Fighting on all fronts

POLSON — On July 11, 2007, 15-year-old Christian McCurdy woke up with double vision. The Polson student didn’t think much of it and promptly scheduled a visit to the eye doctor.

“He was completely stumped, he had no idea what was wrong because my eyes were fine,” McCurdy said of the visit.

It wasn’t until after discovering lesions on his brain through two MRIs, each performed several months apart, that McCurdy’s doctors diagnosed him with an autoimmune disorder called multiple sclerosis, commonly referred to as MS.

“It was scary, just the whole anticipation of not knowing what it was in the beginning,” he said. “When I heard it was MS, I had no idea what that was.”

According to the National MS Society’s website, MS occurs when the body’s own defense system attacks the fatty substance that surrounds and protects the nerve fibers in the central nervous system, called myelin. The damaged myelin forms scar tissue (sclerosis), which gives the disease its name. When any part of the myelin sheath or nerve fiber is damaged or destroyed, nerve impulses traveling to and from the brain and spinal cord are distorted or interrupted, producing the variety of symptoms that can occur.

“MS acts as insulation on your nerve cells so they don’t fire correctly,” McCurdy put it simply. “The type that I have is called relapsing-remitting, which means you’ll have an attack, but actually regain that function after a while. The flare-ups are totally random.”

The disease can also be considered progressive, which means a person won’t regain that function again. Before disease-modifying medications became available, approximately 50 percent of people with relapsing-remitting MS developed the progressive form of the disease within 10 years, the website states. But thanks to advances in medicine, McCurdy hasn’t suffered an attack in two years.

“The brain heals itself naturally,” he said. “If the medicine can slow the disease, then it will have time to heal itself.”

Two hours each month, McCurdy visits the hospital for treatment in the form of an infusion.

“I was on weekly shots for a while, but they had side effects,” he said. “I would get sick for the entire day whenever I got one, and they just weren’t working.”

At one point, McCurdy recounts, his legs went numb for about six months.

“I’m pretty open with it,” he said. “I’ve just tried to live life as normal as I can — like any kid.”

On Sept. 10, McCurdy had the opportunity to share his story with more than 250 people at the Bike MS: Trail of the Coeur d’Alene’s event in Idaho, a two-day, 150-mile fundraiser bike ride for the Inland Northwest Chapter of the National MS Society. Participating riders from across the country gathered at the halfway point for a dinner to which McCurdy was the guest of honor.

“I was pretty overwhelmed but it went well. I actually got a standing ovation afterward,” said McCurdy, whose first terrifying public speaking experience was as Polson’s valedictorian.

“It was great to connect with other people because I hardly know anyone with MS. A guy told me that one day he just woke up and half his body was totally paralyzed. But now he’s doing great; he rode the 150 miles.”

McCurdy, a sophomore pre-med major at the University of Montana has been an MS Scholar for the past two years and a participant in the Walk MS event in Missoula. Next spring, he plans to captain his own team for the Missoula event and start training for an even bigger role in the 2012 MS ride.

“I’m going to have to train a lot,” McCurdy said of the cycling event.

But before the training begins, he will have to get his hands on a new whip.

“My bike was stolen the first week I was down in Missoula last year,” McCurdy said with a sigh.

Through his daily life, education and now athletic pursuits, Christian McCurdy has taken the fight against multiple sclerosis head on, and if one thing’s for certain, MS just doesn’t stand a chance.