What is the likelihood of MS diagnosis not being debilitating?

Here is My Question:
What is the likelihood of MS diagnosis not being debilitating?

Answer:
That is a very difficult question to answer for two reasons:

1. Most of the MS natural history data available applies only to the era of no treatments or only partially effective treatments
2. The definition of debilitating is itself variable. For instance, we all know patients who are wheelchair bound who continue to be active at home and still work in cognitive demanding jobs. Are they debilitating? 
3. 
   

We tend to talk about probability of reaching certain levels of disability at different time points

For Relapsing MS patients with symptom onset in the early 1990s ( the era when treatments for MS first became approved) the median time between onset of MS symptoms and requiring a cane to walk is approximately 25 to 30 years. This means that exactly half the patients will need a cane within 25 to 30 year and the other half will not need a cane. The median time to develop this level of disability is shorter in men by about 5 years.
For progressive onset patients the median time between onset of MS symptoms and requiring a cane to walk is much shorter (< 10 years)

​Revere P (Rip) Kinkel, MDProfessor of Clinical Neurosciences
Director of the Multiple Sclerosis Program
Clinical Neurosciences Director
University of California San Diego