Editors Note: Kerri is an amazing person and I love to read her blog because we may not have the same illness but we are both sick and struggle day to day because of the disease we have. Everyone should follow this lady because if she can make it through her days then so can we all!
Invisible Illness Week
MS Tuesdays
This week is invisible illness week. I am going re-post my story so that people can read it that maybe didn’t get a chance to read it the first time.
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- Multiple Sclerosis is what they call an autoimmune disease. This means that the person immune system for some reason decided it is going to attack so part of the body that it shouldn’t attack. In MS the immune system decides it is going to attack the nerves of the CNS (central nervous system). They are not sure what triggers the immune system to think that part of the body is a invader and needs to be attacked.
- There are a lot of different symptoms that go along with this disease. I am going to list some of the most common ones: Fatigue, problems with walking, numbness, tingling, slurred speech, tremors, stiffness, problems with vision, cognition, speech, and elimination. Every person with MS has different symptoms.
- Anyone can get MS. Women are more like to get it than men and so are people with a lighter pigmentation to there skin. So Montel Williams who has MS is a real rarity. They think MS has a genetic link but they aren’t sure what it is. In my case there is no one in my family history of it. You usually get diagnosed between the ages of 20-50. I was a rarity and was diagnosed at age 16. Although younger patients are now getting diagnosed because doctors are starting to look for it at a younger ages.
- MS symptoms happen when the immune system attacks the myelin around the nerves. If you think of your nerves like a wire the myelin would be the protective covering around the wire. If the nerve underneath the myelin gets hurt that is what causes the symptoms and some times permanent disabilities.
- The body tries to repair the damage that is done but it is never the same the the nerve never really functions the same.
- MS is rarely fatal. Most of the time people with MS with get a common cold of the flu and that is what will end up taking their lives.
- There are several treatments out there that each do things differently. I am on one called Tysabri and it is the most expensive and most dangerous of the drugs. All of the current MS treatments are expensive and it makes it hard for people like me who have the disease to get the treatments that they need. There is always new treatments in the works and exciting things happening in research that hold so much hope for future generations.
- There is currently no cure for MS.
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I began to get sick when I was in 10th grade. The first really symptom that I can remember is my left leg started to drag. It would just stop working at random times. I can remember in gym class that year we had to run the mile for a grade and I did my best but I was going to fail the class because I could run it fast enough because my leg was dragging. We went to the doctors and lets just say the only reason they did an MRI was because my grandma pushed for it. When that came back they called us in because they needed to talk to us. They said that there was what they call lesions on the brain. They show up as white spots on the brain. They told us that they needed to do a spinal tap to rule out MS.
Invisible Illness Week
This week is invisible illness week. I have a chronic but invisible illness. People that don’t know me tend to think I am just lazy or a bitch. I wish that people would take the time to get to know me before they judge me. If you don’t have an invisible illness you don’t know what it feels like for people to not understand that there is a reason I am like I am. Here are some stats that will shock you. I know they did me!
- Nearly 1 in 2 Americans (133 million) has a chronic condition
- 96% of them live with an illness that is invisible. These people do no use a cane or any assistive device and may look perfectly healthy.
- That number is projected to increase by more than one percent per year by 2030, resulting in an estimated chronically ill population of 171 million. Chronic Care in America
- Sixty percent of the chronically ill are between the ages of 18 and 64.
- The divorce rate among the chronically ill is over 75 percent
I got these stats from:http://invisibleillnessweek.com/2009/05/06/statistics_chronic_illness/.
There are so many different types of invisible illness. This week I am having some great guest posters post about their invisible illnesses. I will post my story on Tuesday and then the other days I will have some amazing women post about their struggles with their invisible but chronic illnesses. I hope everyone can learn from these lady’s and be a little more excepting of others!