Posts tagged ‘multiple sclerosis’

I’ve talked a lot about my son Max and how he has been diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder. But I’ve been starting to wonder lately if I have some of the symptoms too.

Bipolar was once known as “manic-depression“.  Someone with this condition tends to have mood swings that run from being very “high” or manic to very “low” or depressed.

At a recent session my therapist suggested I explore this and write a post about it.

I’m not sure it is that bad. I think about my Multiple Sclerosis. It is very mild. In fact it is the “funny you don’t look sick” variety. If I had primary or secondary progressive I would probably be in a wheel chair right now.

Perhaps it is the same with this possible manic depression of mine. When I was with my therapist I talked about writing these posts. As I told him, some days I can write 4 or 5 at a time. But then on other days I moan and complain.

“Oh why can’t I write today?”

“I have soooo much to do.”

“I’ll never get anything done!”

A little whine here, and another one there, and I finally get some work done.

I had him laughing at this point and he thought maybe I should be a comedy writer. Hmm, I had never thought of that.

But back to the situation at hand.

Just like with my posts, some days I can plow through everything I need to get done. After which I am looking for more work. If any stressful situations arise like perhaps Max is having some terrible tantrums. I can take care of them very easily and everyone is happy.

But then on other days just trying to put one foot in front of the other is a major chore. I just want to lie down and sleep rather than make any kind of effort at all.

On days like this I get grumpy and I’ll snap at anyone that gets near. Max better not have any problems because I become very strict and stern and expect him to jump when I snap my fingers.

On those days Max will say, “Daddy, why are you talking to me in your Boston accent? I don’t like it when you do that.”

People from Boston please don’t be insulted to read this. I grew up there so it should be understandable I might have one. But I don’t think he really knows what that kind of accent sounds like. It is just a name that he has attached to the way I speak to him at this time.

But another thought occurred to me as I was writing the paragraph on Multiple Sclerosis. Maybe the high energy I feel is normal energy for most people. That is, what people feel every day is what I feel in spurts. Once I accomplish all the work with this energy I get totally wasted, tired, and lethargic. And this is what I see as my “depressed” phase.

There are other theories that may address this as well. For example, there is the idea that people that have a disorder such as ADHD or Bipolar may actually be throwbacks to an earlier time. When we were a hunter gatherer society, the gatherers worked every day doing the same thing over and over again. They developed energy to help them through their work.

The hunters on the other hand only needed energy when they were killing their prey. During “off times” or while walking through the forest they didn’t need energy so they didn’t have much. Energy was only required in spurts. Maybe I am a hunter.

Blood types are yet another possibility. The theory says that Type Os have a lot of energy, can eat just about anything, and can exercise enough to become body builders. Type As on the other hand can only do mild exercise and theoretically should be vegetarians. I am a Type A.

There are many possibilities. Which is the real one? Could even be something else. What ever it is I can keep my therapist laughing as I whine about not getting any work done.

I generally don’t talk about me very much in these posts. I have been more interested in sharing information about other people in my life. These include my son Max and people that I support through my pca, yard work, and handyman work.

Today it is different. This was the day to mow my lawn. It is not a particularly warm day. It is in the 70s and may reach 80 F. But I have multiple sclerosis. Any overheating can make my symptoms worse. Generally, for me, I get very hot and lethargic.

For this reason my lawn can take 2 to 3 hours spread over 2 days to mow. And I always feel knocked out when I am done. It can even be difficult writing a post. My mind tends to feel like mush.

However, I am one of the “funny you don’t look sick” people. Others are surprised if I mention that I have MS. I look healthy and I generally have enough energy to take care of others. I just collapse when I get home.

Today I keep stopping and then continuing to write this post. I’ve taken a warm shower which helped cool me down but it’s a struggle. I have a lot more to do today including selling a client’s car, and moving a lot of suitcases for Suitcases4Kids.

