Old Blog no. 8

Well that’s the shortened down version of how I got to where I am now, hope I didn’t bore people too much! Not getting many comments so not sure!

My MS now. I’ll start from the top and work down.

Eyes – That’s were it all started nearly 18 years ago! I still get a bit of aching and blurriness in my left eye, particularly when I am feeling a bit tired or been overdoing things.

I occasionally get quite bad headaches, not quite migraine but fairly close. Again it’s when I am tired or been overdoing things.

Arms – I get quite a bit of numbness and tingling in my arms and I have lost a fair bit of strength in my arms. I get Spasticity in my arms as well now, which is annoying. The numbness gets quite bad in my hands sometimes, and I struggle to coordinate them when I am typing and stuff. Spell check is really helpful!!

Bladder – That is still quite bad. I take a tablet which limits frequency but I still get quite bad urgency. I still need to go as soon as the first signs are there but I get quite a bit of hesitancy as well now. That means I take a few minutes to go even if I feel I am bursting. I sit down to go to the toilet most of the time as I find it easier, and saves my legs a bit. I occasionally suffer from night time incontinence, so I now have a pad on the bed just in case. I have tried to see a Urologist over here but the tablets he kept trying me on didn’t work so I got fed up with paying money to see him and paying for the medication.

I still suffer from Erectile Dysfunction, but it has gone to sexual dysfunction which means I don’t very often even get the urge now! Bloody good job I’ve got a very understanding wife!!

Legs – This is the worst part of my MS. I have numbness and tingling most of the time. I have a fair bit of weakness in my legs now and I also get spasticity in them. I wake up in a morning and my legs will be aching quite bad, it takes a good 5 or 10 minutes for them to calm down some if at all. Some days it is a mild ache that I can pretty much ignore, other days I wish I had a chainsaw to take them off!

The numbness and tingling I have had for so long now I hardly notice it. I mostly get the spasticity at night, I will be sat watching telly and my legs will just be constantly twitching or wanting to be moved. It’s worse when I go to bed and try to get them in a comfy position so I can get to sleep. It still goes on in my sleep and Hales quite often tells me in a morning that my legs were twitching like mad during the night.

The twitching doesn’t actually hurt but because my muscles are twitching it makes my legs ache even more. I sometimes have to walk round for a bit to try to calm them down. Well should have said stagger around! I have quite bad balance problems which makes it even worse when I am trying to walk. I started using a walking stick mostly to help with my balance, but I use it more and more as support now.

I don’t think it will be very much longer before I will need to use a wheelchair, but it doesn’t really bother me. There is nothing I can do about it so why worry!

I occasionally suffer from a bit of short term memory loss and I also sometimes do word fishing. That’s basically when I know there is a word I want to use but I can’t think of the word! That has meant quite a bit of going back over these blogs as I write them!! lol

That’s pretty much where I am right now, I will start doing regular updates as to how I am doing and will probably find other stuff to waffle on about as well!!

Leave me comments, let me know if I am boring you with my waffle or not!

Rob :o)