What is Multiple Sclerosis?

I’m sure at least some of you reading this blog do not know what Multiple Sclerosis is; well that’s what this post is going to be about. I will be talking a little about what MS is, what some of the symptoms are and what some of the current treatments are that MS patients are using.

MS is considered a chronic disease which attacks the central nervous system (CNS) which includes the brain, the spinal cord and the optic nerve. People diagnosed with MS can experience symptoms ranging from mild numbness in the limbs to more severe and debilitating problems such as a loss of vision or paralysis. These symptoms vary from person to person although most people do share at least one or more symptom. With MS, which is thought to be an autoimmune disease, the system which is meant to protect the body instead attacks the body, specifically myelin. Myelin is the fatty substance which surrounds and protects the nerve fibers that are in the CNS. Once the myelin is damaged scar tissue, or sclerosis, forms, additionally the nerve fibers themselves can be damaged. Once this takes place nerve impulses that travel between the brain and spinal cord can be interrupted or distorted causing the multitude of symptoms that can occur.

To explain this in more understandable terms you can think of the central nervous system as the electrical system in your house, the brain is like your breaker box, the nerve fibers are like all the wires running through your house and the spinal cord can be compared to all of your outlets. If that thick protective rubber coating around your wires gets eaten by mice then chances are when you flip on your lamp the electrical signal traveling to the lamp is not going to be received as intended, the wire may spark, melt or catch fire and the lamp most likely won’t turn on . Well this is quite like what those of us with MS go through every day.

I mentioned a couple of symptoms above however there are many more that can affect a person with MS. Fatigue is one of the more common symptoms that occurs in about 80% of all MS patients, this fatigue can be so strong that it can severely interfere with a person’s ability to function whether at home or at work. I mentioned the numbness that is common with MS and in fact it is often one of the first symptoms that a person will experience. This numbness can affect the arms, legs, feet, body and face. From personal experience I can say that, at least in my case, the numbness can get so bad I can’t feel my legs and feet and when I can feel them it feels like I am being poked with a million little needles. Another symptom is trouble walking, a loss of balance or coordination, so much so that it is not uncommon that those with MS are thought to be drunk when they are stone cold sober. Many MS patients suffer from bowel dysfunction while 80% suffer from bladder dysfunction. Dizziness is another common problem while vertigo happens somewhat less. Another symptom that is often one of the first experienced is vision problems, double vision, poor contrast, pain and heavy blurring can all occur. In addition severe pain, depression, sexual dysfunction, headaches, hearing loss, speech disorders, and itching can all take place. As you can see this is a wide range of symptoms and there are still others experienced by some people.
Well before I bore all of you with any more of this terribly exciting information I think I will end this post. I will pick up later with information on treatments that are currently being used and the good news from the political front that concerns MS.

Have a good day everyone.
Jamie




Jamie

A Little About Me: Continued

Ok, so on to my epic adventure. While in Michigan I started chatting online with the little known program called Yahoo Chat, yes I used to chat it up on there all the time, lol. Anyway I had met lots of very cool people on there and for quite a while there were a group of us that always hung out. One of those people is now my wife, Cherie. After getting laid off I decided to make a trip to Illinois to meet Cherie in person, I ended up staying and here I am today, married to a fabulous women with a fantastic step-daughter whom I cherish more than anything. Cherie and I married about two years after me moving here and boy what a time, I had family from Oregon, and Colorado here that I had not seen in 8 years or more, Cherie had all of her family and friends, Church, limo, reception, the whole works. Some time before we married Cherie had taken a job with a company called Career Education Corporation as an Admissions Advisor for Colorado Technical University Online. I know this is beyond unbelievable but shortly after she began working there I enrolled at that same school, hmmm funny how that works! It was just before this when I had my first symptoms of MS although at the time I didn’t know it was MS.

I was working as an assistant manager for a car wash in Joliet, IL and one of my duties was repairing all of the equipment and keeping the place running. During the winter, which it was, this could be a rough job, working out in subzero temperatures fixing broken water lines and such. Anyway during this time I started getting a numbing sensation in my hands that kind of felt like I was getting frostbite. After a few weeks it went away and I attributed it to my job. Well after starting school I took a new job, furniture sales, which allowed more time for school, it was about a year after working there that the numbness came back and this time moved into my legs and back. This time I went to the doctor and after a few tests was diagnosed with a vitamin deficiency, how wrong they were. It wasn’t until late December that new symptoms occurred, one day after returning to work after Christmas I started getting these very strange sensations in my head. It was like every neuron in my head was going off at once, throwing me off balance and temporarily basically stopping me in my tracks. They were coming in waves one after the other and made it difficult to function. I left work early and went to the doctor that day and started taking tests. One of the tests I took was an MRI which revealed abnormal brain activity which can be caused by MS. It can also be caused by several other things so a lumbar puncture, also known as a spinal tap, was done which verified that it most likely was MS. You see there is no real test that can say “yes you have MS” it is more a process of eliminating other things that could be happening. I guess the lesson learned here and one I hope you all take away from this brief history of my life is that whenever you experience something with your body that does not seem normal, GO TO THE DOCTOR!

Well folks that is it for tonight and for my life story. From here on out my posts will be more centered around what I am going through on a daily basis, in addition I will be posting a lot about MS to hopefully help educate many of you on MS. I would also like to start posting other peoples stories of living with MS, so if you or someone you know has MS and would like to have your story posted feel free to contact me, I would love to hear from you. By the way I did graduate from College with a Bachelors Degree in Business Administration with a minor in Information Technologies.


Jamie