I have a couple of clients who are much much more affected than I am. They are in wheelchairs and need the help of a pca 7 days a week mornings and evenings. One of them still works from home; she won’t give up. This is despite having to get help moving from her bed to chair to bathroom.

Even though the heat is terrible for her she still loves to get outside in the summer. She tools around town on her scooter checking up on longtime friends. And she works in her garden. She weeds, plants, feeds, and waters. It is fairly large and I must say each year it looks more beautiful than the last.

The heat bothers her immensely; perhaps more so than me. Because of that when she goes out she wears a Cooling Vest. She puts it on and then loads it up with ice packs that she keeps in the refrigerator freezer. In this way she can keep her temperature down. The result is very little overheating and some relief from her MS symptoms.

I have never used one of these vests but I’m starting to think that after seeing how successful she is with it that I may get one. I find that as I get older the heat affects me more and more. I want to continue to work and this looks like it can help me too.

This is an example of what a Cooling Vest looks like:

This vest is light weight, only 5 pounds. One size fits all and comes with 10 reusable cooling packs. The advertisement says that it can be worn under clothes however my client and others that I have met generally just wear it over their clothes allowing them to easily put it on or remove it.

The Cooling Vest link brings you to the Amazon website where you can find out more about it. If you like it and choose to buy it please note that I do get a small commission. However, other than that Amazon does not pay me to sell their products. I suggest them only to help bring some improvement into the lives of my readers and their loved ones.

As soon as I finish this post I will be going to the YMCA to swim with my 8 year old son Max.  Once he sinks his teeth into something we have to do it constantly until he finally gets bored.  For example, on February school vacation we spent 4 hours a day at the Y playing basketball and then cooling off in the pool.  Since then he hasn’t had any interest in it.

But a couple of weeks ago he rediscovered swimming.  As a result we have been getting into the pool any afternoon he is free.  What I mean by this is that my son has many diagnoses such as bipolar disorder, adhd, aspergers, and odd.  Several days a week someone works with him on his issues:

• Mondays he works with a counselor and other kids to learn how to interact in social groups.  Many children who have one or more of Max’s diagnoses, like him, have problems being with others their own age.  They get together to find out how get through them.  We have time to swim after the class is over.

• Tuesdays we swim.

• Every Wednesday he has a half day from school so in the early afternoon he works with a play therapist.  Later on he goes to a science/dramatics class with other kids like him.  It gets out late so there is no time to swim.

• Thursdays after school he meets with his child advocate.  After it is done we can swim for awhile.

• There is no swimming on Fridays.  He spends the afternoon with his mentor and they get done late.

As you can see this allows us 3 days.  When he is in the pool he divides his time between playing and doing laps.  He can swim the length of the pool round trip over a dozen times.  Before and afterwards he is an octopus climbing all over me.  Or perhaps “jellyfish” is a better description.  It can get annoying at times.

In the long run it doesn’t bother me.  We will keep going until this obsession wears off and he goes after something else.  And you know what?  I will keep enjoying it until the time comes because if it wasn’t for my boy I wouldn’t get any exercise.  You see, I’ve never liked to do any physical stuff.  This isn’t because I’m lazy, though I might be a little.  It is because I have multiple sclerosis; I always found it an effort to do the physical things required to keep me healthy.

That’s not to say I don’t do anything.  I found early on that if I skipped all exercise that I very quickly get to the point that I have difficulty walking.  I have also gone through periods when I cannot use my hands.  This happens when I have been ignoring what I should be doing.  So I generally make it a point to at least to walk as much as possible.

This is where Max comes in.  He has a lot of anxiety so he doesn’t like to do things alone.  He has difficulty making friends so Daddy is generally his playmate.    I have to force myself to do the things that he likes so much like biking, running, hiking, mountain climbing, and anything else that requires a lot of energy.  I cannot just stand around and watch; to be with him I have to do all of these things too.

