What MS and shoeboxes have in common!
It just makes for unimaginable breakouts of sarcasm filled with Irish-sounding words of wisdom. In more politically correct grammar, I often feel like replacing myself with newly created brain cells to replace those that somewhere down the line, must have gone missing after being targeted by biological and chemical warfare.
Winner Best Blog Post 2018 in the Ireland Blog Awards!
Like Roy Keane’s dog Triggs, I also ponder the undeniable finiteness of life and how best to get through it unscathed.
MS Treatments (2018)
List of Disease-Modifying Treatments available in 2018. If information is missing or incorrect, please send me a private message.
Preparing for your neurological appointment
Seeing your neurologist can often make you feel anxious or afraid to speak up. Each appointment should be about exploring options, not about being bulldozed by a standardised litany of things you don’t want. Going in prepared will make you feel more at ease, so why not make a list of vital questions and things you need to discuss? When you organise your thoughts, you feel more in control of the situation and sure of where you want to see your treatment go. After all, you are the one living with your illness. Don’t feel ashamed either in what you want to ask your neurologist, chances are they have heard similar things before, and they will be the least likely people to attack you for asking. Remember, the only silly question is the…
I don’t miss myself
So… Rugby world cup. At last. England in a fashion faux-pas. Coin toss aside, they resembled players of Wales, China, Japan or Kyrgyzstan (Fijian, red is Fijian). Mum’s nine-day visit to Ireland now over. Visited Dublin Zoo once again. New camera making me rather shutter-slow, hence prevalent photographic bonding with rear ends of several animals. Otherwise, hardly left the house. Sniff. Thank you, MS. Living with a chronic illness is not all it’s cracked up to be. Chronic means chronic. I don’t get to choose the days, the hours, the moments. Hence, a triad of medical events in the space of twelve days now extended into a three-week period. Flu. Impatient, it could not wait to land on my doorstep before that all-important flu jab. Must remember that viruses follow…
What a difference a needle makes
Needle anxiety. We all went through childhood being afraid of injections. But why would someone have needle anxiety when what you’re about to self-inject every day, in fact, slows down the progression of your chronic illness? Although my emotions regarding needles do not amount to belonephobia, I have gone through moments where I simply could not press a needle in my skin. Using an Autoinject only made it worse. Pain doesn’t scare me (anymore). In fact, I’m going through a pretty rough time right now because of trigeminal pain. Knowing, however, what the prerequisite was for having to inject myself on a daily basis, has, on occasion kept me from self-medicating.
10 years: a lot to be thankful for
"MS itself? It took my job, but it doesn’t own me. MS doesn’t get praise for having me. No matter how bad MS treats me in the future, I am its CEO instead. I will never lose is the knowledge that I conquer MS every single day of the year. Perhaps not physically, but mentally I am stronger than MS."
