Ann Romney told Robin Roberts on Good Morning America that the multiple sclerosis diagnosis she received 14 years ago was her "darkest hour" that left her "humbled" and "crushed" to dust.
Romney was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1998 at age 49, after experiencing severe numbness and fatigue. While the average age at which a patient is diagnosed is 37, Romney, like so many other patients, are at the beginning or middle of careers, marriages and raising children.
Multiple sclerosis is an autoimmune disease that affects the brain and spinal cord. The disease attacks the myelin sheath, a protective covering that surrounds nerve cells, and approximately 400,000 Americans have MS, according to the National MS Society. About 200 people are newly diagnosed each week.
While the disease is degenerative, symptoms, which affect the muscles, bowel function, vision, nerve and sexual function and personality, can vary and range greatly in severity.
People have spent their entire life up until the point of diagnosis imagining their life in a certain way, so they have to interpret how they're going to let go of that picture and how they see themselves, and fit that new information into the sense of who they are, Rosalind Kalb, a clinical psychologist and director of the Professional Resource Center at the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, told ABCNews.com in June.
"It's a grieving process," she said. "And you can't move ahead on how you're going to live with MS until you spend a little time with the loss of a life without MS."
While the diagnosis can throw one's life into disarray, patients should not jump to any conclusions about how the disease will run its course, said Kalb.
It's important for patients not to rush out and quit their jobs or break up relationships because they may be able to live a full life with manageable symptoms," Kalb said.
Doctors and patients do not know how their multiple sclerosis will behave in the early weeks and months after diagnosis, and it is really only in hindsight that one can understand the severity of their disease.
Individuals in the MS community are encouraged to pursue their own goals and overcome their challenges and to practice gratitude daily.
Ann Romney MS Diagnosis Her 'Darkest Hour' - ABC News
Romney was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1998 at age 49, after experiencing severe numbness and fatigue. While the average age at which a patient is diagnosed is 37, Romney, like so many other patients, are at the beginning or middle of careers, marriages and raising children.
Multiple sclerosis is an autoimmune disease that affects the brain and spinal cord. The disease attacks the myelin sheath, a protective covering that surrounds nerve cells, and approximately 400,000 Americans have MS, according to the National MS Society. About 200 people are newly diagnosed each week.
While the disease is degenerative, symptoms, which affect the muscles, bowel function, vision, nerve and sexual function and personality, can vary and range greatly in severity.
People have spent their entire life up until the point of diagnosis imagining their life in a certain way, so they have to interpret how they're going to let go of that picture and how they see themselves, and fit that new information into the sense of who they are, Rosalind Kalb, a clinical psychologist and director of the Professional Resource Center at the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, told ABCNews.com in June.
"It's a grieving process," she said. "And you can't move ahead on how you're going to live with MS until you spend a little time with the loss of a life without MS."
While the diagnosis can throw one's life into disarray, patients should not jump to any conclusions about how the disease will run its course, said Kalb.
It's important for patients not to rush out and quit their jobs or break up relationships because they may be able to live a full life with manageable symptoms," Kalb said.
Doctors and patients do not know how their multiple sclerosis will behave in the early weeks and months after diagnosis, and it is really only in hindsight that one can understand the severity of their disease.
Individuals in the MS community are encouraged to pursue their own goals and overcome their challenges and to practice gratitude daily.
Ann Romney MS Diagnosis Her 'Darkest Hour' - ABC News
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