need to take an afternoon nap every other week or so... and cognition is pretty normal.
I *live* for going fishing - tho I don't score any points for style getting in and out of the boat/canoe.

Hi, I would add another selection "Spiritkilling" because thats how I see the disease and it would take in all the rest. Or perhaps "all of the above". But it was interesting to see the great majority plumb for mobility. I considered vision because it did effecr one eye for a while, almost completely restored now. Also that is the only symptom that actually scares me, loss of total vision would be catastophic on all fronts. But its only happened once...so far. Just out of interest every 3 months I suffer an exacerbation and use a drug called ACTH for a week which seems to help me at varying degrees. May be of interest to others. Kep up the good work.

Regards

Shetland Islands UK.

PS: What if you cant spell terminology?

the only thing that i really would cure is the ability to walk to my wife and hug her when times get bad for her. i have ppms 3 years and it took less than a month to lose all ability to walk, stand ,and use my arms.
dont forget that we have ms people but all in the family suffer from it.
they need love and a cure too.

I picked the cognitive even tho that isn't my worst symptom at this time.

I don't want to be a burden to my family of all my cognitive abilities go bad.

I would rather be immobile and blind than cognitively impaired.

I thought my comment was going to be "All of the above." When I read Stuart's comment, I remembered that hell. I have times when I feel on the verge of vertigo - as if anything could push or pull me into vertigo hell. My only self-directed death wishes are when vertigo inferno has me. I am with you, Stuart.

spasms, ataxia, tremor, weakness...heat & cold issues
as well as dexterity and mobility issues- Oh I'm way over one symptom
One pill would have to be for spasticity - even though they claim baclofen is somewhat effective...
Those temperature issues are a bear. I used to be able to live anywhere.
It would be nice to cure that one. No more night sweats. No fainting or chilling spells.

I thought I had to think about this one BUT all I ever say to people when they ask me about this MonSter is that I will take all the physical problems it throws at me if it would just give me back my mind. I feel so stupid at times; when my brain just freezes and I have no idea what I am doing or why or even where. The second runner up has to be my eyesight which has scared the hell out of me 2x in the past year. This last one took all of my superior range about 9months ago and I am just now seeing an improvement from the roid infusions in November.