MS Post – last one in March

Well this is last day of March in the end of MS awareness month. Recently the FDA approved the medication that may help slow or stop the progression of Primary Progressive MS. So I called the neurologist a few days ago to ask about it. He is always told me there is nothing in the pipeline that would help me. According to I read this new drug may help me. So I thought I'd give it a shot and they told me they could see me next day at 11:30 AM. I tried calling my wife but couldn't get a hold of her. She had forgotten her phone and I didn't think it was a big deal enough to call her on her work phone line. Instead an appointment that early I thought I'm sure I can get in quickly unlike the past for his appointments are way in the future. When I called they told me that the doctor hadn't seen me for a long time so I needed to come in.
I haven't been to see him since I was a longer able to work. His appointments were always way into the future and has seemed really hard for me to plan on. He also had never had anything to help me and was pretty negative about my prognosis. Whenever I called with a new symptom he would refer me to I primary care doctor to deal with a symptom. So once I quit working I didn't see a need to see him. I had gone to regularly so that I can no longer work he would have the documentation to support my request for disability.
Now I called and expected to be only get in quickly. I found out that the 1130 the next day he told me about this due to a cancellation and the next available was May 25. Back to the same old story. I don't have much hope for this new medication both see him anyway. He is always been a Negative Nelly so I expect to find out that I'm not a candidate either because I'm too far gone for some other reason. I also got a waiting list in case there is a cancellation. Who knows when I will see him. Who knows if the new drug is even useful for me. That's what my MS is all about it's always "who knows".
I have to say I've been pretty grumpy this week. I think it's because the more I discussed my MS the more I think about it. I found thinking about it is useless and I didn't do do best if I just forget about it and live my life best I can. I'm not sure when I'll go to the neurologist but if I go before May 25 of let you know what's going on. Thank you for your care and prayers.

MS Post 8 – March is almost over

March is MS awareness month and it is almost over. This will probably be my last post with this theme. Many people are moody but MS takes this to a whole new level. I usually try to be upbeat but many times my mood is awful. Yesterday morning was one of these times.
I woke up feeling really sorry for myself. It really seemed make me feel trapped I can no longer drive my chair around the house. I could no longer go over and look out the window or go out on the porch when the weather's nice. Yesterday this made me feel extremely trapped. As a consequence I woke up in a very foul mood. I try not to share it with my wife but she could tell. Then when my son came I tried not to share with him. Later that afternoon the bad mood disappeared just as quickly as it appeared.
I wanted to share this because I have many very negative days and only try to post on positive days. It probably doesn't help give a clear picture of MS to only post on good days and so I am sharing this with you. Not looking for sympathy, my own self-pity is definitely enough for me.
There is now a medication approved for Primary Progressive MS and I will be seeing the neurologist sometime soon to see if I am a candidate. I'm sure it won't do anything fantastic but if I could get my right hand back enough to drive my chair I think I would be happy. No telling if I'm a candidate or out much this medication costs. Those things would factor into whether I would try it.
I woke up today and would not in a very good mood but nothing like yesterday. Some days all I look forward to is going to bed and going to sleep. It hasn't happened yet but I keep hoping that I will wake up as something really good will happen. I don't even know what it is I want to happen but my wife and I have phase so many disappointments and very little upticks over the last decade or so. Seems somehow they should balance out somewhere along the way.
The positives that I have over the last few years are all about the caregivers and caring friends I have. I really appreciate everyone who helps and cares about me.

MS Post 7 – MS Society

It's still MS awareness month and I wanted to say something about the MS society. This is a nonprofit organization that helps people with MS of all types. They do educational publications and occasionally sponsor a speaker. The center of our area is Minneapolis and so these as some of the problems that go with distance. Also Minneapolis is a much larger population base and for a slightly rare disease that makes things better for them in that area. They do help in our area but the larger area is easier for them to deal with. They have to help me individually to find a lift for my van when I could still totter around a little bit. It was electric but I do go to the back of the van, left the tailgate and lower with a button to get my chair. When I advance past that point and needed a different man they really had nothing to help me. I depended more on the Iowa Vocational Rehab for some help with that.
I see a lot of their post on Facebook and just wanted to mention why I don't wholeheartedly support them. They are the best MS support group there is but they lack the top grade that a organization that rates charities gives out. One issue is that they do not publish their financials and so this group has a difficulty rating them as far as administration costs versus charitable help. I understand that if they did open their books they would get a C or B rating. They do help a lot funding MS research and it recently started to tackle Primary Progressive. If you wish to support MS research they are definitely the place to go. I would be much more apt to repost their Facebook things if they at a higher grade of this charitable giving chart.
If you wish to support MS society there are walks and you can give directly and you can feel good that most of the money is going toward the disease. Perhaps not as much as it should but they are still the best that I know of. I got this off my chest now then move on to other things.

