Why I should be a brainiac, but I’m not
It happened again. Just when I attempted to maximise my brain, it decided to take over and run the show. It’ll be fun, it said. But, it was so not pretty. Not even by a long mile. With so much physical pain and hence collected a fair amount of neurology-related knowledge due to life with MS, I should be a brainiac. Yet, I am not.
You will survive!
To this day, 13 years post-diagnosis, I am still prone to having conscious/unconscious battles. I am past the "woe is me" period that tried to knock me sideways at first, but I still have pacing issues that lay bare any ineffectiveness I attribute to myself.
Difference between fibromyalgia and MS
Note: I am not a medical professional nor do I intend to provide any medical advice to anyone. Please see your physician or neurologist if you have any health care concerns. My intention is to provide accurate information from the perspective of an informed patient. Sometimes it’s hard to pin down which illness you have, as symptoms can look and feel alike. This is the case with MS and fibromyalgia. However, they are very different illnesses. Despite the overlap in symptoms, diagnostic methods and profile risks, having one doesn’t put you at a higher risk of having the other illness. If you suspect you have MS or fibromyalgia, please seek medical advice. A rheumatologist will be able to tell you if you have fibromyalgia, and a neurologist if indeed you have MS.
TN triggers, symptoms & diagnosis
"Other disorders that cause facial pain should be ruled out before trigeminal neuralgia is diagnosed. Some disorders that cause facial pain include postherpetic neuralgia (nerve pain following an outbreak of shingles), cluster headaches, and temporomandibular joint disorder (TMJ, which causes pain and dysfunction in the jaw joint and muscles that control jaw movement). Most people with TN eventually will undergo a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan to rule out a tumour or multiple sclerosis as the cause of their pain."
How (not to) be sick!
That's me. I forget how to be sick. The fact that physically I am crumbling under a lot of neuropathic pain, can’t frown my forehead into cute wrinkles, have no feeling on the top of my scalp, have constant bees in my ears of tinnitus, stabbing facial pain and intense fatigue, is something I refuse to show anyone carrying a medical degree. It’s a survival instinct of sorts.
How far do baby germs fly?
"‘How far do baby germs fly?’ I agree with my lateral sort of thinking in this case. Wondering how far people’s sneezes fly is usually not something I occupy myself with, unless of course when I’m sitting in warm surroundings where endemic bugs tend to live."
MS in numbers
"Instead of going into the possibility of ending their life in a wheelchair, I refer to the opposite side of the scale. When they say “But 25% of people with MS will end up in a wheelchair!” I say “Perhaps, but that means that 75% of people with MS will not end up in one at all!”
