Josh and Lauren Adkins.Photo:Josh and Lauren Adkins
Josh and Lauren Adkins
When Ohio couple Josh and Lauren Adkins vowed to stand beside each other in sickness and in health neither could have imagined they’d both be diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Now, the parents of two are committed to supporting one another as they continue to live their lives to the fullest.
Josh, 33, was diagnosed with MS in 2015, about a year after he and Lauren, 30, were married. Just three months ago, Lauren learned she also has the disease.
“In a weird way, it gave us peace of mind because we knew what to expect,” Josh tells PEOPLE.
“We see how good Josh has done with his treatment for going on 10 years,” Lauren adds. “He has not let it stop him from doing anything that he’s wanted to do.”
Josh and Lauren Adkins on vacation with their two children.Josh and Lauren Adkins
It’s been a long journey for the strong couple. They both remember the despair and uncertainty that drove Josh to tell Lauren that if she chose not to stick around for a lifetime with a chronically ill spouse, he would understand.
The couple was sitting at Cleveland Clinic’s Mellen Center, looking at all the patients with canes and wheelchairs. Josh couldn’t imagine putting the woman he had loved since they were teenagers through the worst case scenario of his disease.
“We were thinking, what kind of life are we going to live? And Josh looked at me and said, ‘You can leave me now. I just don’t want to be a burden,’” Lauren says. “There was a moment, maybe 20 minutes, we didn’t even talk because we were so nervous on what path this was taking us.”
However, leaving was never even a thought.
“I can’t imagine going through this with anyone else," Lauren says. “And we always say, you’re my best friend.”
The couple met in 2008 when Lauren was 14 and Josh was 17.
“We’ve been through all the waves of life, from high school, to joining the military and now our biggest hill to climb is the whole MS diagnosis,” Lauren says.
Both Lauren and Josh serve in the Air National Guard as well as working civilian jobs. Josh’s path towards going into service initially faced a roadblock when a recruiter told him he needed to lose 100 lbs. before he could join up.
“I showed up a year later 100 lbs. lighter and he couldn’t believe it,” Josh says. “I just got healthy, exercised more and ate less.”
Josh and Lauren Adkins serve in the Air National Guard.Josh and Lauren Adkins
Josh was feeling his best when things went wrong. It was a sweltering day, with temperatures reaching about 110 degrees in the shop and he developed a bad headache.
He had double vision driving home and when he arrived, he asked Lauren to look at his eyes. When she did, she saw that his right eye was looking to the left.
They immediately went to the hospital and after enduring a lot of misdiagnosis over the next few days he finally got an MRI that revealed the possibility of having MS.
Although it was “scary” at first, with ongoing treatment, he’s now able to have a fairly normal life and the two went on to become parents to a daughter, 5 and a son, 4.
Lauren and Josh Adkins with their son and daughter.Josh and Lauren Adkins
Then the unthinkable happened.
Lauren had been working out and started losing a lot of weight. While shopping with a friend, she suffered what she thought was a stroke. It turned out to be MS.
“I kind of laughed when they told me and thought, ‘What are the chances?’“ she says. “They started treatment but I’m only three months in, so I don’t know what my triggers are, what makes it better or what makes it worse.”
Dr. Robert Bermel, Josh’s neurologist atCleveland Clinic, was shocked when he learned about Lauren.
“It’s literally close to one-in-a-million chance that a spouse of someone with MS would develop the disease,” Dr. Bermel tells PEOPLE. “I have never seen it at the(Mellen) Centerand we follow about 12,000 patients.”
Lauren says the couple had no idea what they would be facing when Josh was first diagnosed.
“If you would have asked me, I couldn’t have even told you what MS was,” she says. “So when I was diagnosed three months ago, I already knew a lot about it.”
One thing they’ve learned is that treatment has progressed tremendously over the years and now can be largely controlled through medication and lifestyle.
Dr. Bermel explains that in the early 1990s, “MS was an untreatable, chronic neurodegenerative condition” that has evolved to one where the medical community has highly effective therapies. “It essentially freezes the disease in time and does not progress when we identify it early and get people on effective treatment,” Dr. Bermel says.
Josh and Lauren Adkins running in a race prior to her diagnosis.Josh and Lauren Adkins
But no matter what, she and Josh know that MS has brought them closer and both are committed to not letting their diagnosis define them.
“It doesn’t have to be a burden. You can still live and enjoy your life,” Josh says. “And if we can be someone’s shining light in a dark time, I think that would be great.”
source: people.com