MS Post 6

Again it reminder that March is MS awareness month. One of my sons as asked if I can feel things in my appendages like my legs that cannot move except to spasm. I think he finds it strange that I can still feel but cannot move my legs. I have a deteriorated sense of feeling in the appendages that have problems working. I can still feel a number of things even though the feelings are dampened. I can still feel a lot and cold and have found out that I can feel when I spill hot coffee in my lap or on my arm.
When something hurts my foot or hands I can feel the pain and my response is that that appendage spasms by sticking straight out. It's really quite strange but again MS is what MS is.
I have a friend who is a paraplegic due to a farming accident and he must be very careful because he can no longer feel anything in his legs. He could get cut or frozen and never feel a thing. Me on the other hand I feel both for the most part.
One of the strangest things to me is that now my hands act very strangely when I'm in bed. As I lay there and do not move my body loses track of where my hands are. My brain thinks they are floating in the air above me. This sensation is very odd and I must move my hand a little bit so my fingers feel where they are. Of course there never floating above me it just feels like that. I don't get that feeling in my legs. I have no real explanation for these situations but do find them odd. MS is a strange disease but it is not a boring disease. There is always something new to deal with.

MS Post 5 – sleep problems

March s MS awareness month and the MS society posted on Facebook The link to an article about sleep problems that go with MS. My own experience is that most of the time I sleep pretty good. Problems show up when I take too long of a nap during the day. On these days and up not being able to sleep and sometimes I am still awake and my wife goes to work. I have about two nights like this a month. It is a very frustrating because I've always had this problem. A used to be I would get up and read in the living room. Now I'm not able to. I can only read for less than an hour on my iPad that I could no longer lift my hand to turn the pages. After that I just lay there until I eventually find sleep. The nights are extremely long and last night was one of these.
I used to have an iPad in the living room and when it was plugged in I could use the Siri function and set an alarm. Then when a one off I only got about a half hour of sleep and could sleep at night. Now I only have my iPhone to use Siri with. It's really stupid because I can set the alarm with Siri but strangely I cannot turn off the alarm with Siri. My hand doesn't work so I'm stuck listening to the alarm. Fortunately it only goes for about 10 minutes and then shuts off. That I can use Siri to turn off the alarm so doesn't go back on. That is a very annoying 10 minutes. So I quit using this function and just hope I wake up in time. Yesterday at didn't work out very well and so I had a very very long night.
I find the Siri function useful but unfortunately so stupid it's hard to believe. I can make a phone call with Siri. But guess what, I cannot answer a phone call with Siri or hang up when I get someone's voicemail. They keep telling me to push numbers to get out of the voicemail but Siri doesn't work for that. How can they make Siri so useful and stupid at the same time?
Oh well I'm just going to have to try to not nap today so I can sleep tonight. I know there people who have it a lot worse so I try not to whine too much.

My goat story – lighthearted story, nothing serious today

Today my subject is lighthearted. I want to apologize for the bad grammar that comes through many times. My voice software seem to work really good sometimes and then I trust it and don't proofread like I should. Many times I read my own posts and I can't figure out what on earth I was trying to say. Part of it is the software and part is my speech is not that good anymore. I know y'all overlooked that.
Today there was a post from a friend on Facebook with a video of baby goats. Other than Labrador puppies baby goats are probably the cutest things in the world. Now I have a goat story from my past that I will share.
This was the time I became a goat broker. Where I work there was a guy whose father had a small acreage and a lot of animals. There was an older goat that that there and he was having problems with it because it would need the other animals food before they could get it. He asked around at work if anybody wanted a goat. I said I might but needed to talk to my wife. We lived on an acreage and I thought the go could keep the horses company. We already had problems with the horses eating all the grass in their pasture so she thought a goat would not be a good fit. She talked to her sister lived on an acreage north of us and she said they would take it. So I told the guy at work that I could take the goat and that they would come and get it for their acreage. It was a good idea to him and we agreed he would bring it on a Friday and they would come and get it on a Saturday.
On Friday came he brought the goat over to my truck and asked how I was going to keep it in the back. I said I would just tie it to the center of the bed. He said no way. It was too dangerous and the goat might hurt himself. He said the goat would ride in the cab and be very quiet since he was a very mild-mannered animal. I said okay and into the cab he went. It was very funny on the way home as I drove through town. He was sitting next to me and was as calm as could be. Get a full set of horns so this made quite a picture. I came to a number of stoplights getting home and the other drivers did double takes and I think more than one hurt their neck to see ago next to me.
He ended up living with my wife's sister for a long time and was always a easy animal to take care of. That is my story of when I was a broker!

