Multiple Sclerosis: A Message to The Newly Diagnosed

how do you this video is intended for people newly diagnosed with multiple sclerosis I have a message for you if you'd like to hear it don't turn away because I'll start sharing right now [Music] howdy thanks for learning about MS with me Erin boster I started this YouTube channel to help my own MS clinic patients learn between clinic visits and it's my hope that through these videos I can help you too today I received a tweet from MS warrior princess and she writes thank you for this video dr. boster it helped me get through my first Christmas with MS I wonder have you made a video to help patients cope with their first year of diagnosis yet I find it hard to shake thoughts of fear and despair love from Holland Europe and that's warrior princess good morning and howdy and thank you for reaching out through Twitter and sending me that message I do indeed want to create something for you and for people newly diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and I thought I would simply share with you a few words that I share with patients as I provide the MS diagnosis to them in my clinic there's a couple things that I want you to hear number one you're not going to die for multiple sclerosis this is not a disease that will kill you you'll die with it and in the modern era applying disease modifying therapies as early as possible and staying on them as long as possible we've shown that we can have a near normal life expectancy moreover you're not going to pass this on to your children this is not a classically inherited genetic condition and the likelihood that your kids would develop MS is actually very very low so those are two thoughts as a parent that I would want to know about number one it's not going to kill you and number two you're very unlikely to pass it on to your kids number three is that untreated this is a nasty nasty condition but we don't do untreated MS not where I work and if we play our cards right and we're hard we can have expectations of making this disease boring I remind people there's another autoimmune condition called diabetes that only a few generations ago used to literally kill people they would develop renal failure and they would die from diabetes and nowadays you don't even know someone has diabetes unless you eat chocolate cake with them in 2018 it is realistic that we can make a mess approach the boringness of diabetes with therapy I also want to convey to you that it takes patience roughly one to two years to become comfortable in their own skin with an MS diagnosis I say that to you having done this for nearly a decade and a half sitting across the room from families receiving an MS diagnosis and then watching those families as they move forward to the first year or two and become comfortable and it is a wonderful thing to see and that's going to happen for you on the other end of this video camera listening to me it takes time and during those first two years I remind people that you don't yet have a filter so when you hear something read something think about something about multiple sclerosis you don't know yet whether it's relevant to you I tell people to be cautious reading on the internet because you don't need to be a neuro immunologist to write things about on us and if you use proper grammar it looks to the casual viewer to be true and it may not or it may be true but not applicable to your situation because ms is different for every person and so I offer to use me as your filter and for those of you viewing this video I want you to use your MS providers as your filter as you hear read or sear or pray about something related to MS bring it to their attention and we will translate for you and slowly over those first two years you will become very comfortable knowing what is and isn't relevant for your multiple sclerosis I like to remind people that if you had a twin sister with MS genetic copies of you and you both had multiple sclerosis you would quite literally have different disease courses and so you can't compare someone else's story to yours this is not a death sentence and this is a very treatable condition and you're not going to die from it you'll die with it during these first two years I want you to be four four four I want you to strive to be four four four and your fight against a mast as you become comfortable with this condition take a disease-modifying therapy and make sure that it's working how do you do that you go to follow-up visits you allow the neurologist to examine you to obtain MRIs and to talk to you and to make sure we're not seeing breakthrough disease make exercise part of your lifestyle and if that's the focus of those first two years you're doing a great job because people with MS that exercise they are better long-term than those that don't if you're a smoker it's time to quit smoking can speed up ms nearly by 50% according to some studies and not smoking is arguably one of the most impactful things you can do to slow down your own disease process now let's be honest it's not easy to quit smoking but this is serious and it's important and so I encourage you to reach out to your providers and say hey I need a hand and lastly supplement low levels of vitamin D these are the points to begin managing your MS I want to share with you that you're not alone that you have a village around you key family members and friends providers and you have an online community you have me you have the people that write in to this channel with comments of encouragement and love you're not alone and you will beat this condition and we're gonna help you do that my name is Aaron Bhaskar and I want to thank MS warrior princess for writing to me and suggesting that I make this video I want to remind you that you're not by yourself and you will overcome this it just takes a little while to get comfortable in your own skin if you would like to see more videos from me please take a moment and subscribe to this channel and until my next video take care [Music]

Channel: Aaron Boster MD

Views: 29,540

Rating: 4.9491658 out of 5

Keywords: Multiple Sclerosis: A Message to The Newly Diagnosed, a message to the newly diagnosed, Learn About MS with Aaron Boster, Aaron Boster Mulitple Sclerosis, Multiple Sclerosis Educational Videos, multiple sclerosis patient education, chronic illness essentials

Id: wvQXygHtYzc

Length: 6min 47sec (407 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 26 2018