MS meets prime-time TV

One of my favorite pastimes is watching the TV series "House", a show about a cranky brilliant doctor who diagnoses the most puzzling critical cases. The part I always wait for is the moment that comes in virtually every single show - when someone says "Looks like MS."

My family and I groan together when it turns out the patient doesn't have MS. So far, in several years of the series, not a single patient has had MS. We groan because it's a family joke that it's unfair that no one on my favorite show gets to share my disease. We groan because in several years of the series, where a serious illness is researched in every episode, and MS is raised as a possibility in nearly every episode, it has never been MS. We groan because it seems ridiculous that so many illnesses are treated - and we're talking about the craziest diseases ever heard of - and MS seems to fit symptoms of most of them.

How can this be? How can MS, this somewhat unique condition, mimic so many peculiar diseases and medical problems? This week, the patient was a ballerina whose lungs collapsed suddenly. She was rushed to the hospital where her skin started peeling off. Now, neither of those problems are related to MS as far as I know, but as more issues started impacting this poor ballerina character, sure enough, MS was raised as a possibility. Huh?

There was the woman with an unusual breast cancer (um, she had a hidden extra breast in an unusual location of her body. I'm telling you, this is a crazy show) who was tested for MS along the way to the ultimate diagnosis. There was the woman with paralyzed hands, the agoraphobic, the guy with the extreme personality change, several cases of venereal diseases, the coma guy, the kid who experienced severe electrical zaps through his body, and on and on. It has gotten to the point where I'll sit up and say, "Ok, here it comes" right before MS is raised as a possibility.

Ultimate diagnoses have ranged from cancer to genetic disorders, but never MS.
It just goes to show you what a weird wacky disease we have. It impacts so many areas and causes so many types of symptoms. No wonder we drive our doctors and ourselves crazy. No wonder so many people end up lingering in limbo. No wonder a new symptom pops up and we're like "What the heck is happening now?" These symptoms can be frightening because we don't know if they're the start of something very serious or just part of the strange sensations that come with the territory. After all, we learn with MS that just because something feels like it's burning, doesn't mean it's on fire, and just because a body part is in a lot of pain, doesn't mean damage is being done. We just take medication to relieve the sensation and ignore it best we can.

I do have one bone to pick with "House." Several times, when MS has been raised as a viable possibility, Dr. House will say "Put her/him on interferon and see if symptoms subside." Well, that's not how it works. I want to write the show and tell them that it's high-dose steroids that patient should be put on to quickly impact MS symptoms. Interferon is a longer-term preventive medication.