The next three posts all seem to go together so I’m going to publish them, hopefully in the order they were written (“MS is getting on my nerves” first), on the same day.
However, even after eighteen months’ blogging, I’m not sure of the best way to go about it. I do want three separate posts, each with its own title and its own window…
Oh, I don’t know, I suppose if I succeed, this little bit will be pointless. Regardless of whether the posts themselves are still topical - which they won’t be, if I don’t get a move on!…
How about, then (just in case), I say something here to make this post, alone, worthwhile? Well, I can try…
Turmeric. Most notably, its curcumin component.
Wow! I have been using turmeric powder, twice a day – morning and bedtime – for the last few months and my gosh, I’m seeing, and feeling, improvements in my MS. My legs are less painful and stronger. I have more energy and keep going longer and more often. My brain (they say it’s a good preventative of Alzheimer’s and I can believe it!) has been on overdrive and I can’t stop writing/studying/writing again. I feel more optimistic about the future and am even making plans for it.
All this, as well as saving my life as a bronchodilator. And I know it has.
There you go! Turmeric/curcumin. I’m sure I’ll be talking/raving about it again, soon.
But first, those three posts…
Monday, 10 August 2009
MS is getting on my nerves
Yep, it’s getting too much now all this CNS (Central Nervous System) under attack and dying nonsense. It’s an insult. A long, drawn out wasting away of every little function, every big function, till you don’t know which one will collapse on you first. And it’s all just a waiting-game, with pain and chronic fatigue its constant companions.
And no one talks about brain damage, which is what the lesions of sclerosis on your cerebrum cause and which ensures nobody likes you, ‘cos you have mood-swings and a vicious temper. And you’re left alone, too much, when you need help.
MS is an insult.
I guess it’s the bladder and the bowels that get you worst of all. They’re what really cause the aggro. And keep you hidden away and embarrassed, even in front of yourself. In front of anyone else (carers included)? Well, that’s where the body degradation lies, right there in the bathroom (or wherever!), in your toilet activities – or lack of them. That’s the humiliation and where you might lose your dignity.
If you don’t watch out. And allow it.
Which is easy to do, ’cos you get angry and you’re exhausted and in constant pain.
The final insult, I suppose, will be when you die of something else and not MS itself (that’d make it ‘terminal’ with people forced to sympathise – they don’t want to) but another thing that you got or that happened, as a consequence of MS. A “complication”, as they call it. [Unless, of course, it’s one of those “life” things that can happen to anyone.]
It’s not all bad though. There is still “the MS consolation” – I think I coined that one! With cognitive dysfunction (I forgot to mention it due to my cognitive dysfunction!), you hardly notice yourself slipping away.
I just hope I’m slipping towards somewhere better! …
And no one talks about brain damage, which is what the lesions of sclerosis on your cerebrum cause and which ensures nobody likes you, ‘cos you have mood-swings and a vicious temper. And you’re left alone, too much, when you need help.
MS is an insult.
I guess it’s the bladder and the bowels that get you worst of all. They’re what really cause the aggro. And keep you hidden away and embarrassed, even in front of yourself. In front of anyone else (carers included)? Well, that’s where the body degradation lies, right there in the bathroom (or wherever!), in your toilet activities – or lack of them. That’s the humiliation and where you might lose your dignity.
If you don’t watch out. And allow it.
Which is easy to do, ’cos you get angry and you’re exhausted and in constant pain.
The final insult, I suppose, will be when you die of something else and not MS itself (that’d make it ‘terminal’ with people forced to sympathise – they don’t want to) but another thing that you got or that happened, as a consequence of MS. A “complication”, as they call it. [Unless, of course, it’s one of those “life” things that can happen to anyone.]
It’s not all bad though. There is still “the MS consolation” – I think I coined that one! With cognitive dysfunction (I forgot to mention it due to my cognitive dysfunction!), you hardly notice yourself slipping away.
I just hope I’m slipping towards somewhere better! …
PPMS "terminal"?
Debbie Purdy, a fellow PPMSer, took her case to the House of Lords and won. In future it will be possible for someone to escort a person wishing to end their life to Switzerland (“Dignitas”), for example, without risking prosecution. I wrote the piece below after hearing complaints, from MSers, about PPMS (Ms Purdy’s type, though in the media, not always made clear) being described as “terminal”.
So, let’s take a look at this…
Q. What is “primary progressive multiple sclerosis” (PPMS)?
A. First of all, it’s MS by definition: multiple plaques of sclerosis in the brain and spine.
Q. What are ‘plaques’? What is ‘sclerosis’?
A. Plaques are lesions which “dig in” to tissue causing it to harden/break down. This result is called ‘sclerosis’.
Many in the medical establishment believe that MS is an auto-immune disease with the immune system itself attacking the body: in MS, specifically, the myelin sheath (coating) normally protecting nerve fibres.
I, personally (along with many naturopaths), believe the sclerosis to be caused by the yeast Candida Albicans (see: “Candida Albicans and MS – a life story”).
