Category Archives: Quirky things about me

Our First Group Meeting

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What a great day it was today! We all met at a bookstore in Okemos MI called Schuler’s. Great place to have a meeting and lunch.

First Meeting Photo

First Meeting Photo

Myra, myself (Pam) and Lesa. Myra has had MS since Summer 2002, I have had MS since 1991 and Lesa has had MS since 1988. We have all had some same symptoms and some symptoms that were different. It was great to share our stories with each other.

Both Lesa and Myra are currently not taking any type of medications. They both do natural medicines and therapy. I was on Avonex injections for the last few years but currently am not on any medication treatments. We talked about different foods that affect our bodies. Myra cannot eat anything that has sugar because it makes her very dizzy. Lesa suffers from muscle spasms and I suggested that she try to include foods that have a high potassium content. This might help ease up on the muscle spasms. I am just basically continuing with what I have been doing eating a low fat diet and not alot of meat.

Lesa cannot drive so her friend Lori Baar brought her. Lori Baar will contact Deaf CAN to put our group to advertise and see if we get more people to participate.

Our next meeting will be September 13 on Saturday @ 11:30 at Lori Baar’s home. This will be a good meeting. I am hoping Katie will be able to join us and share her story with all of us.

But you look fine!

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I think that it is hard for me sometimes, when people see me and think that I am fine and do not realize that the problems are inside my body. It is very frustraing to have to explain myself to people — like–  today I am in a lot of pain. My skin hurts. My skin feels like I have thousands of pins and needles attacking the inside of my abdomen amd back area and my legs and feet are constantly tingling all day. Sometimes I get these electric bolts that shoot across my face or my leg or from my left ear to the middle of my face. These things change my mood. It is hard not to take my moodiness on others.

I meet people and they say I thought you have MS? You look fine to me! I have also had people that I have known tell others that I use my MS as an excuse for my behavior or the way I am feeling. Interesting comment since those people really have no clue to what having MS is like. I want to scream at them and say do you know what it is like not to be able to brush your teeth because your right arm will not cooperate with your mouth and the toothbrush? Do you have any idea that sometimes you have to depend on someone to help make you a sandwich because your right side is not functioning at all?

So now when people tell me I look fine, instead of getting upset and going through all the feelings of despair of having to explain myself, now I raise my arms up in joyful glee saying “YES!” I look fine because everything is working today. My arms, legs, body is all functioning A-OK! That is a good thing. I am having a great day!

My First Symptom

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My first symptom was numbness in my left fingertips. I was 28 years old. I thought it was because my hand was caught in my dog’s collar and when my dog got so excited; my fingers were pinched in the choker collar. The tingling never went away. After a week of numbness, the symptom of tingling and numbness spread to my left hand then up my arm. I started feeling dizzy all the time. I thought it was because the weather was so hot, I felt overheated. The dizziness never went away. I started to get scared. The numbness spread to the left side of my face and it felt like I had gotten shots from the dentist causing my face to be numb. I lost my taste buds one week later. I started to get even more scared so I decided to see my doctor.

My doctor could not figure out what was wrong with me and said I needed to see a specialist called a neurologist. My doctor made an appointment for me to see the neurologist the next day. When I went to see him, he felt that before he could figure out what was wrong with me, he wanted me to have a magnetic reasoning image (MRI). I have never heard of this type of procedure. This was so new to me. I was scared and thought I had a brain tumor because of all the things that were happening to my body.  My symptoms got worse over the next few days. I started to see double vision and it became very difficult to drive and work. I decided to stay home until the neurologist figured out what was wrong with me.

The MRI was painless, thank God. I was so sick I fell asleep in the machine for over one hour. The technician woke me up and helped me to the dressing room and I changed my clothes. My sister took me home and I slept all day. My world was so out of whack, I could not really do anything. A few days later, the neurologist told me to come in because he found out what was wrong. I came into the neurologist’s office with a friend from work. I remember this day as if it was yesterday.

The day was so hot almost 95 degrees outside and I had the worst migraine headache. I felt so sick and nauseated I wanted to throw up. When I went into the office, the neurologist told me I have a disease called Multiple Sclerosis. Here is some literature for you to read, get these medications filled, start taking the medicine, come back, and see me in two weeks. I was stunned; I had no idea what MS was. He said just read the brochures you will get an idea and if you have any questions, ask me in two weeks. My friend and I went outside, she took one look at my face and came around the car and gave me a huge hug. She took me home after a few stops. I thought that it was the longest ride home. It felt like we had driven for almost 3 hours. My head was pounding something fierce and I was so sick to my stomach. I took some aspirin and tried to lie down.  The room was spinning so badly, I got up and threw up several times. My sister came home from work, she woke me up and I tried to explain to her what the doctor said. We got into a small fight because we did not know what MS was.

This was the start of my confusing year of having this disease.