Anyone with any experience of MS?

[Sugarmagnolia]

I'm asking because a friend of ours has MS. Not a very close friend but someone in our "circle" who I see from time to time and every time I see him I'm a little shocked at how much the illness seems to have progressed. He's in a wheelchair now and has some trouble speaking, although he can still carry on a conversation if you're patient. What i'm wondering is what kind of long-term prognosis is he likely to have? Is it possible that he could stay as he is and be around for another 20 years or so or is it more likely that he will continue to deteriorate and could even die in the forseeable future? I hope this doesn't sound crass, it's just that when friends mention that he's not doing well I don't really know if that means he's just having a bad week and that he will be back to his baseline next week or that he's just getting sicker and sicker. Anyone with any experience of this would be really appreciated.

My uncle has MS. He was diagnosed in his early 30s and he's has the illness for 25+ years. It's become a progressive form of the illness and he's not positive about treatment. He is in a wheelchair and says it is getting worse. It must be hard for your friend. My uncle seems to get worse then stay on that level for a while before deteriorating again. Stress seems to have an effect. I don't know much at all about MS, but I think the disease progresses slightly differently for everyone.

My Dad has MS (he's had it for about 30 years now).
Asking for a prognosis in MS is a really difficult one as the symptoms and timespan of the disease do vary hugely between people.
There are 2 basic types:
Relapse-Remission (like President Bartlett in West Wing if you ever watched that), when the person will suffer episodes of worsening symptoms of the disease (lots of these including: double vision, fatigue, tingling/numbness/loss of control of the arms & legs). When the episode is over they may have complete recovery and be exactly the same, or they may be left with some of the above list. These epidodes can be triggered by stress, ill health, injury.
There is no way of knowing what the extent of the damage (or recovery) will be until the episode is over. During a relapse people are often treated in hospital with high dose steroids.
The second type is progressive, and again the symptoms/rate can be completely different from person to person. My Dad has this type. For about the first 15 years he was really quite good i.e the changes in him very very small and very slow. Then (following a whiplash injury) he got a lot worse much more quickly and is now in a wheelchair.
As for your friend it does sound like he might have a fast progressive type where the long term prognosis tends not to be very good (sorry if that's hard to hear), however it is an extremely unpredicatable disease and he could indeed remain like this for quite sometime.
The MS society has a pretty good website, and I think they may have people you can actually speak to if you want to interact with another human being who will probably have more up to date info than me!!
Best wishes to you and your friend.

Thanks for the information MrsOhHu and Flumptytina (big fan of the West Wing BTW!). I think his is progressive. I don't know when he was first diagnosed, all I know is that he is now in his late 30s/40ish and has gotten progressivly worse over the last few years. I suppose I did know that it was different for everyone but it's still interesting to hear other people's stories. I might check out the MS society website.