Back when I was in my second year of college ( sounds like a long time ago but feels like yesterday!) I mentioned to a fellow classmate in Biology that I have MS, his response? How come you're not shaking! I still don't really understand what he meant but the obvious symptom that did come to mind was that of the 'tremors'.
On first thought tremor just means a bit of shaking somewhere literally right? But as I'm sure you'd know by now things are never so simple with anything related to multiple sclerosis. Tremors aren't the only reason there may be a bit of 'shaking' occuring but the first and main one I reckon would be the tremors.
So, a tremor would be described as a trembling or shaking movement that can't be controlled in the affected muscle. Usually in a rhythmic shaking either fine small movements or larger more explicit ones. This would be due to a damaged nerve(s) somewhere along the neurological pathway to the muscle that is concerned.
Furthermore, there are two types of these tremors. An intention tremor where an MSer is intending to do something like switch a light on and the tremor worsening as the hand gets closer to the object. Postural tremor, where the muscles are trying to hold part of the body still against the force of gravity and just has the odd wiggle because of the main reason of most symptoms, the short circuit reaction.
Ataxia is a term for a group of disorders that affect co-ordination, balance and speech thus the tremor, along with the tremors and the previous loss of sensationor any other related symptoms, this leaves an MSer with the infamous butter finger trait, so it would make sense if things don't last long in our hands, we miss the hand when reaching for a handshake, turning a page or untangling your headphones becoming a bit like an Olympic sport!
With me it just happened to occur in its more severe state ( post relapse) at the ending of winter, so I had a lot of people telling me to bring a pair of gloves, or wear extra clothing next time I left the house! But when I did have these tremors it was difficult to hold the phone straight or bring a cup of tea to the table, it almost frightened a few folk around me resulting in them grabbing my hand to hold it straight, which reminded me of something that's done whenever there is a mouse, spider or lizard ( yes in India and so these are common household guests! Though a stick or brush is used!) and a rush movement to grab them or hit them is usually the typical response now displayed when my hand couldn't stop dancing around!
These two videos below showing examples of the tremors and their effects:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dmZMK6FNps
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01ojuCnMonM
Sunday 27 November 2016
Sunday 20 November 2016
Balance problems and dizziness (vertigo, drunkard disease)
Most people with MS are regularly perceived to being drunk and having ' a bit too many'. This is all due to the balance problems that can be seen and the effect of 'dizziness' that is experienced. Something we would hardly realise or even think about is the complexity of our balance and our human ability to stand up straight without wobbling over. MS at a time was known as the 'drunkard disease' because of symptoms based on these points below.
For normal balance (just to clarify, on two legs not one!) there are different parts of the human body that work together; Information your brain receives and the replies it sends out can be late, incomplete or misleading. The messages being passed inside your brain can also be disrupted, which affects the way it processes balance information. we can put this into three groups to make things that tiny bit easier to understand! The input, processing and the output, not as simple as baking a cake unfortunately but regardless, here we go!
The input consists of three avenues and these are; vision - the symptoms left by ON can give confusing information to the brain that would try to understand incomplete or disrupted signals - the inner ear - which updates our brains of the angle and position of our heads, disruption or missing information can lead to balance issues- and sensory changes - if you can't feel things properly then signals needed by the brain to make us stay straight aren't received properly or at all - thus MSers tend to wobble around or remain completely stagnant for our own safety ( on a wheelchair, or using walking aids to help us walk straight, well just about).
Processing of the messages sent by the NS are vital for our brains to process the right information. Damage to the cerebellum ( at the base of the brain, see picture below) or the brain stem can lead to symptoms like vertigo ( slight movements making your body feel like it is on a rollercoaster) or nausea. Similar to the way a person who gets travel sick or sea sick would feel as their body finds it hard to process the information of being stable but moving ( on water or road) at the same time.
