EMILY HAS LONG ARMS

We can feel the tentatacles of Hurricane Emily all the way out here in Southern California. Sure wouldn't think that could be true but that's what the weatherpeople say. We are definitely used to the heat around here, but not the humidity. I was coming out of Trader Joe's (grocery store) the other day and heard some fellow say it was just like Florida. Well I'll take the dry heat any day. It's not as draining on my body. Hopefully we won't get too many hurricanes this fall. (I'm dreaming again!)

BEESTING

Just before we move out of the house in suburbia we visited the new home of some friends of the family. They had moved out of suburbia to an even newer suburbia! But this one was in a really nice area and they had the biggest lawn on a hill with lots of grass. We (me and their kids) were having a great time rolling down this hillside when I felt this awful pain on the top of my head. I thought of Jack and Jill falling down the hill and Jack breaking his crown. I was sure I had done this. Turned out to be a beesting. Wow does that ever hurt! For a long time after that I would hear a little ping ping in my brain when walking. I believed that the stinger never came out and that was what was making that clicking in my head. This pinging was a part of my life well into my teenage years when it finally fell silent. Then it got forgotten until the MS thing hit. After my first MRI I thought they were going to come and tell me that I had this funny pin stuck in my brain. Didn't happen. But they did find something else there eh? Maybe I should try the bee venom thing!

TOO HOT!

Is it the Greenhouse effect? Is it the Depletion of the Ozone Layer? Is it because the earth's axis changed slightly with the earthquake in Sumatra last year? So many questions and not enough answers! The only thing I know for sure is it is TOO HOT!

THE GALLOPING IDIOT

I'm back to that old (new?) house in suburbia. It is soon to be my 5th birthday and my Dad does not like the daily commute to his job in the city so we are going to move. They are showing the house to some prospective buyers who have a child younger than me. This is a good opportunity for me to show off because I am the baby in my family and now I have a youngster to impress. Time to go whole hog, no make that whole horse! I am the bigger kid so I get to be the horsey and my new little friend is the rider. I am galloping around the living room with this kid on my back and I'm really trying to impress this kid's really good looking father. Scary but true! Well the next thing you know I have galloped right into the corner of the coffee table. Oops. I ruined the party! As hard headed as I am I don't think it's a big deal but everyone, Mom, Dad and Company, whisk me off to the hospital. I didn't think it was a big deal until I realized that my mom is freaking out and holding a big white towel to my head that is rapidly getting redder and redder. We get there and I am lying on a gurney with this huge bright light hanging over me so I can't see anything but this strange head looming above. All it took was one stitch, which was removed a week later, but leaves a scar to this day just to remind me that I am not a horse! The prospective buyers took the house but it wasn't due to my making an impression on them, it was because my Mom had a good deal of well established tasty asparagus growing on the property!

I only relay this assinine story because it was my left temple that took the impact and all my MS troubles started on the left side of my face and have subsequently progressed down the left side of my body. Also I want to let all you Mommies and Daddies out there know that the more panic you show to your child after they are injured the more panic that child will feel. Pretend it's just a scratch eh?

 

AFTER THE NITTY GRITTY

Well, here's another episode that I don't remember. That new house we moved to in the suburbs was 2 stories, and of course, I tumbled head over heals down the stairs! Perhaps I had MS at that early age and that's why I don't recollect this event, but it is more likely that the trauma blotted it out. BUT, could this have caused the initial breach of the blood brain barrier?

The neighbour boy and I (now clothed) used to get into all kinds of mischief. Children have a universal goal in life to do exactly that which a parent has told them not to do. In our case, we lived near a spot in the St. Lawrence river that was wide enough to be called a lake. There was a road, River Road, that separated our neighbourhood from that lake. We were forbidden to cross that road without an adult present. Of course it was our duty as inquisitive children to see what happenned if we crossed the road. Once across the road we knew we were not to go near the water. The water had Polio in it! We knew this and even though we did not know what Polio was, we were afraid. I have no memory of entering the water, although I do know we got as close as we could without going in. However, now knowing what I know about my ability to remember things at that age. Did I touch the water? Did neighbour boy touch the water? To the best of my knowledge, our parents did not find out about these escapades to the lake because we were sworn not to tell!

