Multiple sclerosis patients see signs of increased support

By Brittany Weiner

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    NASHVILLE, Tennessee (WSMV) — Actress Christina Applegate announced this week she has been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.

It’s a disease that 1 million people are living with in the U.S. and Applegate’s recent announcement is putting it in the spotlight, encouraging those living with it with the hope that it will educate more people about the disease and bring more people to get involved.

Andrea Lindsley was working overnights as a news producer and reporter when she started noticing some numbness.

Thinking it was just a lack of sleep, she soon encountered other changes.

“Then I had trouble walking and then my speech became so slurred it affected my job and then I went blind in my right eye,” she said.

At just 24-years-old, Lindsley was diagnosed with MS, a neurological disease that disrupts communication between your brain and body.

“When I was diagnosed 28 years ago there were no treatments for MS — zero,” Lindsley said. “I figured I would never work again, I would never get married, have kids, be able to travel. I thought my life was over.”

But 28 years later, she’s doing all those things, just in a different way.

Lindsley has relapsing MS, so symptoms come and go.

Sometimes she uses a cane and says every few years she’ll have to take time off work because she’s unable to walk.

But now there are treatments to help.

Bruce Bebo is the executive vice president for research at the National MS Society. He says there are now a number of treatments for relapsing MS.

“In the last 20 years we’ve had an explosion of treatments, particularly for that more relapsing form of MS,” Bebo said.

The research is close to his heart, as Bebo’s mother was diagnosed with the disease.

“The life for someone diagnosed now compared to 25 years ago is so much better and I’m really optimistic about what it’s going to look like five to 10 years from now for people,” he said.

Dr. Joy Derwenskus, associate professor of neurology at Vanderbilt Medical Center, says getting support from friends and family, eating well, getting good rest and exercising regularly can help those with MS.

It’s something Lindsley fits in every day she can.

“When I have a good day, I walk. I walk three miles every day,” she said. “I wish someone had said to me back then, ‘You are going to be OK.’ That’s what I try to say to all new MS patients.”

Doctors say vision loss in one eye that progresses over time, numbness, tingling, weakness or balance issues, and fatigue are symptoms to watch out for.

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