Just like anyone else the more I keep moving, the easier it gets.  It has made me realize that what I have been doing happens to a lot of other people with MS and perhaps other diseases and disorders.  We make excuses to justify not doing what we need to.  I’m not suggesting everyone does it but certainly I’ve been doing it around exercise.

Much as I enjoy doing the cerebral stuff, like writing, physical work is fun and I have to keep doing it.  My wife is always after me for just sitting in my chair all day researching and typing.  Thankfully Max comes home from school and drags me out the door to get some fresh air.  Because of him my arms and legs are solid and my exacerbations have diminished.  Not only that I’m getting my daily dose of Vitamin D from the sun!

Though I don’t like the fact that Max has to deal with all of his disorders the upside is that we both keep physically active and are healthier because of it.

I know several people with Multiple Sclerosis that will read this and say that it is alright for me but they cannot do it for this reason, or that one, or something else.  But my answer to this is, don’t give up!  In my PCA work I have a couple of clients with MS.  Neither one can do the things that Max and I do but both have physical therapists that help them keep their muscles toned and strengthened as much as possible.  At the same time it keeps them in good spirits.  How well I know how depressing it can be when I’m not moving at all.

The bottom line is, don’t let excuses get in the way.  Don’t give up and keep moving!

I just came from a wake.  I hadn’t seen the woman in a good 15 years but since she was the mother of a close friend of mine I couldn’t miss it.  It brought up a lot of memories; most of them surrounding my multiple sclerosis.

I first met Chuck in 1987.  Though we had both worked for the same company since 1979 it was quite large and we were in separate locations.  Our groups were merged in 1986 but since I was always working at distant clients we didn’t meet until the department threw a party for him celebrating his upcoming wedding.  At the end of the night he ended up giving me a ride home.

In August of 1989 I was sitting in my office when suddenly my eyes unfocused.  They actually felt like they moved in different directions.  My left eye went left and my right eye went right.  It was scary.  I went to the hospital and they wired me up, doing EEGs, EKGs, and MRIs.

The end result was they believed that I might have multiple sclerosis.  But their decision didn’t come from their testing even though they thought they might have seen an old lesion on my brain; MS lesions tend to come and go.  They based the diagnosis on the following:

1. My sister was diagnosed with MS in 1987.  Hers has always steadily getting worse.  At the time she was using a cane to walk.  MS can run in families.

2. In 1974 when I was in college I was getting a strange feeling in my fingers and toes which I thought was numbness.  My then girlfriend took me to the infirmary where they stuck pins in me to see if I could feel them.  Because I could they decided it wasn’t numbness and put my problem down to either resulting from fatigue or I was imagining it.

In 1989 they believed that my MS actually appeared in 1974 but it is a disease that doctors will sometimes watch for a few years before they make their diagnosis.  I later went for second and third opinions before I accepted it.

A year later I lost the use of both my hands and this is where Chuck came in.  It happened in the middle of a work day and I needed to get to my neurologist.  Since I couldn’t get there on my own I needed a ride.  Without hesitation Chuck volunteered to take me.  He didn’t know what the problem was; I had only told my boss about my condition.  On the way back from the doctor’s office I decided to let him in on my secret.; I felt he deserved as much.  He told me he had guessed that was the problem while he was in the waiting room.  Several weeks later my hands recovered but until then he was my chauffeur.

From then on he couldn’t do enough for me.  If he called and I happened to mention that I was on my way out to mow the lawn I would find him already doing it for me.  This was no simple thing; he would drive the 5 miles from his house after loading up his lawnmower.  Everything he has always done for me has been for free.  He would never accept gifts or cash for anything.

If you ask him today why he will do all of these things for me, he will tell you that it is because I got him a job.  The problem is that I did this in 1996 when he was out of work and needed to support his wife and kids.  But he has actually been going out of his way to help me since 1988.  I don’t push it; maybe he doesn’t consciously know the reason.

