Ooooh… :(
Didn’t make the finalist list in the Ireland Blog Awards competition but still quite happy to have been longlisted and shortlisted from 168 blogs to the best 28 in the Best Personal Blog category. Here’s to more blogging, writing and hopefully getting to the finalist stage next year! ©Willeke Van Eeckhoutte and Ireland, Multiple Sclerosis & Me, 2011-2013. Unauthorised use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Willeke Van Eeckhoutte and Ireland, Multiple Sclerosis & Me with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
MS News: September 2013
Just because multiple sclerosis too often has a negative undertone, here is some good news that was published online lately! Gene discovery! Gene discovery is major step towards finding cure for multiple sclerosis, researchers believe. Brand new helmet! Harding, the Minnesota Wild backup best known as the winner of the 2013 Masterton Trophy for his courageous fight against Multiple Sclerosis, has a history of working up some pretty sweet helmets with artist Todd Miska. Vitamin D: reverse or halt? In search of a better option for MS patients, a team of University of Wisconsin-Madison biochemists has discovered a promising vitamin D-based treatment that can halt — and even reverse — the course of the disease in a mouse model of MS.
Being active online
It’s two days after travelling 230km west for MS Ireland’s National Meeting Day in Galway, Ireland. It was a fantastic day, and I learned a lot, but it was just as great being able to share information on how to be interactive when you have a mountain of free time when you’re stuck at home. “Panel Discussion: This session looked at practical ways people with MS keep active in employment (Grace O’Sullivan), through the internet (myself), physical activity (Anne-Marie McDaid, Olympic Gold Paralympic medalist) and through MS Ireland’s work and activities (Mark Mitchell). Trevis Gleason, chef, blogger and MS advocate facilitated this session. For the benefit of others living with multiple sclerosis, and to use the long list of how to be interactive I had written beforehand, I will add some of…
Perfectionism
Banjaxed, tired high and wrecked. That’s how yesterday unfolded. After being up till 3.30am writing, I managed to sleep only 3h. I was unable to sleep, and as a result, I was going over the things I still needed to do before Saturday’s National MS Day in Galway. One of the topics of the day will be a panel discussion on being ‘active and interactive’ when living with MS and as always, it seems to turn into a college-type project.
Sleep: a time-consuming commodity
Shoulders back, head held high. Striving to soldier on, wanting to do more. Body says ‘no’, mind perhaps too. This morning I ran into my leading enemy. Not the one I declared war to over some silly misunderstanding when I was 8, nor the one who swore she would never talk to me again when I was 15, but one much closer to my heart. Me. Sometimes people say you have to confront in order to conquer. But what if this is a person, namely, yourself? I’ve had many confrontations with myself, but I’ve never been a good listener. If/when given the choice, I’d rather kick up some more dirt than having to listen to the rules. Especially when it comes to having to rest. And sleep.
Dublin’s day once again
"What I love about GAA games is that kind of rebellion, and the hunger and passion children grow up with today for their native sports. Remember Winston Churchill once said that "We have always found the Irish a bit odd. They refuse to be English." A wonderful lack of respect for anything British almost. And whereas babies in Belgium are born with a bicycle between their legs, Irish babies enter this world with either a hurling stick or a ball in their hands."
Unfair
Once again I am here. A small, busy waiting room in hospital. People waiting, wondering, dreading, hoping. How much longer will I need to be here? When will it be the last time I can walk in here with a neurological illness and when will I be able to walk out with that nagging, progressing disease eradicated from my central nervous system? It is not fair. Nobody deserves to be here. Nobody is ever prepared to hear what the stranger in front of them will have to say. A neurologist looks at your test results, gazing, thinking. Do they wonder how they will tell you that from this minute onwards, your life as you once knew it, is now over? Unfair is the way it was thrown at me, at…