Something I do remember doing after being told not to - was to stick the prong of a fork into the hole in the switchplate on the wall. Of course, I waited until no one was around to perform this little experiment, and I remember the sensation (like a powerful L'Hermittes sign) only it knocked me back a few feet and I landed on my fanny. I have had a great respect for electricity ever since, and some fear!

BEFORE THE NITTY GRITTY

My brother and sister were 11 and 12 when I was born. They were sent off to an aunts when the time came for my birth. My sister told me that when they got back home and saw me, I had spots all over my body that my Mom would put some kind of salve on. She said she dosen't remember what caused them. As my Mom's been gone for 20 years now (Dad's gone too) I guess I'll never know. That's the trouble with being over 50 at the time of diagnosis. My resources as far as history goes are either gone or losing their memories;-) But I don't think it was chicken pox because I got that later on and I don't believe you can get it twice, shingles, yes, but not the pox. Can you?

I do remember my Mom telling me that I was supposed to arrive in the middle of June. She said that when July rolled around the Doctor would call her every day to make sure that I was still kicking! She assured him that I was, and finally, toward the end of July, I arrived. Then, on the delivery table, apparently I was coming out backwards. Caesarian Sections were not a common occurrence back then. They let me alone for 2 hours and I righted myself and started the journey that led me here. So I got off to a slow start. Maybe they were age spots!

Another possible noteworthy item. My Mom was 37 when I was born. Back then that was considered pretty late to be having children. We were best friends and I still miss her and wish she were here.

THEY ONLY MAKE US STRONGER!

A friend of mine was going on vacation today. Flying to London. They are aware of the bombings that took place in the underground, but it's not going to stop them from having a great tour of Jolly Olde's London town! I lived there for a while. It is so full of antiquities in a way that a North American cannot fathom. Even someone from, say, New York. Yet at the same time London is very modern. Kind of an oxymoron. It's just a shame that some people think it is noble to inflict devastation on others in the name of one's God. They say the devil works in strange ways.

MY BEGINNING

I was born in the city. My family lived on a street called Begin. How appropriate a start in this world. It was situated between the University of Montreal and St. Joseph's Oratory. I know one other person who lived in that neighbourhood who developed Multiple Sclerosis but they were only related to me by way of marriage. I only lived there about a year, or so, before moving to the new suburbs. A place where you put in the landscaping after you moved in. Although my memory (one episode) goes back to a time when I still slept in a crib, there is an event that took place that I think might have some bearing on the MS thing. My mother told me that there was a big pile of manure in the back yard while they were preparing to get the landscape together. A slow process with a new house and little money. One day she found me out there in this mountain of dung. I had taken all my clothes off, and was sitting in it with a naked neighbour (a boy who's name I still remember) and we were eating it. It is embarassing to recount it. I have no recollection of this episode, but I can see no reason why my mom would invent such a story. I must also add that the boy and I were about 2 or 3 at the time. Anyway, with the knowledge that some medical people think that MS might be caused by a virus, I think this is a noteworthy event in my life (as gross as it sounds).

Well, I've taken the plunge. I have been reading other people's blogs for a long time and decided that I have a lot to say as well. I am not a techie, but I have multiple sclerosis (newbie there too) and want to put my thoughts online. Any feedback will be welcome. It is my hope (albeit it's way out there) that if enough people in this world who have MS and put their heads together, that "we the people" can find the source of this nuisance. There are certainly a lot of Doctors out there who are working on the problem, but they don't seem to be into sharing much. They do have their pocketbooks to think about.

So I will start by sharing the pitiful amount of knowledge that I have. First concensus is that it mostly affects people who spent their first seven years of life in a northern part of the globe but are not Inuit. I fit this criteria. Second concensus is that their ancestry is Northern European. I fit this one too. Third is that they are probably female. I fit this criteria (but I know that there are many men with this condition). Fourth is that they are usually between the ages of 24 and 50. Now this is where I get off the bus. I did not get diagnosed until the tender age of 53!

I intend to talk about all the crazy and not so crazy things that I did (that I can remember) from the earliest stage in my life and gradually maybe my way up to the present. Again, any feedback will be welcome.