Output, as already stated the muscles respond in a delayed manner or not at all due to neurological damage and more specific symptoms ( which we still have to discuss) the muscles aren't able to respond to messages from the brain properly so the MSer with the damaged system thus looks drunk if anything. I look drunk all the time; I have an excuse for walking into things/ people or tripping to my right when taking a left in the corridor but I've never had a 'drink' in my life!
Usually when I do seem to be toppling over, something very much expected with MS I'm told I didn't eat enough food or told to slow down, it has been a very long time since I've rushed to do anything believe me!
Unfortunately, I try my best but all posts can't be so funny and entertaining, some like this have to be just plain and boring! Till next week guys!
Unfortunately, I try my best but all posts can't be so funny and entertaining, some like this have to be just plain and boring! Till next week guys!
Sunday 13 November 2016
Optic neuritis, nystagmus and the scary stuff!
Moving on, optic neuritis. Yes as you could have guessed, the eyes! This occurs when there is a relapse primarily affecting the part(s) of the brain that are involved in sight and vision.
The main symptoms that occur from this would be either blurred, double or complete loss of vision in either one of the eyes ( depending on which one gets 'attacked'). This too is usually one of the onset symptoms of MS and thus many (like me) MSers would be diagnosed after referrals from an ophthalmologist ( a medical doctor who specialises in eye care), an optician ( though the one I saw told me my glasses were dirty!) or even the GP to get further tests to check for nerve damage.
As discussed before, the nerve damage never completely recovers so this damage can leave a lasting damage with unclear vision and 'nystagmus'. This is basically when the pupils of the eyes randomly like to have a bit of a dance, Nystagmus most commonly causes the eyes to look involuntarily from side to side in a rapid, swinging motion rather than staying fixed on an object or person. Some nystagmuses, however, cause the eyes to jerk sideways or up and down.
The slightly scary stuff ( especially if your frightened of insects and horror movies!) is due to the nystagmus, your eyes may 'lie' to you, so with my experience; I thought there were beetles crawling all over my bedside wall and when I prepared to give them a whack, turned to see an empty plain wall as it was meant to be!
Not stopping there, if there is damage in other parts of the brain, it can lead to a transmission issue, so as when a human would see things, that message is sent to our brains to figure out what it is, and with damage in the right ( or wrong!) places, one could end up 'seeing' things because of the disruption and the 'short circuiting' analogy discussed earlier. So going past the pond near my house, the tree branches do look a bit like a scarecrow or a ghost on the initial look. Yes can be a bit frightening so the need to remind yourself your eyes are lying to you can be helpful! And focusing the eyes to see it's just a tree!
Last but not least, the makeshift medical advise to frighten you when you are already quite scared; because through my GCSEs and SATs and pretty much all my studies, I found online resources really helpful to revise and as you could probably guess, I am a bit of a nerd so I spent quite some time revising and because I used the computer, phone or even study without a lot of light so according to some, this was why my body decided to go AWOL. To add, the urge to itch the eyes were somehow making things worse along with the covering of the damaged eye with tissue being something supposedly problematic leaving me with old Indian remedies for 'relief' of symptoms which were laughed off and very much dis advised by the more professional doctors, and the need to learn how to ignore people after the many comments about wearing glasses meaning I should have perfect vision!
Whether you're enjoying things so far or not, we really are only getting started still! I think by the end you'd be experts at making caffeinated drinks!
The main symptoms that occur from this would be either blurred, double or complete loss of vision in either one of the eyes ( depending on which one gets 'attacked'). This too is usually one of the onset symptoms of MS and thus many (like me) MSers would be diagnosed after referrals from an ophthalmologist ( a medical doctor who specialises in eye care), an optician ( though the one I saw told me my glasses were dirty!) or even the GP to get further tests to check for nerve damage.
As discussed before, the nerve damage never completely recovers so this damage can leave a lasting damage with unclear vision and 'nystagmus'. This is basically when the pupils of the eyes randomly like to have a bit of a dance, Nystagmus most commonly causes the eyes to look involuntarily from side to side in a rapid, swinging motion rather than staying fixed on an object or person. Some nystagmuses, however, cause the eyes to jerk sideways or up and down.
