Howdy! Today is Tuesday, 3/3/20, and it is …. drum roll… RAINING AGAIN IN NORTH CAROLINA! I’m beginning to think the trees out back are going to be needed for my ARK! Also, it IS voting day today! I hope everyone who is eligible to vote .. does! Doesn’t matter who is voting for who, just vote!
Back to business….
My last several blogs were a historical look at what led up to my diagnosis with MS. Was it a riveting story? Did you cry? Did you laugh? Did you fall asleep? Did you say, “Get on with it! Good Grief!”? Or, was it just a bit of insight into the life of a normal guy, with a normal family, going through something that’s… well… just a little “not normal”? I hope it’s the latter! I certainly didn’t cry or laugh writing it, but I probably did fall asleep for a minute or two. Additionally, I DID scold myself on how wordy I was getting! 🙂
Anyway, to continue the story… After the initial diagnosis we (My wife and I… we’re in this together.. mostly! More on that later…) saw two more Neurologists before truly accepting that, not only did I have MS, but that I needed to start taking medication to combat it. It’s a tough call to make! The majority of MS medications have fairly serious side-effects (Up To and Including.. wait for it… DEATH). At the time we were determining which medication would be best, one of the newer medications to the market had caused serious illnesses for the folks taking it. Bad illnesses with BAD results. The reports made us really nervous about what route we should take.
Fortunately, we had a great doctor at the time and he suggested a drug called Copaxone. Copaxone was administered via shot each day of the week. Yes. Seven shots a week rotating from thighs, to stomach, upper butt cheeks and upper arms. No easy way to say it. The shots sucked. Bad. But you know, they were JUST shots and even though they hurt, Copaxone was doing it’s job and I had few issues in the early years! The reaction I experienced most frequently on Copaxone was bruising (Bad bruises that lasted for months and months). 🙁 I’ll get more into drugs and side effects over time. 🙂
I took Copaxone for about 12 years and it seemed to work really well! I was able to maintain my job, do fun things with my family and, for the most part, just live my life with MS in the backseat. Of course, there were risks to consider, so I knew not to physically exert myself when it was hot or to not get overly concerned about being TIRED ALL OF THE TIME. All in all, my new normal was mostly OK. However….
As I mentioned in prior blogs, cognitive issues associated with MS are very real, although hard to “See” or understand. Unlike physical issues which can be easy to spot, cognitive issues impacting memory, speaking, concentrating or even paying attention… can be much harder to accept. Unfortunately for me, I started having significant trouble with my memory and concentration (Wait… who said that? LOL) that has only gotten worse over the years.
Cognitive issues WERE and ARE a daily struggle for me, my wife and those I am close to. I don’t know how often I tell the same stories or ask the same questions. At work, not remembering specific details for project work or just daily tasks was, at times, really upsetting, but mostly.. just embarrassing and sad. Cognitive issues were major factors in my eventual decision to leave the workplace.
You might be saying to yourself… “Wait! Steve left the workplace? Didn’t he say he was on Copaxone and it was going to modify his disease and allow him to maintain his health and wellness?”. Well, maybe I’m just a cynic, but I bet a few of you may have been asking those same thing!
And… I’ll answer those questions, at least some of them, on my next blog!
🙂 Enjoy your day and thanks for visiting!