The results are the same but not the “treatments” (see: “Supplements, Herbs & Essential-oils” for my own).
Q. What do we mean by ‘progressive’?
A. All bodily tissue is made up of fibres and neurons (nerve cells) belonging to the “central nervous system” (CNS). Once attached to the CNS the lesions worsen and multiply, spreading thoughout the body, causing increased degeneration. In PPMS this degeneration “progresses” continually with no remissions.
Q. Which parts of the body depend on the CNS being healthy?
A. Every single part. We are our nervous systems: our immune systems; every organ - large (brain, heart, lungs) and small (eyes, ears, bladder, bowels); our limbs and muscles; every sense and function (i.e. thinking, seeing, hearing, tasting, swallowing, urinating, defecating).
Every part and everything about us, is dependent on our CNS.
Q. So, is PPMS (as opposed to the other types of MS) terminal?
A. How long can someone last with a progressively degenerating CNS and a compromised immune system?
Conclusion: PPMS is terminal, if only because of the complications arising as a result of it.
Note: the most common causes of PPMS-related death are: suicide; choking; pneumonia (or other respiratory disease).
Disclaimer: as always, I write only from experience and research. I hold no formal qualifications in medicine.
So, let’s take a look at this…
Q. What is “primary progressive multiple sclerosis” (PPMS)?
A. First of all, it’s MS by definition: multiple plaques of sclerosis in the brain and spine.
Q. What are ‘plaques’? What is ‘sclerosis’?
A. Plaques are lesions which “dig in” to tissue causing it to harden/break down. This result is called ‘sclerosis’.
Many in the medical establishment believe that MS is an auto-immune disease with the immune system itself attacking the body: in MS, specifically, the myelin sheath (coating) normally protecting nerve fibres.
I, personally (along with many naturopaths), believe the sclerosis to be caused by the yeast Candida Albicans (see: “Candida Albicans and MS – a life story”).
The results are the same but not the “treatments” (see: “Supplements, Herbs & Essential-oils” for my own).
Q. What do we mean by ‘progressive’?
A. All bodily tissue is made up of fibres and neurons (nerve cells) belonging to the “central nervous system” (CNS). Once attached to the CNS the lesions worsen and multiply, spreading thoughout the body, causing increased degeneration. In PPMS this degeneration “progresses” continually with no remissions.
Q. Which parts of the body depend on the CNS being healthy?
A. Every single part. We are our nervous systems: our immune systems; every organ - large (brain, heart, lungs) and small (eyes, ears, bladder, bowels); our limbs and muscles; every sense and function (i.e. thinking, seeing, hearing, tasting, swallowing, urinating, defecating).
Every part and everything about us, is dependent on our CNS.
Q. So, is PPMS (as opposed to the other types of MS) terminal?
A. How long can someone last with a progressively degenerating CNS and a compromised immune system?
Conclusion: PPMS is terminal, if only because of the complications arising as a result of it.
Note: the most common causes of PPMS-related death are: suicide; choking; pneumonia (or other respiratory disease).
Disclaimer: as always, I write only from experience and research. I hold no formal qualifications in medicine.
[Satire!] A note to Debbie Purdy...
…following Law Lords’ court ruling (30th July ’09)
Gee thanks, Debbie, now it will be easier to have someone come with us to Switzerland (“Dignitas” my***!) to end our lives. They’ll even be able to help us, if and when we MSers are too paralysed, and won’t get charged for committing a crime – as long as we did volunteer for it.
Nice one! Because, it surely follows that it won’t be long before we won’t have to travel (too hard and tiring); relatives will be able to euthanize at their own discretion (always believing we would have wished it, of course). Doctors and nurses – even lovely carers - will be applauded for their “acts of mercy”…
And, when the State realizes how “useful” this is to society, by extension, it will force the extinction of all elderly and infirm citizens: no one else will need to make those burdensome decisions again. We’ll all be free to relax.
Won’t be long now. Thank you, Debbie (word to the wise, though: don’t try and take all the credit, it would have happened anyway).
Your fellow PP [primary progressive] MSer,
Virginia
Gee thanks, Debbie, now it will be easier to have someone come with us to Switzerland (“Dignitas” my***!) to end our lives. They’ll even be able to help us, if and when we MSers are too paralysed, and won’t get charged for committing a crime – as long as we did volunteer for it.
Nice one! Because, it surely follows that it won’t be long before we won’t have to travel (too hard and tiring); relatives will be able to euthanize at their own discretion (always believing we would have wished it, of course). Doctors and nurses – even lovely carers - will be applauded for their “acts of mercy”…
And, when the State realizes how “useful” this is to society, by extension, it will force the extinction of all elderly and infirm citizens: no one else will need to make those burdensome decisions again. We’ll all be free to relax.
Won’t be long now. Thank you, Debbie (word to the wise, though: don’t try and take all the credit, it would have happened anyway).
Your fellow PP [primary progressive] MSer,
Virginia
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