LETTER: Additional thoughts about multiple sclerosis

I send kudos to reporter Katheryn Houghton on a well-done article May 22. As someone who was a caregiver for 13 years for a person with MS, I applaud any education about MS awareness.

Yes, as Dr. Lindsay says, almost everyone knows someone with the disease, and isn’t it great that over $900 million has been raised for research and education? I am happy with all that.

Now for a bit more education that often is left out of these articles, which too often mention people who have a form of the disease called “relapsing/remitting.” This is a type that comes and goes with the episodes called exacerbations. The person eventually recovers to a level very near where they were before. This is the type of the disease which has been targeted with new treatments to slow it down and the people will live relatively long lives, though with often great pain.

There is another more debilitating form of MS that is chronic or secondary progressive. In this variety the person may have exacerbations but seldom recovers much and the disease continues to destroy the person’s physical abilities. Within several years, a person will go from a cane to a walker to a wheelchair and to a point where they have little muscle control. It would be really great to say they live long lives, but mid-60s is pretty much it.

Truly, I would like the MS Society and the researchers to put more time and energy to also attacking this more dire form of the disease. I have read occasional research that suggests this is an area of concern. If so, then get on with a full-scale attack.

—David C. LeBleu, Whitefish