Autism – my experience

Yesterday I saw on the show 60 Minutes that Sesame Street introduced an autistic character. This made me remember the only exposure I have had to an autistic child. It was when my children were younger and I coached Little League (coach pitch) when I had an autistic participant. It really turned out to be a very strange and awkward situation for me.
There was a group of people who ran the baseball program in the small town we lived. It was called the Diamond club and they met in a local bar. Because of this I never joined because I stayed out of bars for many many years due to an alcohol problem. So I was left out of choosing up the teams. The people in this club became notorious for stacking the blue team with the athletic kids and the red team got the leftovers. They threw in a few athletes to make it seem like it was fair but everyone knew the red team was the leftovers. Kids didn't really seem to care. Of course I coach the red team and got the players that they decided I would get. I asked two years in a row to be included but was never notified of the meeting. For two years in a row they gave me a child named Danny who was autistic. His mother wanted to "mainstream him". Part of this mainstreaming was that he got to play baseball like the other kids. I would not have had a problem with this if someone would have talked to me in advance and give me some idea about a deal with this. All I knew was he showed up for practice and his mother drove away. It all seems pretty strange now, she never spoke to me once for two years. I had no idea how to deal with this issue but had to learn and the kids on my team told me how to deal with it.
I have no real problem with him being on the team but it was pretty obvious early on that he just wanted to be around kids a went to school with. He enjoyed I saw that was really good. The only problem I had as and he had no interest in actually playing baseball. This is what made it very awkward. When he was in the field playing defense it I was terrified you would get hit in the head with a baseball because he never really paid attention. He found the dandelions in the field were much more interesting. Since he was part of the team I felt I would be very heavily criticized if I just sat him on the bench and so I risked having him play. I noticed up very early on he had no interest in actually hitting the ball and seem to deliberately avoid making contact when he batted. In coach pitch I would pitch to the kids and if they miss a three times they were out. Danny tried to miss and then he would sit down. One time the other coach insisted I keep pitching to him until he made contact. Is took about 30 patches and when he did make contact everyone started to scream "Ron". It was really hard for me to see but he was terrified by the screaming but there was nothing I could do about it. His mom was at the games and never said a word to Danny or me. Looking back I really felt used and totally unprepared by anyone that should've really cared about it. I'm just glad that after two years I moved up to the next level and Danny didn't go out for baseball. I still don't understand why his mother never help me with the whole thing. I'm just glad we never got hurt because it was baseball's can really do some damage. Two years and she never spoke a word to me. I have to say I enjoyed Danny and found a very interesting person but I've had hard feelings toward his mother all these years.

MS Post 4 – temperature sensitivity

temperature sensitivity
MS Post 4
March is MS awareness month and I found this article in the attached link interesting and prompted me to make this post. There are many symptoms and problems that go with MS but have found temperature sensitivity has just gotten worse as time goes on. I have the thermostat set at 73 and in the morning am comfortable. Afternoon I'm cold until around 7 o'clock at night. Then I get very warm. I find this very annoying. Over the last few years I have become very sensitive to heat. I try to stay out of the sun in the summer and am more or less restricted to the air-conditioning when he gets above 80°. This is turned me into a real homebody.
I used to get warm all the time and look forward to going out in the cold. I used to spasm a lot more by them now on a anti-spasm medication. I have found that I'm cold a lot more than I used to be. I suppose the muscle activity during the spasms get me a warm and overheated a lot. It's very frustrating because even one degrees difference on the thermostat can make a huge difference to me. I feel like such a pansy. 30 years ago we went about 11 years without an air conditioner and just  used ceiling fans. Now I am dependent on air-conditioning.
Oh well, MS is what it is and I just have to learn to deal with it. Only problem is my wife has to deal with it to. Some nights with the thermostat set the same as normal I still get overheated and have to wake her up to uncover me some. Then when I cool down I have to wake her up again to cover me back up. Very humbling to be dependent like this.