I am at times grateful for what he has done for me.  At other times I get irritated.  Unlike my sister who is now wheelchair bound my form of MS is all internal.  I get the “funny you don’t look sick” if I even mention that I have it.  It bothers me at times to have other people doing my work for me.

Whatever, Chuck has been a very good friend.  Missing his Mom’s wake was never an option.  It was 3 hours round trip to the funeral home but it was worth it.  He even seemed surprised to see me.  We hugged, his wife and I hugged, and she made me promise that our families would get together.  I said some prayers for his Mom and then headed home feeling good that I could give a little back to him for all that he has done for me.

Sunday was mom’s birthday.   I’m not gonna tell you how old she is; she’d kill me if I tried.   It started out a great day but we were afraid that it was going to rain later on.   We were hoping to get the party well on its way before that happened; it was held at my sister’s house.  My wife and Max left to make the 45 minute trip up into New Hampshire so that he could spend time with his cousins before everyone else showed up.

On weekends my mother goes to my other sister’s house to take care of her.  My sister and I both have multiple sclerosis.   Mine is the “funny you don’t look sick” kind.  My sister is bad and continues to get worse.   She is in a wheelchair and must have Personal Care Attendants or PCAs available to help her on a daily basis.  She cannot get out of bed, dress herself, bathe, or use the bathroom without help.  One of the things she loves the most is to be placed on her scooter so she can tool around town in good weather and see her friends.

She has several pcas that work with her during the week.  As I mentioned Mom takes care of her on weekends.   I am generally the “pca on call”.  This means that if she has doctor’s or chiropractor appointments I’m generally the one that helps her get there.   If she’s got a party to go to who’s she gonna call?

Today my job was to travel an hour south to pick up both my mom and my sister and then drive them in the reverse direction an hour and a half to the party.  I’m glad to do it; Sis was my best friend when we were kids.   I can still remember when she was in kindergarten coming home to spend time with her 3 year old brother who would be lonely waiting for her all day. Now we are in our 50s and I can now be there for her.

When I got to her place she and mom were in the bathroom getting ready to go.  Uh oh, she has a new wide screen HDTV; man I’d love to have that!  I sat down to play with it while I was waiting for them.  I didn’t get enough time with it; I was called to help get her onto her chair.

Getting her out of the bathroom is nice now that the state rebuilt the door so it is wide enough to get the wheelchair through.  There are other things they did too such as putting in a new tub, handrails all over the house, and for me something else.  When we were ready to go I pushed her out over the new small ramp onto the back deck and then down the new long ramp on the side of the house to the driveway.  It is so much nicer now than when I would have to position a chair in the house and one in the drive and then carry her up and down the stairs.

I’m also always learning the best ways to help her.  Every time I see her she has a new way to lift her out of the chair and put her into the car.  Today she directed me how to do it.  Like always I position the chair close to the car and then remove the foot rests.  The next step is to move in front of her and stand with my legs on each side of hers.  I then squat a little and reach around behind her to grab the belt she wears underneath her clothes.  On a count of 3 I stand straight up bringing her with me and hold her close.  I spin and lower her onto the car seat.

Now comes the tricky part.  When I set her down she always ends up lying down with her feet still on the driveway.  I have to slide my arm under her armpit and lift her to a seated position.  Today was a little easier because mom climbed into the driver’s side and helped lift her.  Once she was seated I swung her legs into the car and we positioned her so she was comfortable.  Then I put the seat belt on her and threw the wheelchair into the trunk.

Once we were on the road mom took a nap in the back seat and we chatted on about different things.   She and I are both website developers so we talked about things we were working on.  She has not yet seen my blog so we talked about that as well.  The point is that while we are driving we are family and friends having a good conversation.  She does not have to worry about all of her problems, which is a good thing!

