Inactive vs Active Multiple Sclerosis

Here is My Question:
I am in search of a good MS Neurologist and have found one. I phoned the reception and they need an email from my current Neurologist or doctor. She asked what sort of MS I have and I told her inactive. She said to me "okay so it is not urgent" This is in France. I notice every time i say inactive, it seems its not important to be treated. I have a lot of pain in my right leg and I need a good Neurologist just to prescribe me some medicine for this pain. So is inactive not bad enough????regardless of my pain?? How does a Neurologist look at inactive versus active? Mind you inactive can turn active so I'm confused??

Answer:
The response that you received regarding your “inactive” MS statement certainly suggests a lack of understanding of the new MS Classification system.  Whether a person is ‘active’ or ‘inactive’ has little to do with either the number of health problems or symptoms they are experiencing or their severity. In your particular case being ‘inactive' simply means that you have not experienced a relapse or new a lesion on MRI since your last evaluation. 

In fairness to your doctors we all try to prioritize appointments for patients getting rapidly worse, either from a relapse or disease progression. This does not mean your concerns are not important or even urgent. Living with significant pain can create a number of detrimental long term affects. I would suggest avoiding the ‘active’ or ‘inactive’ terms when requesting an appointment and simply state that you have severe pain related to MS and need help.

Good luck

Revere (Rip) Kinkel MD
Director of the Multiple Sclerosis Program
Professor of Clinical Neurosciences
University of California San Diego