Auto memory from 40 years ago.

Recently they began showing and Alfa Romeo sports car commercial on TV. One of the things I mentioned that I miss because of MS is fantasizing about driving cool cars. This commercial has been kind of tough because it is such a sweet ride. In my younger days when of my friends Dave always had a new vehicle and they were usually on the sporty side. Whenever Dave pulled into a car dealer was always able to test drive pretty much whatever he wanted.
The time I remember the most is when we test drove a sports car convertible and had a V 12 engine. It was pretty exotic and I think it was either an Alfaa Romera or a Fiat 124. I don't remember well enough. I do remember that I got to drive it. Back in those days our school was near shaver Park and it was always empty during the day. It was very curvy and we would race our cars around the curves and time our efforts to compare. So we started at one end and Dave drove and he raced through the park. I got to drive on the way back and wanted to be his time. Before the park exit I was heading toward there is a gradual right turn. I remember going around this curve in third-year and the last I looked at the speedometer I was going 60 miles an hour and still accelerating. As I came around the curve it was a policeman pulling into the park.
I immediately slowed down and pulled over because he flashes lights at us. He came up and after he asked for my license he told me "I don't know how fast you are going so I can't take it you but I do know you're going pretty fast". He also said to slow it down. The worst part was that he followed us back to the dealer so I had to abide by the speed limit which in that sports car was pure torture. That car was made to fly.
This was about 40 years ago and my other friend Mark and a cool Mustang. Because of that he was able to test drive other Mustang power cars. I will post more on that later.

MS post – Memory of a Stolen Moment

Recently a friend posted on Facebook a picture of their daughter sitting on the edge of a rocky overhang. Reminded me of our son Dan and his adventurous/scary things he did and still does. When we would go for hikes like at Backbone State Park he would always run up to the edge of an overhang and look over. Usually scared me to death. Fast-forward to when I'm 50.
For my 50th birthday my son Dan took me up to Door County in Wisconsin to go kayaking. On my 50th birthday we circumnavigated Rock Island. When I was 50 I knew there was something wrong with me but I had not been diagnosed yet. I was pretty wobbly and kept rolling my left ankle over. So I was not real steady but we went anyway.
The day before my birthday we hiked over to the edge of a cliff on Rock Island. I was standing on the edge just like he would've done 30 years earlier and was looking down at about a 50 foot drop off. Of course I was wobbling. It was so funny because he yelled at me to move back from the edge and said "what are you doing so close you're scaring me!" I thought it was very, very funny that the tables were turned.
Looking back now I know MS was really messing with me and I probably should not have done what we did. Hiking and kayaking were not the safest thing to do in my condition but I feel like I stole it from MS.
The day we kayaked back to Washington Island, where our vehicle was, there were 4 to 5 foot waves because of the North wind blowing toward the island. They were the largest waves I have are kayaked in. I must admit I was very scared. It was very difficult and I think we barely made it back even though it was less than a mile. It was a little intimidating to be on top of a wave and be looking down at Dan at the bottom of the wave. We did make it back okay and if I hadn't I would've just blown onto the bank of Washington Island and would've been safe. When I kayaked I always had a backup plan and that was it. It was still pretty scary and I did not want to be blown into the Rocky bank behind me. I now look back on that trip and am very proud. It is one of my fondest memories especially since I stole it from MS.