When we got to our sister’s house there was a mad rush of kids because grandma and sis were here!   And after that it was time to reverse the procedure by putting her back on the chair and then getting her into the house.  This time my brother-in-law and I had to lift the chair over the steps and inside.  The final stop was out on the back deck.  She spent the afternoon watching the kids swimming in the pool or playing games like hide-n-seek and tag with me.  She loves relaxing and seeing all of this.

My duties were over for the day.   If she needed bathroom breaks our sister took care of it.  Everyone helps her; even the kids brought her hot dogs and burgers.  And I can’t forget mom; this is her day after all.   We sang and brought out the cake. My 8 year old boy gave her a birthday card and grandma laughed when she found a dollar in it, “to spend any way that she’d like.”

The party was still going strong when my wife, Max, and I left.  That seems to be always the case.  When he starts getting tired he can act out like all kids do but his disorders tend to make him worse.  We find it best when it reaches 7:30 at night to make a nice relaxed retreat before anything happens.

I didn’t forget my mother and sister.  My brother and his family had arrived after we did and he stepped up to take them home.  So mom was ecstatic, it was the best time she had had with her family in a long time especially since she hadn’t had to worry about my sister.  She does that enough anyway.  And my sister had a wonderful time.   She doesn’t get to see her nieces and nephews very often and she misses them and it is gratifying to her to find they miss her too.

My son Max is 8 years old. He loves to go to school because there are always things for him to do. It is a very structured environment, which he needs. His anxiety levels skyrocket if nothing is scheduled for him. When that happens his disorders activate; he has odd, bipolar disorder, pdd/nos, and adhd.

Weekends can be tough because we don’t always have something for him to do. Max has a lot of energy so it can take him minutes or even seconds to get through the things he thinks of doing. Then he spends a lot of time moping around the house getting very bored and very miserable. Being at home is not a very happy time for him.

This passed Sunday turned out to be a very exciting day. I have rarely seen him so happy. It started out as a pretty standard weekend day. He woke up at 5 in the morning and went through his morning wildness before his medications started working. But it seemed that he got bored very quickly this morning.

“What are we going to do today?”

“Where are we going to go?”

“Who can I play with?”

And he was starting to whine and hound us; a typical weekend day.

At 7 o’clock I called him over. “Max, I’m going raspberry picking, are you coming with me?” “I dunno.” “Well, I’ll be in the car. If you want to come then join me.” Guess what, he went with me. He wasn’t sure he wanted to; he dragged his feet getting out there; but he went.

It was only 7:15 when we arrived at the farm. As I pulled into the parking lot his anxiety kicked in. “It’s too early. It is still closed.” I reassured him that it had been open for 15 minutes already. After all, I told him, it is a farm; they’ve probably been working since 5 o’clock. And it was. We went into the store and were directed to the raspberries a quarter of a mile walk in back of the fields.

When we got there we bought a little bucket from a girl in a hut. She then pointed out the best pickings for us. Max was a little tentative at first pulling the juicy red raspberries off of the bushes but he soon got into the swing of things and started filling the bucket. Of course, he had to try a couple as we went along. We also found some black raspberries which topped off the pail nicely.

When we were done we spent some time in the farm playground and visited their petting zoo. After that we each had one of their apple cider donuts while watching the geese splash in the pond.

You would think that after all of this it would be lunch time. Hardly, it’s only 8:30. From here we did some hiking. There is a hill close to our house in the middle of a forest. It is very steep and it’s a lot of exercise getting to the top. Max ran most of the way; I was crawling by the end. It took a half hour to get to the top and then back to the car.

From here we decided to get some breakfast at a restaurant on the grounds of a small airport near us. Max had sausage and some apple juice. It was a beautiful day so we got to see a lot of planes flying.

We got home at 10 o’clock. This worked out for us because, what we hadn’t told Max, we were leaving to go to a barbeque at 10:30. While we were away my wife had spent the morning putting together the food we were bringing and packing other essentials. We arrived at the party at 11:30. Our hosts own a house on a lake in New Hampshire. Max’s eyes lit up when he saw it and he immediately went from the car to the water.

