The MS Wire

News, info and tips for living with multiple sclerosis

Category: Living with MS

Beating the MS Clock

Louise Kennedy

Photo by Mark Kennedy, Chattanooga Times Free Press

[This post first appeared as my column on www.multiplesclerorisnewstoday.com] I’m 68 years old.  I’ve had multiple sclerosis since I was 32.  I’m not sure where I expected this disease would take me when I was diagnosed 36 years ago but I hoped that it wouldn’t steal too much of my life from me.  I certainly never thought of the possibility that I might live to a really old age with…Continue Reading

Take Your MS on the Road

(This first appeared as my column in www.multiplesclerosisnewstoday.com) “Round round get around.  I get around.” I was humming that classic 1960s Beach Boys tune this morning (yes, I’m that old) as I thought about a feature story that I saw on one of the TV networks the other night.  The story profiled Cory Lee.  Cory has spinal muscular atrophy, which means he’s one of us gimps who get around on…Continue Reading

A Letter to a Scared Young Woman

(This first appeared as my column on www.multiplesclerosisnewstoday.com) Dear Lauren Parrott, I know you’re scared.  The fears that you shared in your video blog ring true to any of us who have faced the unknowns of a new MS medicine. I’ve been there. I’ve gone through three major multiple sclerosis drugs over the 35+ years that I’ve been fighting MS.  I was a subject in the clinical trial of Avonex;…Continue Reading

Are You Ready for Bed at Noon?

Fatigue

(This post first appeared as my column on www.multiplesclerosisnewstoday.com) I thought that I’d finish writing this last night, but I was too tired. Same thing the night before…and I’m sure this sounds familiar to a lot of you. The National Multiple Sclerosis Society estimates that about 80 percent of the people who have MS have fatigue as one of their symptoms. (Only 80 percent?  The other 20 percent must be…Continue Reading

“Bracing” Yourself for MS

(This post first appeared as one of my columns on www.multiplesclerosisnewstoday.com) One of the MS blogs that I follow is written by Jen, who lives in England.  It’s called Tripping Through Treacle.  (Treacle is a thick, molassas-like, syrup). Doesn’t that neatly sum up the lives of many of us in just three, alliterative, words?  From MS newbies to old timers like me, we worry (or have worried) about tripping.  Many…Continue Reading

Pilates for M.S.?

(This post first appeared as one of my columns on www.multiplesclerosistoday.com) Have you tried Pilates to improve your mobility?  When my wife and I tried it, a few years ago, I thought that it was sort of like doing yoga stretches using exercise equipment.  It felt good and, for the short time that I did kept it up, Pilates seemed to improve my flexibility, somewhat. Pilates is a stretching and…Continue Reading

Getting Older With MS – Some Tips from MS “Seniors”

(This was first published in my column on www.multiplesclerosisnewstoday.com) I hate to admit it, but I’m getting kind of old. That’s not to say that 68 is really old, but I’m probably older than a lot of the people who are reading this.  I’m also 36 years old in “MS years.”  I was diagnosed the month that Ronald Reagan won the Republican nomination to run for U.S. President and I’ve…Continue Reading

Laugh with Ads That “Get” Disabilities

[This post first appeared as one of my columns on www.multiplesclerosisnewstoday.com] You don’t see people with disabilities very often in TV ads.  And when you do, the person with the handicap is usually playing a secondary role, or the ad uses the disabled person for an emotional appeal.  It’s not real-life.  It’s not us. So, a tip of my hat to the candy company Mars Chocolate UK for producing some…Continue Reading

MS Marathoner: 1 Continent Down, 6 to Go

Cheryl Hile running a marathon as a workout.

Cheryl Hile runs a marathon in South Africa. Pic courtesy C. Hile

(This is an update of my column posted last week on www.multiplesclerosisnewstoday.com) Tripping, falling and bloody knees. Been there. Done that. (Who with MS hasn’t)?  But this wasn’t me.  This was Cheryl Hile and it was happening to her as she was running a half marathon in Carlsbad, California. Cheryl had been running marathons for half a dozen years when, in 2006, she was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis.  She says…Continue Reading

Can you measure how tired I am?

[This post first appeared last month in my column on www.multiplesclerosisnewstoday.com] Feeling tired? No surprise there. Fatigue is as much a part of living with Multiple Sclerosis as sand is a part of the beach where I live. It’s interesting, then, that neurologists seem to have no good system for measuring levels of MS fatigue or any treatments that are really effective over the long term. Physiologists at Colorado State University…Continue Reading