MS post versus Christian faith

Some of you know that I'm a follower of Jesus and have his salvation. It may seem strange I have faith and my affliction with this weird disease. One question that might arise is if your God is so great and your faith sustains you why does God not heal you? Some might say my faith is not strong enough. Some might say my affliction Proves there is no God. I believe that God could heal me in one second if he chose to. This affliction is not from God but is allowed by God. We live in a sinful world where we are all born as sinners. His offer of salvation is extended to all who will believe in his son Jesus and repent. It is a free gift. But I'm not promised physical healing in this life. I'm just promising God will be with me through my suffering and sustained me.
I would say to you that God does not heal all suffering because for one reason is that there can be no physical benefit to having faith. If this were so people would come to faith for the wrong reason. At one point Jesus told the crowd that followed him that they did not follow him to hear him but only followed him because he had fed them. So I do not expect God to heal me but I have found is sustaining grace and I have to say is sufficient for me. I do have dark times where he I wallow in self-pity. These are not times where I've born up by faith but have totten down under my circumstances. I do know that have been and a new body await me when I'm done with this scene.
I have been reading in Second Samuel chapter 22. This is one where David has been delivered physically from his enemies and he expounds on the greatness of God. This is the third day in a row that I have read this chapter because there is so much in. I think I will spend a few more days reading at meditating on it. One line is stood out to me more than some of the others. David said "thy gentleness as may be great". These are amazing words and they believe they apply to all followers of Jesus.

MS Post 3

I was diagnosed with Primary Progressive Multiple Sclerosis (PPMS) in June 2009. Since that time I have read a lot of information about all four types of MS. The numbers I've read for all these years have been that there are 800,000 people in the US afflicted by MS. 2.5 million worldwide. For some reason most are in the northern hemisphere and not near the equator at all. Of course no one knows why.
Of these 800,000 in the US about 80% have the Relapsing Remitting type. Some are lightly afflicted Ike met Romney's wife. Some are severely affected like Montel Williams and others. They say that about 10% have my type. So makes about 8000 people in the US. My type is very difficult and there are no treatments. Part of why is that is pretty advanced before any symptoms show up. I can look back as far as 1999 and recognize some early symptoms that I just attributed to getting older or working out too much.
Back to the numbers all. Most of the 800,000 have relapsing remitting type. Of these 50% of them will develop what is called Secondary Progressive which like mine as no real treatments. It acts similar to mine but the symptoms usually are not as pronounced as mine. Many walk with canes and if you end up in wheelchairs but it is not considered as severe as mine. For whatever reason, no one knows, my case has had extreme symptoms progression that was not expected by the doctor or myself. Everything I read online supports what the doctor told me. Most of the people I know that have my type are about my age but most are still walking or using a cane, walker or in some rare cases use the power chair but can still get out and walk a little bit.
So these are some of the numbers I've heard over the years.
In 2009 I could still drive and work. I joined an MS support group that meets at Mercy Hospital and met some beautiful people and a couple of people who had really bad attitudes. Of course I miss the wonderful people because I can get to the meetings anymore because I don't drive. While I was there I met one young man with the fourth type of MS that combines the worst of progressive and relapsing in one and affects younger people. It is rare and his name is Justin. He is one of the beautiful people that I met and I find him inspiring. He was only 17 when he was diagnosed and if anybody should be bitter it would be him. But he has a wonderful spirit and a very good attitude. I hope this doesn't sound too weird but I have a brotherly love for this young man that I have for no one else. He celebrates every small victory he has over MS and keeps walking as much is he can as long as he can.
I'm not sure of the percentage of people who get this type but I'm told it is very rare. He can be treated for the relapsing portion of the disease and had regular treatments of a drug called Tysabri. It seems room as posts that this help and I wish him the best.
This is all I have energy for today I will sign off and thank you again for reading my post.

Crazy animal numbers

Sometimes I hear numbers that really hit home. Last year I heard that the animal shelter in Dubuque accepted 2000 cats and kittens. This was a staggering number for a city the size of Dubuque. I imagine Cedar Rapids is probably about the same or more. The number that had the hardest was that they had placed on thousand of them and were very proud of that number. I have to wonder what happened to the other thousand. I doubt they kept all of them and I'm afraid hundreds ended up being put down but those numbers are not published. There are way too many cats and cats that are not neutered.
When I was looking for cat I went to the Cedar Rapids shelter first. The and a few out front that were ready for adoption. There were only about half a dozen and the one I liked was way too young for what I was looking for. We asked if there were others and they said there was a back room. We went back there and there were at least 30 to 50 cat in partitioned space. I picked out one but found I went back to the desk that nothing back there was adoptable yet. Lady did not seem very interested in helping us because it was close to quitting time.
Necktie wants to Cedar Valley shelter. They showed me a room of cats and there were about 30 of them in cages. I ended up being selected by Macy. I had already asked if there were more cats in the girls said oh yeah, there is a whole room this size in the other building. So that put them around 50 cats. So between both shelters there are about 100 cats ready for adoption. I wish I could've taken 10 home with me. It's really kind of a sad deal and I wish people would neutered their cats so that the supply does not exceed a home for them.
The shelter doesn't seem to have the same problem with dogs and seems to place them fairly quickly and they have very few on-site. One said thing about the dogs is how many I see on their website that are part pitbull. I know many pit bulls are sweet and fantastic dogs but there are many people and places where there is a bias because of all the dogs have been bred over the years. They were bred originally to grab the bull by the nose and drag it where the owner wanted. They are very powerful dogs and a bad one give produce a lot of damage. I wish pitbull owners would get their dogs neutered because their way too many part pitbull dogs and people will accept.
Well that's my two cents worth on animals and pets!

