I am newly diagnosed, and I don't seem to know how to talk to my doctor. Any tips? What do you typically ask your newly diagnosed patients?

The newly diagnosed patient has a lot of different questions. And they have difficulty, sometimes, explaining to their doctors what's going on. There are a few things I go through with my newly diagnosed patients. And certainly, the history of their neurologic problems is very important. I want to know, specifically, when they had their first attack, what that was like for them, and how long did it last.

So again, you want to be as precise with the information you can provide to your physician, so they can make a reasonable diagnostic consideration of your MS. If you can't remember all the details, you might want to try talking to people who were around you at that time, and maybe write down that information. Because you can bring that to your appointment, and that will also help the doctor.

I think you should be very clear about what your expectations are when you're talking with your physician. Sometimes you won't know, because this is all new to you. But I think it's important to ask questions about what to expect; although, again, for any one person, it may be difficult to know for certain.

Also, you want to know what they think the best treatment options for you would be, and whether or not you need to start treatment now. I think the questions, with regard to specificity, is very helpful for the doctors to understand what they need to do for you, and how you'll be treated moving forward.