It’s beginning to look a lot like fall….

Posted on September 17, 2014 by Angel Blair

Cooler temps forecast across parts of the country this week remind us that the fall season is approaching. Cooler nights, falling leaves and seasonal colors like orange and yellow are some of the trademarks of this festive time of year. Though some areas are still consumed by warm temperatures and strong sun rays, it is the time of year where the seasons start to evolve.

For those affected by the heat, fall is a welcomed time of the year that brings with it opportunities to enjoy the outdoors in a more comfortable manner. Sports activities, ball games, gardening and festive fall events are some ways to embrace the season’s change by spending time outside, and to perhaps ‘escape’ from hibernating methods used during the summer months when the unbearable heat was avoided.

Some look at the season change as a way to start new ventures, set new goals, or make plans for the rest of the year. New beginnings can create feelings of excitement and hope as new memories are made and added to those past. Though change can be difficult at times, it’s how you embrace it and make it work for you that matters. How the journey is spent experiencing something new is as important as the destination.

What are you looking forward to this fall?

You Know You Have MS When…

Posted on July 25, 2014 by MultipleSclerosis.net

People with MS tend to be very familiar with the typical symptoms associated with having this condition, like pain, fatigue, difficulties with mobility, numbness, tingling, bowel and bladder problems, among others. However, there’s so much more to having MS than what anyone could find in a textbook or a pamphlet at the doctor’s office. We wanted to know more about the everyday life of those with MS, so we asked our Facebook community to respond to the statement, “You know you have MS when____.” More than 150 people replied! Below is a summary of the feedback we received.

You just feel exhausted

After sleeping a full 8 hours, you still feel like someone used your body to run a marathon
The simple task of washing your hair is exhausting
Your kids think that all you do is sleep and that you’re sick all the time
You are so tired that you cry, and no amount of sleep helps
Everyone says, “You look tired – what did you do last night?” and you respond, “Nothing”
You’re too tired to get up, but you just end up lying around in bed thinking about what you should be doing
You wake up with a little bit of energy, bounce upstairs and fix breakfast, only to end up exhausted and needing a rest
You are tired or fatigued all the time, and you can’t find the energy to take a shower
Your battery depletes after 45 minutes of walking, and you become a complete physical mess on your feet
Feeling well-rested is a thing of the past
You must have a plan B, C, D, etc.
You need a nap before you go to the store to get coffee, and then need a nap again before you put it away
It takes HOURS to pay bills and organize your family calendar when, in the past, you were a successful nurse manager and an expert at multitasking

The weatherman is not your friend

Summer used to be your favorite time of year, but now sunlight, heat, and humidity keep you inside like a vampire
You’re the only one in the room saying, ‘Is it hot in here?’
When 70 degrees feels like you’re standing inside of an oven
When you can’t do any outdoor activities due to the heat
When summer heat hits the triple digits, and you can barely breathe
Your body is better at predicting the weather than the actual weather man

Getting around and maintaining control of your body is challenging

You can’t play with your kids or take a walk with your husband
You fall over when standing still
Your upper body starts to walk, and your legs don’t get the memo in time
You don’t even realize it when your legs go out from under you
You wonder if you’ll be able to climb the four stairs it takes to get into your office at work
You just tip over when standing still on level ground
When you wake up one morning, and you’re paralyzed on one side of your whole body
You keep tripping up over nothing
You are always dropping things
You are in the market shopping for groceries, and a fireman stops you because your face is drooping and you are confused, and they think you have had a stroke
Your hands are asleep and they don’t wake up
You are eating dinner and your arm suddenly jerks and your food goes flying across the table
You walk like you’ve had a few cocktails, but you haven’t had a sip
You find that no one around you realizes how hard you have to work to keep up, and you just end up getting left behind
You have to stop mid sentence because you’ve lost your train of thought
You take the dog for a walk around the block,and your legs feel like they are encased in cement
You walk like you are dancing to Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”
When your knees are locked as though there’s a magnet holding them together
When you go from 0 to pee in two seconds flat
You have to hold on to walls because you lack balance
You trip over something earlier in the day because of ‘drop foot’ and later that day you look at your scraped toes and wonder what happened
You decide being an unwitting participant in a wet t-shirt contest is better than running for cover during a surprise rain storm at an amusement park
You can’t stand without assistance
Your head goes one way and your legs another
You have to look at your hand and tell it to move
When you can’t pass a field sobriety test while sober
Despite only being 41, you walk like your 76 year-old mother
You have to lean your elbows against the shower wall to wash your hair

Your mind isn’t as sharp as it used to be

You lose your train of thought while mid-sentence
You walk into a room and forgot why you went in there in the first place
You have the hardest time trying to say what you want to say, and your words come out making no sense
You describe your symptoms, and your neurologist looks at you as if you were speaking Greek
You get confused when there is too much going on around you; you can’t even place an order at a fast food restaurant
What was the question?