I won’t spend a lot of time writing about everything Max did today but he swam for a long time. He then went out on both a pedal boat and a kayak several times during the afternoon. He also paddled around this side of the lake on a rubber tire. There were three girls his age at the party and they joined in everything he was doing. The one thing they didn’t want any part of were the large spiders he found underneath a floating dock. And he ate hotdogs, corn chips, brownies, and cookies; anyone that knows him will be surprised to hear this. He doesn’t usually eat very much and rarely touches sweets.

We had planned on leaving the party at 3 but Max was having so much fun that we ended up staying until 8 o’clock. And after this long day he slept the hour home and I carried him to bed.

As I said earlier, this was a very exciting day for him. He didn’t have any time to even think about being miserable. It was wonderful to see. Most parents don’t like to see their kids unhappy; our kid may be unhappier than most of them. He doesn’t have too many friends; the ones he has don’t want to see him often because of the way he acts. His dad is in his 50s and has multiple sclerosis so he doesn’t have a lot of energy to do things with him. He is very anxious and it bothers him that he has to take medications for each of his problems.

Today was an amazing day for him; he fell asleep excited. This is the kind of day my wife and I treasure. Hmmm, I wonder if we can have a couple more of these before the end of the summer.

A close friend of mine has a theory: people look for their opposites to get involved with.  I’m not talking just in ideology, democrats marrying conservative for example; but physical appearance too.  He is a tall blond republican atheist that married a short brunette Christian liberal.

I never bought into this theory considering I am a tall slim brunet Christian borderline conservative that married a short slim brunette Christian borderline conservative.

But as the years have passed I do believe my wife and I have a lot of differences.  Not only that, I think that each of us has internal opposites.

Let’s take weather.  My wife cannot stand the cold; winter is her least favorite season and she always sleeps with a pile of blankets on the bed.  You would think that she’d love the summer heat but she needs the synthetic cold of air conditioning.  She actually lowers the temperature as much as she can get away with…and then she still sleeps with that pile of blankets!!

On the other hand I love winter.  I love how cold it gets.  I am not a fan of air conditioning; I only use it in the car if there are people with me. I don’t sleep very well in the summer with all that cold and blankets.

I don’t like the outside heat but I enjoy saunas and hot baths.  I only take showers now because I discovered that I could just fall asleep in the tub and stay there for hours.  A lot of people who, like me, have multiple sclerosis are like this.

Another difference between my wife and me is all the talking.  She starts from the minute she wakes up until she goes to sleep at night.  I believe in short answers to questions.  If I spend a day without saying anything at all, it works for me.  Generally I don’t have a problem with all the talking.  Recently we completed a 13 week course together and she talked quite a bit during the classes.  I didn’t say much but people remember all the information “we” contributed so I benefited from the fallout.

And then there is time management.  My dad taught me when I was a child to always be at least 15 minutes early for appointments; and allow more time if I am unsure how to get there.  Long before airport guidelines suggested that people arrive 2 hours before their flights my dad insisted on it.  This was to insure that we are able to get through potential traffic and long ticket lines.

On the other hand my wife’s goal is to be on time for appointments; that means walking in the door at the scheduled time.  You know that no matter what time you go to a doctor’s office, for example, you will still have to wait awhile.  She doesn’t want to wait too long before seeing him.  So many times I will be ready to go early but I then have to sit and wait for her.

I can see where she gets it, her mom schedules her time so she actually leaves the house at the moment she has her appointment.  What I mean is, if she has a 9 o’clock scheduled, she leaves the house at 9.  My father in law, like me, is always ready early but he will sit in the car and read the newspaper while waiting for her.  He has been doing this for 60 years so he is used to it.

My son Max appears to have inherited all of these traits.  Like me, he loves winter and will spend hours in the snow.  He loves air conditioning cold but, like his mother, will sleep with a lot of blankets.  He is not fond of heat but will stay in the shower for hours and I know he will love saunas when he gets older.