Atlas – two days in a row to the dog park

Tom is here with Atlas this week so my MS post may have to wait a little. Yesterday and today we got to go to the dog park. Yesterday Tom took Atlas and I stayed in the car because it was so windy. It was so interesting watching the dogs and Atlas.
Today Matt drove me out into the park and even with my poncho and stocking cap on I got cold. So Tom took me back to the car and I got to watch the dogs.
They are fascinating to watch all the different kinds, mixes and breeds. They form never-ending groups of dogs. Sometimes a be up back running one way and then wanted to dogs will join a different group. I never realize how social dogs can be until yesterday. Of course Atlas gets so excited when we pull into the park there because he knows get to go to the dog park. We don't know why he gets excited because he really doesn't socialize like the other dogs do.
All he cares about is chasing Ms. ball and getting to it before anybody else and bring it back to Tom or Matt. I think he likes a dog park because other dogs try to get to his ball before him and he gets to show that they don't have a chance! I think he likes it when other dogs try to get away from them and occasionally one of them is a little faster gets to it first. Sometimes he tries to chase them to get back to the times he just like shrugs his shoulders and says oh well grandma will give me another ball.
I feel pretty fortunate to get out this early in March. The wind is just crazy though. Today was sunny when we were there so I thought it would be okay. But there are no windbreaks of the dog park and I could not get somewhere warm. At our house there wasn't much went in the sun was out and it was gorgeous. His son felt so warm.
I guess to sum it up I'm fascinated by all the different breeds and mixes that try to guess what the mixes are made up of. The only type I have seen more than one of his Labrador retrievers. Other than that it is always a total mix. Today we saw one that looked just like a golden retriever only was totally black. It wasn't a Gordon setter because it did not have those characteristics. I never did find the owner to ask them all kind it was.

Animal adoption

I have read quite often that there are people who think you should choose a shelter animal over other ones. Since I can no longer scratch Macy's chin I have become "persona non grata". She had become Janette cat and hounds Tom and he is here. Sometimes I feel bad about it but that's how cats are. It's one of you done for me in the last five minutes.
I love having Atlas here. He sleeps on the bed with me and it is nice to have him around. This is mad e me think I wish I had a dog of my own. So I have looked at some of the rescue sites and all of them say they don't know if the dog's house broke. It is a huge thing since I cannot let the dog out or work with them as a young one. Atlas can go the 6 to 8 hours that he might have to without a problem.
Somebody posted one on Facebook that seemed perfect for me. It weighed 15 pounds but it was in Omaha. It said it was well-off broke which was unusual for shelter animals. Tom is near Omaha once in a while so I thought maybe I could adopted and Tom could check it out and bring it home if he does good.
When I look to their requirements that they had for adopters I was stunned. They required of fenced in yard and they had a application that was more extensive than it took to get a mortgage. Then they required a home visit to see if you are suitable. Their fee was $400 and I would be expected to have the dog well this check by my veterinarian.
I can see why shelter dogs don't get adopted and people just choose to purchase a puppy. So much easier than the shelter dog requirements. I think they need to make it easier to adopt their animals. To me if you own a home you should be able to bring the dog home with no questions asked. It seems to me a dog will be happier there than it can all waiting months for the right person. Before my son Tom purchased Atlas he checked local shelters. All they had were little dogs that were yippee and big dogs were pretty old and very large. That is why he decided to get a puppy.
He ended up getting a puppy from a family by Washington Iowa. They were very nice people and there are very caring about the dogs they bred and where the puppies went. Atlases mom had two large litters for them.. Atlas had 12 brothers and sisters. To show all nice these people are they would bring each pup into the house at night one by one. So Atlas was sort of house broke when Tom picked him up. Since the mother and had two large litters they were not going to breeder again. They are very caring about their dogs. These seem to fall in love with each of the pups and had a hard time letting them go
the point of my post today is that sheltered need to find a way to not make it so hard to adopt.

