Under the radar

When I reached the age of thirty, I was helping my father-in-law do some gardening when I bent over to pick up a leaf and I felt a twang somewhere in my lumbar region. This twang put me completely out-of-action for a week or so afterwards. My GP had simply smiled and said, “welcome to

The aftermath

Warning: this post contains experience of intense pain and some details of sensitive medical procedures. Sometimes I think of my MS as a monster. A monster who is always there tugging at my neck, poking me in the back, tripping me up or holding my ankles like a deadweight. As a child of the ‘70s,

Blitzkrieg

One of the things my brand new neurologist did for me when I met him earlier this year is confirm my diagnosis of restless legs syndrome (RLS). It’s something that I’ve been wondering about, on and off, pretty much since diagnosis, so it’s ‘nice’ to have it confirmed. It’s not a symptom of MS, but

Feeling the heat

Well, last week was a scorcher. So much so, that I gave up on Fathers’ Day activities halfway through the afternoon and went to bed for a bit. The following day, I dressed for work, drove my youngest to school, and then turned round and headed back home I felt so rough. Again, I had

Divots

Well, I’m currently considering my medication options… Copaxone is the front runner at the moment. Mainly because the other meds available have unpalatable side effects for not much gain, it seems. They might repress the immune system too much as well. I don’t think killing off all my white cells is an option when I

Making lemonade

“To make lemonade out of the lemons life throws at you, you sometimes have to strangle kittens.” Somebody tweeted that recently. Oh wait!… It was me! I tweeted it! Why? Because to aid a restful night’s sleep and to stop myself getting urinary infections, I will now have to self-catheterise every day, at least once

The eyes of the monster

Regular readers may know that I have had doublevision ever since my last big relapse in 2008. Every time I look left I see double. Looking straight ahead I’m fine and looking to the right, results in a textbook case of nystagmus (shaky eyes). Doublevision is the reason I saw my GP in the first

Relapse

Just thought I’d let y’all know that I had a relapse in the last couple of months. It mainly involved vertigo and dizziness, so I spent a good couple of weeks crashing into things, nearly falling over, feeling nauseous and actually vomiting a few times. It also involved some fatigue, L’Hermitte’s and a not unpleasant hot

Neuro update

I went to see my new neurologist last month at big city hospital. Like my last neuro, he is another twinkly eyed, amiable bloke. My last neuro- has a vastly increased workload apparently. Either that or he’s too wrapped up in his trials and research (which I have consistently turned down the chance to take

Mild relapse?

I have been on beta interferon (Rebif) for nearly two years now and in that time I haven’t had a relapse. Or have I? Beta interferon is supposed to reduce the likelihood of having a relapse and minimise the effects if you do get one. Back in January 2009, when I came off gabapentin, I experienced