Some facts about MS

Dear Dr. Donohue My 53-year-old son was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in September 2011. He functions quite well, has a small limp and goes to work in his office regularly. Recently, he had an MRI scan. His doctor told him: "There is one new lesion on your brain MRI. I wouldn't change anything now but recommend you come back in six months for another scan."

I feel he should have more attention sooner. F.C.

Answer Let me provide you and readers with a few facts on multiple sclerosis before I answer your question.

As many as 350,000 Americans suffer from this illness yearly. Its onset usually begins between the ages of 20 and 50. The basic problem is a stripping away of the insulation material, myelin, from nerves that permit the transmission of information from brain to spinal cord through electric signals. Without myelin, the electric transmission isn't possible: It's short-circuited. That brings on muscle weakness, loss of sensation and the many other signs and symptoms of this disease. Current teaching holds that the body's immune system is responsible for attacking the myelin nerve covering.

I'm taking it that your son suffers from the most common variety of MS, relapsing-remitting. This kind of MS has episodes of worsening (relapsing) and episodes of improvement (remitting). The course is unpredictable, however. Relapses might occur around every two years. It's not unreasonable for your son's doctor to wait six months to see him again.

That doesn't mean, however, that should your son develop new symptoms or worsening of current problems, he should stay silent. He ought to call his doctor immediately so that a change in medicines or a change in the way they're taken can be made. With all the medicines now available, MS isn't the incapacitating illness it once was for so many. It still remains an incapacitating illness for some, however.

Dear Dr. Donohue My husband's back has sprouted dark-brown, oval things that have a pebbly surface. Are they moles? Could they be cancers? N.N.

Answer Any suspicious and undiagnosed brown or black skin growths call for a doctor's exam. What you describe doesn't, however, sound like moles or cancers. They sound like seborrheic keratoses (SEB-oh-REE-ik CARE-uh-TOE-siss).

They're noncancerous growths, brown or dark brown and have a pebbly surface, as you describe. They look like they've been glued to the skin.

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Some facts about MS