MS Awareness Month – Post Two

I probably should've included this in yesterday's post about MS. I described the lesions but what I didn't describe is the main effect they have. What they do is break down the signals from the brain and that causes a lack of function in the associated area of the body that these nerves control. That is one reason why all MS people have different symptoms out of the same large group of symptoms. It's very strange to have a limb that just ignores the command from my brain. I found as I was losing function I could concentrate very hard and get a little extra movement. I think this is part of what leads to the MS fatigue is associated with every form of MS. Now it seems very strange to me to be 2 feet from my bed and I cannot get into it. Now the my right hand is losing and has lost most function very strange to look at it and try to get it to move to wages up and 6 inches over to run my chair.
One other fact that is rarely mentioned is that your body sends signals back to the brain so that the brain knows where the limb is and what is happening. I believe this called proprioception or something like that. So now different things affect my limbs strangely. If someone changes my body position my legs and arms may spasm. Usually the spasming makes the limb go straight. Sometimes the limb does the opposite because the receptors signals are confused while going through the lesion. So far the spasming is not painful and I think at up to keep up some muscle tone. I did have one night where the spasming became uncontrollable in my legs arms and neck. After a trip to the ER I have now on a medication that reduces the spasm. When my arms spasm they do all sorts of unfortunate things like press against the joystick of my wheelchair and away I go. After twice is that I had the wheelchair people (Unity Point home health) move my joystick over so that I can no longer hit it when I spasm. Unfortunately this puts his out of my reach when I want to control my chair. Occasionally in the mornings when I'm fresh I'm able to drive my chair from the bedroom to the living room. Some days I can get my hand off the control and I go around in circles until my wife can tear my hand off the joystick. Never a dull moment in our house!

MS Awareness Month – Post One

March is MS awareness month so I will post from time to time what I know about this weird disease. The physics of this is that the brain, brainstem and nerve bundle going to the spinal column have developed lesions on them called sclerosis. Since there are more than one, that is where the multiple in the name come from. These lesions have been examined in autopsies and found to be like a rubbery ball. I'm told many of them are the size of grapes. They surround a nerve bundle in the areas I mentioned earlier. No one knows where they come from or why people get them, where they attach themselves or why the symptoms are so different from one person to another. Some people have these lesions and no symptoms because the brain is fantastic and finding workarounds. Sometimes the brain can no longer overcome the symptoms and the symptoms show up. They are always different from one person to the next. There are four types of MS and no one knows why these similar lesions act so different from one person in the next.
In some people these lesions produce inflammation in the spinal areas and this inflammation produces the symptoms. There are many, many drugs developed now to treat this inflammation. As the inflammation goes up and down, the symptoms come and go. This type is called Relapsing Remitting. This is the most common form and usually shows up first with optical problems. Some people have one relapse and go many years between the next. Some people have them quite often and severe. No one knows why. This is not an exhaustive description of MS. I will jump to my type. I have what is called Primary Progressive. In my case the lesions do not produce the inflammation that you have with the type that does. My immune system spent decades attacking these lesions and the interior nerve cover called myelin. So my lesions had been working for decades before the symptoms showed up. The symptoms show up when my immune system has succeeded in removing the myelination and the nerve ends up dying. The symptoms are irreversible since the nerves are dead. In my case no one can predict how severe it will be as it progresses. In my case, I have had no new lesions since my initial diagnosis in 2009. I guess that is good, but my symptoms of the existing lesions have become much, much worse and I think most of you know where I am at physically.
Many of the symptoms I read about with relapsing type of MS, I do not get. My days are more or less the same with a very slow decrease in function. I'm told MS does not affect vital organs and that is one reason MS is not considered terminal. I do find know that my diaphragm, being a muscle, has been affected and as the day progresses my voice becomes fainter and fainter. Some nights when I go to speak nothing comes out. My wife has been pretty good at reading my lips and guessing what I need. Without that I would be up the proverbial creek without a paddle!