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| Multiple Sclerosis |
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| In October, 1987, I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. In April 1999, the MS had worsened to the Seconday-Progressive* stage, and I stopped working, stopped driving, and filed for Social Security Disability. I will make a long, somewhat enlightening story brief by passing along a bit of advice: WHENEVER you have anything done to you medically ... be it tests or whatever ... GET COPIES OF YOUR MED RECORDS AND TEST RESULTS! I hadn't done that when I was diagnosed. When I began the paperwork for Disability, and needed to get my test results and initial MRI (which confirmed the diagnoses), I discovered that my neurologist's office in Pennsylvania did NOT have copies any longer because of the Records Retention policies. It was ONLY because my neurologist remembered me personally, and because we had kept in touch with a mutual friend in the medical field in PA, that he drafted a personal letter and vouched for my situation. That is NOT the norm! Don't count on your doctor/neurologist remembering you from twelve years ago in a different state! |
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| A Journey With MS (Multiple Sclerosis) I trip down a corridor darkly wall-walking the length and breadth and height my fingers reach (when feeling out of sight) afraid for tomorrow but searching for the rest of my life I may stumble I may fall but never will I stop Written by Pandora Deichert Published in Mirage 2000 Literary and Arts Magazine |
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| * Secondary-Progressive Multiple Sclerosis: May affect individuals who initially have relapsing-remitting MS. Characterized by the developement of progressive disability later in the course of the disease, often with superimposed relapses. |
| Favorite MS Links |
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| For me, ringing in the year 2001 was exciting! In December 2000, I began taking Copaxone, a non-interferon injection therapy. This therapy does not cure Multiple Sclerosis, but works to reduce the number of relapses. However, I have been having such outstanding results, that I can't help but feel that I'm starting to step out from the tunnel! |
| A disability is a physical state, something that just IS. A handicap is a state of mind. I refuse to be handicapped! |
| MS Basics 101 |
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| MS is a disease of the central nervous system, which has two major parts -- the brain and the spinal cord. Surrounding and protecting the nerve fibers of the central nervous system is a fatty tissue called myelin, which helps nerve fibers conduct electrical impulses. In MS, myelin is lost in multiple areas, leaving scars called sclerosis. These damaged areas are also known as plaques or lesions. Myelin not only protects nerve fibers, it also makes their job possible. When myelin is destroyed or damaged, the ability of the nerves to conduct electrical impulses to and from the brain is disrupted, and this produces the various symptoms of MS. Because symptoms depend on which areas of the central nervous system have been attacked, not all people are affected the same way. Symptoms are not only different for different people, but different in the same person from time to time. They also vary in severity and intensity. A person with MS will usually experience more than one symptom, but not all people have all of them. Symptoms include weakness, tingling, numbness or impaired sensation, poor coordination, fatigue, problems with balance, visual disturbances, involuntary rapid eye movement (also called nystagmus), blindness, tremors, spasticity or muscle stiffness, slurred speech, bowel or bladder problems, unstable walking (ataxia), problems with sexual function, sensitivity to heat, and problems with short-term memory, judgment, or reasoning (cognitive problems). In extreme cases, MS can cause partial or complete paralysis. While the exact cause of MS is unknown, many researchers believe that the damage to myelin results from an abnormal response by the body's immune system. Normally, the immune system defends the body against foreign "invaders" such as viruses or bacteria. In autoimmune diseases, the body inadvertently attacks its own tissue. In the case of MS, the substance that is attacked is myelin. (Taken from "Living With MS" - National Multiple Sclerosis Society, 1995) Class is dismissed. There will be a test on Tuesday. |
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