As for talking, he never stops.  Well hardly ever, if he is angry or in project mode he won’t say a word for hours.

He is very good at being early for things he wants to do of course; like going to the movies or amusement parks.  He is also always 10 minutes early or more waiting for the school van in the morning.  But as you can imagine, for things he isn’t interested in he is always late.

He is a brunet, and slim, but at the moment unlike his parents he is a liberal (at 8 years old).

How about my friend?  He and his wife had two kids and both are blonds and both appear to be liberal democrats.

I’m not trying to point out good things versus bad things here.  I just want to show differences and how not only opposites can attract but that there can be opposites inside of us too.

What about you?  Are you with someone that is opposite?  Or do you have opposing forces inside of you?  What are your thoughts?

I had lunch with a doctor friend of mine today.  He was in a venting mood.  He had just seen a commercial for a pain medication.  Listed as one of the side effects was…death!!!  Admittedly the possibility is very low, but it is still a possibility.  He wanted to know why people would even consider taking something like this for pain.

My answer is that people trust their doctors.  If he says that something will help they do what he suggests without reading the fine print.  Even worse if they are told that they need surgery they only get second opinions if their insurance company insists on it.

I’m not saying everyone is like this but a lot of times if you trust someone you don’t ask questions, you don’t do any research, and you don’t look for another opinion.  These are our bodies; we must do our homework!

The parents of a friend of mine both had cancer.  Her father was diagnosed first but they were too late and he died.  Her mom discovered she had it a month later, again too late; she died six months after her husband. Their daughter, my friend, eats healthy, exercises, and doesn’t smoke. But with two parents who had cancer she made sure she had regular testing done.  And guess what?  Two years ago she found two lumps in her breast, one large and one small.  Her doctor tested the larger one; it turned out to be benign.  But was the smaller one tested?  No, they told her it was too small to worry about.

Sadly it doesn’t end there.  Over a year’s time the small lump grew and by the time it was tested it was found to be cancerous!  When the doctors went in to remove it they found that the cancer had spread to the lymph nodes under her left arm.  A second operation was required to remove them but she was informed that she would lose the use of 60% of her arm.  Could this have been prevented?  Maybe not but if she had gotten a second opinion a year earlier she might not have needed the follow-up operation.

Many years ago I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.  At the time the neurologist told me he wanted to inject drugs directly into my spine.  I asked him if this would cure me.  He said no, if I was getting better it might help; if I was getting worse it wouldn’t help me at all.  Great odds!!

To this day I don’t know why I asked that question, I had never questioned my doctors before.  I was on the fence however; should I allow him to inject me?  Back at work when I mentioned it to my boss he didn’t hesitate; he insisted I go for a second opinion.  I scheduled an appointment with another neurologist that he recommended.

On the day of my appointment I was having trouble walking and had to have a friend drive me.  After evaluating me the doctor told me he agreed that I had ms but he didn’t believe in treating it with drugs.  Okay, this was an answer I liked, no drugs.  He recommended, however, that I get a third opinion because there was a conflict in how to treat it.  I ended up seeing one of the top ms doctors in the country.  He agreed with the second doctor that I shouldn’t take the drugs.

But you’ll notice that if I hadn’t had people pushing for the second and third opinions I probably wouldn’t have done it myself.  I might even have allowed the first doctor to inject me.

Both my doctor friend and I have seen too many people that don’t ask questions and just do what they are told.  This in the end can lead to unneeded surgeries or medications.  There is also the possibility that someone may be told that nothing is wrong and therefore needed attention does not happen.

Remember, ask a lot of questions, do your research, and get second opinions.  Doctors, no matter how wonderful they are, are not infallible!

I suffered for years with headaches.  These were the kind that were so painful I just wanted to lock myself in my bedroom, turn off the lights, and bury myself under the covers.  I must admit that on more that one occasion I did just that.

