From left are Brent, Lake and Christi Price. Christi will be a guest speaker at an upcoming event for MS caretakers. (Photo provided)

WINONA LAKE — When Christi Price’s husband, Brent, was diagnosed in 2001 with multiple sclerosis at age 39, her initial reaction was fear. But then, the Prices’ 11-year-old son, Lake, received the same diagnosis.

“I knew someone that was in a nursing home for many years with MS and it was panic at first,” Price said, referring to Brent’s diagnosis.

From that moment on, everything changed. Brent’s dietary and exercise needs became stricter and the entire family changed its lifestyle.

“At one point, he said, ‘you don’t have MS,’ and I said, ‘stop right there because when you were diagnosed with MS, we were all diagnosed with MS,'” she said.

One day, Lake came home from an overnight event with Eisenhower Elementary School, complaining of numbness to his left leg.

“I was like, ‘oh, buddy, you probably slept on it funny,'” Price recalled.

Over Presidents’ Day weekend, Lake played an indoor soccer game and, afterwards, told Price both his legs were hurting. That Monday, they contacted a doctor.

“I just had a sneaky feeling,” Price said.

Price’s “sneaky feeling” turned out to be correct. The Prices took Lake to a neurologist who gave an initial diagnosis. They then took him to Stonybrook Pediatric MS Center in New York, where doctors made it official. Lake, too, had MS.

While Brent and Lake have the same diagnosis, it has progressed differently in both of them. While Lake’s initial symptoms were in his leg, Brent’s were throughout his entire body. Steroid treatments helped with much of this, though the feelings of numbness have come and gone in different areas. After a heart attack in 2010, much of Brent’s feeling came back, but went away again in his left leg and hand. He has also experienced migraines.

The bottoms of Lake’s feet went numb. Tests revealed four new lesions on his spine, Price said. One is growing; it started out the size of a pin, grew to the size of a dime and is now the size of a nickel.

“When Lake was younger, he was like, ‘I shouldn’t have to give myself shots every day,’ and my husband said, ‘if we have to talk, we have to talk about it; you’re not going to die. You can still go to school, you can still work,'” Price said.

Today, Lake is 22. From all appearances, Price said, he and Brent are living relatively normal lives, both working and engaging in everyday activities. Lake even continued playing soccer for many years.

“You would not know that either of them has it by the way they look,” she said.

Price, however, knows; she knows the good days from the bad days and can pick up on different cues.

“I can tell by the way my husband sits on the couch if he’s having a bad day,” she said. “I can tell in my son’s eyes and he just doesn’t have the energy.”

Diet and exercise have played a key role in keeping Lake’s and Brent’s MS at bay. Red meat is out, Price said, and vitamin D is crucial.

“We try and get them as many vitamins as we can,” she said.

Price will be a guest speaker at a free event for MS caretakers and their families, hosted through Parkview, Noble Hospital’s Center for Healthy Living. The event is scheduled for 6-8 p.m. Thursday, June 23. For more information about the event, click here.