Side effects?
© 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 are 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.
In the arms of Morpheus
Ah Dublin, where everything is fancy and fair, where the sun can wipe out the feel of cool grey stones of its houses and where things just get better by hearing the sound of a jig or reel. Not so this morning. Fancy and fair… only if you would let me stay under my duvet. Grey… yes, so much so I thought the city had turned into 50 shades of it. Sound of a jig or reel… urgh please no, major migraine in progress. The sound of an alarm going off just when Brad Pi… oh no it wasn’t him, it was yer one of Shrek. Yes, the green one… Shrek himself… taking a bubble bath… Naked… Doing a hula-dance to dry himself off… Héééééélp!!! Alarm clock… who invented you,…
My tired is tired
Yep… right now I am one hell of a great example of how MS can just snap you right back to when you were first diagnosed, hence the large picture stating that very fact. Remember the days where you were just bed-ridden with lots of symptoms not making sense, and pain that kept you up day and night, no matter how tired you were? How so? Well, last week my body was half-fried under the sun in temperatures of 35°C. Microwave temperatures sizzling my body from the outside in, although it felt like I was roasted from the inside out. I still feel like a walking advert for Kentucky Fried Chicken… minus the Kentucky mind you. And the chicken.
That daily fight
Sometimes it seems that the hardest battles you will ever have to fight will be the battles with yourself. You strive to get through hours of hard grinding for upcoming exams, or you want to get fit after Christmas and New Year’s parties. We’ve all been there, and the older you get and the harder you seem to try, the more difficult it gets. I’m no stranger to being my own worst enemy when it boils down to fighting health issues. As years go by, and the wiser I should become, I simply cannot turn it into a ‘Remember when I finally learned my lesson?’ After my MS diagnosis in 2005, I told my ex-employer and ex-colleagues countless times, ‘This time I know what to do and next time I…
MS fatigue… the invisible monster
MS fatigue… The most common, yet most difficult to detect a symptom in multiple sclerosis. Aside from feeling exhausted, having to explain people over and over how different it is to normal tiredness, you often get a stigma assigned of “yeah, yeah, you’re just being lazy” or “sure, now keep walking, it’s probably not that bad.” Not everyone will express their opinion out loud, but people will think about why you’re “just not making a bit more of an effort”. MS fatigue is more or less an invisible symptom and it’s hard to explain exactly what it feels like. Some people will stop talking, walking or you will notice changes in their behaviour. Unlike normal tiredness fit people feel after exercising or working 8h a day, MS fatigue is an…