MS has a history. I highly recommend you explore it for the “big picture” it provides.
“Multiple Sclerosis: a journey through time” is an audiovisual tour of the history of multiple sclerosis. Available in English and German, the online presentation is offered by the German MS Society, Deutsche Multiple Sklerose Gesellschaft (DMSG) and AMSEL Association, a self-help and advocacy organization for MS patients in Baden-Wuerttemberg.
The History of MS gives viewers an excellent overview of the history of this neurological disease beginning in 1395 AD. It’s a very useful educational tool. For example, I didn’t know lumbar punctures have been used for diagnostic purposes since 1913 or that 1972 brought the use of visually evoked potentials to measure the speed of optic nerve conduction as a diagnostic tool for Multiple Sclerosis.
But even more than an educational tool, The History of MS offers viewers a broad perspective. And broader perspectives are important for caregivers.
First, a broad perspective puts your personal situation into a context. It’s easy for some caregivers to feel alone. Others, overwhelmed by the newness of a diagnosis, are confused and without foundation – especially if all they know about MS is the little that most people who are untouched by it know.
Second, because one hears, “there is no cure for Multiple Sclerosis”, the history of medical research is heartening. There is no cure now. But perhaps a cure will be discovered.
Third, having one’s perspective broadened opens one up to experience hope. I’ve considered many times that even if a cure is discovered, it still will not restore the lost neurological functioning. If my wife has lost the ability to walk or swallow, having a cure for MS will only stop those symptoms from worsening. But The History of MS projects into the future, too. It is not unreasonable to think that medical research will, as the presentation offers for 2020, discover a way to repair myelin.
Will myelin repair happen? No one knows. Could it happen? Again, no one knows, but that scientists are imagining it, gives me significant hope!
Website: The History of Multiple Sclerosis