It seemed like I was getting them from just about anything.  I read a book then get a headache.  I walk down the street; another headache.   I breathe and get a headache.  They weren’t all excruciating; most were just a dull pain.  But I seemed to have them daily.  Once they went away I would be exhausted.  I used to tell people that the fatigue was from fighting the pain all the time.

I went to doctors trying to find a cure.  They kept throwing up their hands because I always checked out fine.  Then I would mention that I have multiple sclerosis and ask if that could be a problem.  The common answer was no, that doesn’t have anything to do with it.

One doctor suggested that my apartment might be too dry.  As a result it would mean that my body was losing water into the air.  Without enough water I would get headaches.  He recommended I take some flat pans like cookie sheets with sides and fill them with water.  I should then place them under some of my radiators; at the time I had old fashioned steam ones.  His idea was that the heat from the radiators would evaporate the water and make the apartment more humid; in which case I wouldn’t lose so much water from my body.  This he believed would cut down on all of my headaches.

It didn’t work.

The second doctor wanted me to take aspirin or Tylenol every time I got a headache.  I wasn’t thrilled with this idea.  First of all it would mean taking the pills several times a day; that’s how often I can get them.  Second, I don’t like taking a lot of medication and this really seemed like too much.  Third, aspirin and Tylenol really never did anything for my headaches anyway.  I would take them for the major ones but I would still be suffering hours afterwards.  And fourth, the pills don’t address the problem of why I keep getting them, they just mask the pain.

When I told the doctor this he thought I was crazy.  He shrugged his shoulders and told me they probably weren’t as bad as I was claiming they were then.

The last doctor I spoke to about the headaches asked me how long since I had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.  This surprised me but I told him that it had been eight years.  He then told me that he had a lot of experience working with ms patients.  Quite a few of them, like me, would constantly get headaches.  He discovered that if they stopped eating or drinking dairy products the headaches would stop.  This meant even trace amounts because it appeared that it was the body’s reaction to the dairy in general not necessarily large quantities of it.

I didn’t want to believe him; besides I love my pizza, ice cream, and milk.  I couldn’t imagine not eating cake, or pancakes, or french toast anymore.  I left his office shaking my head.  That night I went to Bertucci’s and ordered a pizza…with extra mozzarella!

The next day I thought I was going to die!  The headache was terribly excruciating.  I wanted to have a lobotomy.  I felt like my eyes were going to pop out of my head.

I now believed!

For six months I watched everything I ate.  I made sure that nothing had any dairy in it.  At the end of this period I was amazed that I hadn’t had any headaches.  But was I satisfied?  No, I yearned for some ice cream.  I missed my pizza.  I decided to put the doctor to the test again.  I went back to Bertucci’s and had the exact same pizza with the double helping of mozzarella.

Guess what happened…

That was twelve years ago.  Today I watch everything that I eat.  I do my best not to ingest anything with dairy in it.  I still get minor headaches from time to time and maybe twice a year I’ll get one of the bad ones.  But generally speaking when this happens I look at the ingredients in the foods I ate the day before and in almost all cases I’ll find there is some dairy in them.

When I tell people I can’t have dairy they automatically assume that I must be lactose intolerant.  I always respond it is true in a way, and then I mention the headaches.  A couple of years ago I was talking to a man whose son was getting a lot of them.  I told him my story and he took it to heart.  He later told me his son cut dairy out of his diet and has not been bothered by them since.

I have even mentioned it to parents when I find their babies have ear infections.  Often taking milk out of their diets has reduced or even eliminated the problem.

I am not advocating people stop drinking milk or eating pizza.  My son Max has a bowl of ice cream every night before going to bed but he doesn’t get headaches.  Both he and my wife eat pizza and haven’t had any problems.

But based on my experience and that of others I have met I would suggest that if you suffer like I suffered this is one possibility that shouldn’t be overlooked.