The MS Wire

News, info and tips for living with multiple sclerosis

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Are You Peeing in Morse Code?

Peeing in Morse code

Are you frequently up at night for bathroom trips? When you’re outside, are you always looking for a loo? You’re not alone. A recent study confirms that the vast majority of people with multiple sclerosis are dealing with bladder problems. You probably know the symptoms: They include having to urinate frequently, incontinence, dribbling, or not being able to empty your bladder completely. Sometimes, those lower urinary tract symptoms can be…Continue Reading

MS Meds or Food: A Tough Choice

ms meds or food

Forced by medication costs to choose between regularly taking their medications or buying groceries, some people with multiple sclerosis are choosing the groceries. Some are skipping doses and others have stopped taking their disease-modifying therapies (DMTs) entirely. This troubling news is reported in a survey by the National Multiple Sclerosis Society (NMSS). The results show that about 40 percent of those surveyed have skipped or stopped taking their DMTs because…Continue Reading

She’s Hiking 2,200 Miles and She Has MS

When I wrote about April Hester two years ago, she and her husband, Bernie, had just finished hiking the 500 miles of South Carolina’s Palmetto Trail. That’s no small accomplishment for anyone, but it was a particularly special achievement for April because she has MS. Now, April is about to start a hike that will be four times as long. In early May, she and Bernie intend to hike the…Continue Reading

Stem Cell Transplants Versus DMTs – A trial seeks participants

Stem cell therapy

People with multiple sclerosis have been waiting for this: A full-scale clinical trial testing the effectiveness of stem cell transplans as an MS treatment. The trial is being conducted by the U.S. National Institutes of Health, and it’s enrolling people with MS at several centers in the United States and one in the United Kingdom. The U.S. has been behind the curve when it comes to approving stem cell transplants for…Continue Reading

Seconds Away from Calling 9-1-1

Calling 9-1-1

My nose started running about a week before the sledgehammer hit. Then came a chesty cough, not yet as serious as the one that had my wife wheezing but I was worried that I’d soon catch up with her. I didn’t usually develop severe upper respiratory problems but as you probably know, for someone with multiple sclerosis, even a little cold can pack a big punch. It soon did. I’d…Continue Reading

Are You Willing to Accept More Risk Than Your Neuro?

Weighing risk

As more high-efficacy disease-modifying therapies (DMTs) are being made available, people with multiple sclerosis have to decide how much risk they’re willing to accept in exchange for the treatment’s potential benefits. It’s a tough decision, not made any easier if a patient’s neurologist is unwilling to accept much risk. According to researchers at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf in Germany, when it comes to one highly effective DMT, patients are…Continue Reading

An Uh-oh Moment on My Scooter

It happened on the coldest day of the season. The wind-chill temperature was 16 degrees F. I was outside, using my electric scooter to take Joey, our cocker spaniel, for his early morning walk. Joey had just finished his business and I was tying the poopie bag when I heard beeping — a string of five beeps — over and over. I checked my iPhone, but it wasn’t the source…Continue Reading

Artificial Intelligence Moves into the Exam Room

Google has quietly teamed up with Ascension, one of the largest healthcare organizations in the United States, to process the medical records of millions of people. As first reported in The Wall Street Journal, “Project Nightingale” involves all sorts of information about things like lab results,  diagnoses, and hospitalization records, and includes patients’ names and birth dates. Ascension runs more than 2,600 hospitals, doctors’ offices, and other healthcare facilities in…Continue Reading

MS Worries Require Health Care Teamwork

What worries you most about living with multiple sclerosis? I’m catching up with a small survey by Can Do MS, an organization that promotes health and wellness education programs. The survey results, released in September, show that disease progression, financial concerns, and loss of independence are top of mind for people with MS. This comes to me as no surprise. And it means we need health care teamwork. Here are…Continue Reading