Sorry for the delay friends – it’s been quite a busy month. Here we are, though, ready to share everything we’ve learned in the last 30 or so days.
1. Stress makes everything worse. Yes, someone who isn’t diagnosed with MS would probably agree with this. Those of us with MS, dread this statement. On March 25th, Gary had to take a comprehensive graduate exam – a culmination of all he had learned over the past two years that would determine whether he could graduate from his program this May. Kind of a big deal. In the weeks leading up to the exam, there were late nights, hectic days, and never enough time to retain all that information. The result? One very fatigued young man whose symptoms seemed to be exaggerated. His leg began acting up, and he was very achy. His muscles were causing lots of pain in his back and his foot wouldn’t stop twitching. It was a rough couple of weeks. Stress = exaggerated symptoms = cranky Gary. Which then has an impact on our daily life – so just one of the lovely ways MS becomes a part of our days.
2. Remission is good. It comes just as unexpectedly as exacerbations. One evening recently, Gary was just walking around the house and realized that his leg didn’t hurt, he wasn’t dragging his foot, and everything seemed normal. He was fine. It was great. It happens occasionally but you can never expect it. When it does it’s so freakin sweet.
3. We have great friends and family. We feel very loved. Team Gary’s Gang has already raised close to $5,000 for their walk in September. A group of Gary’s friends at school started a team and are doing an MS walk this month in his honor. They’ve raised over $1000 in less than 2 weeks! That’s roughly $6,000 going towards MS research in honor of Gary – what better gift can be given.
4. We like long Springs and long Falls. Being that this was our first winter since diagnosis, there are definite negatives to both extreme cold and hot. Gary has experienced the heat since diagnosis and we explained in an earlier post how it makes him more fatigued, exaggerates his symptoms, and makes him really dizzy. The extreme cold, of course, makes him shiver. This would be fine but his nervous system can’t control the muscles in his left leg causing his leg to tremble uncontrollably. Also, the shivering causes muscles in his leg to cramp up much more quickly than they normally would. We also like Spring because of baseball 🙂
Please send any questions/comments are our or post them in the comments section below 🙂
Now off to see the O’s.
Gary's Gang 