The slightly scary stuff ( especially if your frightened of insects and horror movies!) is due to the nystagmus, your eyes may 'lie' to you, so with my experience; I thought there were beetles crawling all over my bedside wall and when I prepared to give them a whack, turned to see an empty plain wall as it was meant to be!
Not stopping there, if there is damage in other parts of the brain, it can lead to a transmission issue, so as when a human would see things, that message is sent to our brains to figure out what it is, and with damage in the right ( or wrong!) places, one could end up 'seeing' things because of the disruption and the 'short circuiting' analogy discussed earlier. So going past the pond near my house, the tree branches do look a bit like a scarecrow or a ghost on the initial look. Yes can be a bit frightening so the need to remind yourself your eyes are lying to you can be helpful! And focusing the eyes to see it's just a tree!
Last but not least, the makeshift medical advise to frighten you when you are already quite scared; because through my GCSEs and SATs and pretty much all my studies, I found online resources really helpful to revise and as you could probably guess, I am a bit of a nerd so I spent quite some time revising and because I used the computer, phone or even study without a lot of light so according to some, this was why my body decided to go AWOL. To add, the urge to itch the eyes were somehow making things worse along with the covering of the damaged eye with tissue being something supposedly problematic leaving me with old Indian remedies for 'relief' of symptoms which were laughed off and very much dis advised by the more professional doctors, and the need to learn how to ignore people after the many comments about wearing glasses meaning I should have perfect vision!
Whether you're enjoying things so far or not, we really are only getting started still! I think by the end you'd be experts at making caffeinated drinks!
Example of blurred vision on the left.
The lasting damaged vision difference between normal(left) and Optic neuritis (ON) eye.
A test given to check for vision issues, also used to test for colour blindness.
Sunday 6 November 2016
Let's get started: symptoms.
What actually makes living with MS difficult, problematic and very abnormal? Quite obviously the symptoms. Simply put but far from that it if anything. Most people when seeing an MSer would see the condition from a more physical perspective, thus a very common stereotype of people with MS being wheelchair bound. But in reality the foundations of MS are physical, mental and emotional.
Based on the basic knowledge of the anatomy of the central nervous system and the posts covered so far ( be it even by background knowledge), one would presume physical symptoms are due to damage in the spine, mental ones the brain and emotional ones due to the change in social standing an MSer is left with.
However the symptoms all have their own specific damage source and some really minute physical ones may be due to damage in certain areas of the brain. For example, the 'drunkard walk' being due to damage in the base of the brain rather than just the spine or legs. Mental ones due to cognitive implications and emotional ones due the same reasons. Furthermore, the severity of the symptoms which may be another thing misunderstood but hopefully we'll share some light on that too.
Nevertheless, as we have been through the outskirts of MS, hope the mugs are warm and biscuits are ready! I know that joke is drying out now! I was previously told to apologise for my lame humour but if you find it an issue message me privately for an apology! If anything, associating humour with MS is quite something. We shall start with the more physical symptoms then move on to the others whenever we're done.
One of the common onset symptoms of MS - though not every MSer travels the same route - would be that of loss of sensation; Obviously you can't feel your limbs or part(s) of your body 'normally'. The feeling can best be explained like a permanent long lasting feeling of pins and needles or an itch that never seems to go away, this demonstrating a bit of damage to the nerve(s) and this can affect things like response to temperature. So yes needing a more 'colder' shower in the winter or vice versa in the summer due to the confusion that's present. On a more practical setting, this leads to lasting weakness in the muscle and issues with manual dexterity, so simple things like buttons on a shirt (or the equivalent for women if there is any) or even other things which may be covered later ( if need be). On a personal note, this occurred with me the night before my English GSCE exam so obviously these sudden abnormalities can result in a huge emotional distress! But it affecting other limbs like the legs, can result in an MSer being a bit 'slower'; I still had to sit the detentions for the lateness it caused me reaching school!