Pain and numbness become a part of everyday life

Your feet feel like they are on fire or you have frostbite
You are numb and tingly and have burning sensations all over
You get unexpected zaps of excruciating pain in your face, arm, leg, and you try not to scream
You are screaming from pain as what feels like loose electric wires whip out of control at the base of your spine
You feel like you are being stabbed, and you have a tingling feeling all over your body
You can’t feel your fingers, but you feel like you’re walking on rocks, barefoot
You feel continual electric shocks down one whole side of your body that are strong enough to make you gasp out loud
You “feel” noises that go straight to the bone with subsequent weird pain!
Your body feels like you got into a fight with Mike Tyson, then got run over by a semi, and then kicked to the side of the road
You feel like you are sitting in a wet bathing suit because your butt is numb

People assume that you are fine

When everyone assumes you are normal and they say, ‘Let’s go – get with it’
Your friends and family think you are fine because you look the same, so they think you are just being anti-social
You get angry hearing, “Gee, you can’t be feeling bad … you look too good”

Does any of this resonate with you? How would you complete the statement, “You know you have MS when ____”?

Life with MS in Florida – Baby it’s HOT Outside!

Posted on June 30, 2014 by MSAA

By: Jeri Burtchell

Living with the challenges of MS is one thing, but if you also live in the south, surviving summertime is no small feat. Everyone’s symptoms are different, but here’s a universal MS fact: whatever the symptoms, heat will make them worse.

Having lived in northeast Florida since my 32 year-old was in diapers, I consider myself a southerner, even though technically I was born in New York.

I qualify as a southerner because:

I don’t own a pair of boots, but I have more flip-flops than Skittles has flavors.
I wait until the weatherman says a hurricane is at least a category four, and three blocks away before I get supplies.
My perfume in the summertime is mosquito repellant.
The only candles I buy contain citronella.
I take beach photos from the passenger seat of a moving car as we’re doing a drive-by – to prove I really do live in the Sunshine State.

I head indoors before the summer solstice in June, set my air conditioner to “frostbite.” I don’t emerge in the light of day again until school starts in the fall. It’s the only way I know to endure it.

When I was in my 20’s, my favorite hobby was hiking in the Ocala National Forest armed with binoculars and a bird book. I don’t recall the heat ever bothering me.That was before MS and old age turned summertime into my mortal enemy. Now I admire the outdoors on the Nature Channel or ESPN, no longer eager to be personally immersed in it.

But sometimes you just have to brave the elements. Like when your granddaughter joins a local swim team and you go to cheer her on. Turns out you can’t do that via Skype, at least not when you’re the one who’s going to be driving her to and fro.

Her first meet was an hour’s drive out of town. We had to arrive at 7 a.m., and we figured it would last a couple of hours and we’d be out of there in no time–before the coolness of the morning was replaced by scorching heat.

Boy, was I wrong! I have lived here long enough – I should have known better. On top of that, I even wrote an article about how heat affects those with MS. It’s not like I didn’t know.

But what we thought would take only a couple of hours turned into an all day event. By the time she was done and we were headed home, I was dizzy and limp as a noodle. We had to sit in the car with the AC running full blast for quite a while before I could even drive. While we sat and waited for my brain and spinal cord to cool off, we chatted about how much fun she had.

It was at that instant I knew that any heat-related suffering I’d been through that day was worth having shared the experience with her. As I began to cool off, and my legs changed from overcooked pasta to more of an al dente, I realized I was going to have to come up with a plan.

MS might stop me from my bird-watching nature hikes, but when it tries to come between me and cheering my granddaughter on, I’m putting my numb and tingly foot down.

So I made a list of what might make the experience more bearable for me next time:

I’m wearing shorts or a dress. Period. No matter how unflattering my legs might be, jeans are not an option.
I’m wearing light, thin clothing and only flip-flops on my feet.
I’m bringing a folding chair — despite all the chairs at the facility, there was never one available when I needed to sit down NOW.
I’m getting a big floppy straw hat.
I’m bringing a personal cooler with a rag down in the ice water that I can wipe my brow or pulse points with occasionally.
I’m bringing lots of bottled water.
I’ll get myself a spray bottle with a fan built on it.

It never occurred to me to sit at the edge of the kiddy pool and stick my feet in, but I just might do that, too. Of course, by the time I have a huge floppy hat, breezy muumuu covered in Hawaiian flowers, and oversized sunglasses on, my granddaughter might just be mortified at me shouting encouragements from the side of the pool.

But it’s either that or stay home, and since they don’t televise her swim meets on ESPN, I don’t have a choice now, do I? 🙂

References:
http://www.healthline.com/health-news/ms-multiple-sclerosis-patients-more-sensitive-to-heat-052113

*Jeri Burtchell was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1999. She has spoken from a patient perspective at conferences around the country, addressing social media and the role it plays in designing clinical trials. Jeri is a MS blogger, patient activist, and freelance writer for the MS News Beat of Healthline.com. She lives in northeast Florida with her youngest son and elderly mother. When not writing or speaking, she enjoys crafting and photography.

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