With a slight damage, it is bearable to live with but with more severe damage an MSer can be left in a wheelchair or even bed ridden as the muscles that keep a person up are not receiving the signals needed for this to function. Bearing in mind, this may be only one symptom but the basis of it has links to all the symptoms of MS. As we hope to see later on, the body is interlinked in many ways and on of the most vital ways, through the nervous system. To get a bit of how this may feel, wear a pair of thick gloves and try to make a cup of tea (don't do this alone!), write a sentence on paper or put your winter jacket on.
This taking place when I looked a lot normal, I must mention the range of comments I initially received, as people must give their two pence in all matters nowadays! Past being told I was not exercising enough or using the computer for too long, it even went as far as being accused of lying and 'crying wolf'. The more rather somewhat humorous one of it all being in our 'heads' which technically was spot on as frontal lobe damage ( front part of the brain, will be covered later) can lead to such symptoms in the hands and these similar parts of the body.
Till next week! Enjoy the creeping in of the cold!
Based on the basic knowledge of the anatomy of the central nervous system and the posts covered so far ( be it even by background knowledge), one would presume physical symptoms are due to damage in the spine, mental ones the brain and emotional ones due to the change in social standing an MSer is left with.
However the symptoms all have their own specific damage source and some really minute physical ones may be due to damage in certain areas of the brain. For example, the 'drunkard walk' being due to damage in the base of the brain rather than just the spine or legs. Mental ones due to cognitive implications and emotional ones due the same reasons. Furthermore, the severity of the symptoms which may be another thing misunderstood but hopefully we'll share some light on that too.
Nevertheless, as we have been through the outskirts of MS, hope the mugs are warm and biscuits are ready! I know that joke is drying out now! I was previously told to apologise for my lame humour but if you find it an issue message me privately for an apology! If anything, associating humour with MS is quite something. We shall start with the more physical symptoms then move on to the others whenever we're done.
One of the common onset symptoms of MS - though not every MSer travels the same route - would be that of loss of sensation; Obviously you can't feel your limbs or part(s) of your body 'normally'. The feeling can best be explained like a permanent long lasting feeling of pins and needles or an itch that never seems to go away, this demonstrating a bit of damage to the nerve(s) and this can affect things like response to temperature. So yes needing a more 'colder' shower in the winter or vice versa in the summer due to the confusion that's present. On a more practical setting, this leads to lasting weakness in the muscle and issues with manual dexterity, so simple things like buttons on a shirt (or the equivalent for women if there is any) or even other things which may be covered later ( if need be). On a personal note, this occurred with me the night before my English GSCE exam so obviously these sudden abnormalities can result in a huge emotional distress! But it affecting other limbs like the legs, can result in an MSer being a bit 'slower'; I still had to sit the detentions for the lateness it caused me reaching school!
With a slight damage, it is bearable to live with but with more severe damage an MSer can be left in a wheelchair or even bed ridden as the muscles that keep a person up are not receiving the signals needed for this to function. Bearing in mind, this may be only one symptom but the basis of it has links to all the symptoms of MS. As we hope to see later on, the body is interlinked in many ways and on of the most vital ways, through the nervous system. To get a bit of how this may feel, wear a pair of thick gloves and try to make a cup of tea (don't do this alone!), write a sentence on paper or put your winter jacket on.
This taking place when I looked a lot normal, I must mention the range of comments I initially received, as people must give their two pence in all matters nowadays! Past being told I was not exercising enough or using the computer for too long, it even went as far as being accused of lying and 'crying wolf'. The more rather somewhat humorous one of it all being in our 'heads' which technically was spot on as frontal lobe damage ( front part of the brain, will be covered later) can lead to such symptoms in the hands and these similar parts of the body.
Till next week! Enjoy the creeping in of the cold!
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