Multiple Sclerosis
My Second Go Round

If you are still dumbfounded by the jargon in your MRI report, you may find the source material I used, to finally interpret my third MRI useful reading.

Like most *normal* people, I knew very few facts about the Brain and its makeup. Consequently, I was totally unable to make any sense out of this crucial report for quite some time.

Although my Neurologist was pleased to see lesions on my MRI reports, he felt there was no need to actually discuss them.

He told me that I had so many holes in my head, this third MRI report made my Brain look like Swiss cheese. Winking Smiley

Then he said that with this MRI now in hand, he could medically account for my various symptoms and would now complete the paper work, required to qualify me for Social Security Disability.

You can well imagine, what a huge relief this was to me; because, I had been unempolyed for three years and fighting SSA for the entire last two.

My ex-neurologist and the SSA, still judge MS Disability, only in terms of how poorly you walk!! Largely, this is due to the very biased and outdated Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS).

Mind boggling as this is... they and far too many others, still do NOT consider Sensory or even Cognitive Dysfunction to be caused by MS.
(Also See: Cognization)

Later, I learned that where the lesions are physically located in the Central Nervous System, determine the extent and the nature of Neurological deficits, you experience with MS and why no two people experience identical symptoms or progression.

Knowing where the lesions are located cannot exactly foretell nor predict, what the future holds for you in terms of disability.

But the knowledge of which parts of the CNS are likely to be damaged, by the further spread of the lesions, can enable you to prepare for which deficits you most likely will face in the future.

You will gain a better appreciation of the possibilities; only if you undertake, to learn which functions are controlled by what part of the CNS.

Your present MRI is the most accurate guide, to what the future may hold; but it can't help you prepare, if you never understand what it really says. Frown

Because this research stems from my quest to understand my own probable course of MS, most of this material pertains to the parts and workings of the Brain itself - where the bulk of my lesions are located. Smiley

However, even if all of your lesions are located within the Spinal Cord, it should still be helpful to understand what else the higher Brain controls through your own impaired nerve tracts.

Each one of us bears sole responsibility for the management of our own MS treatment.

Do not be intimidated by how much longer anyone else has dealt with MS; that is their MS, you have your MS, and I have my MS. They are never the same...each as unique as we each are.

Since the time of, Dr. Jean Martin Charcot (1825-1893), it has been known that over time the actual Nerve or Axon itself is destroyed in the course of MS; which further unbalances the CNS's feedback systems and gradually affects various related subsystems.

This data, plus ''Charcot's Triad'', was and is part of his historical Multiple Sclerosis description and a major reason why he is titled:
              *The Father Of Multiple Sclerosis*



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Right half of brain: Midsagittal section
By: A. R.T. Hutchings
Right Half of The Brain: Midsagittal Section                      Greetings !!

Fellow MSers, family, care givers, and friends are all affected, by this Multiple Sclerosis thing, and are all welcome.

Because we each have had different experiences and expectations, quite naturally we have our own perspectives and opinions.

There are neither right nor wrong points of view - in any discussion of the unknown - each has the same 50/50 chance of being correct.

Therefore, all opinions are equally valuable and valid for that person. It cannot be otherwise, until the cause or causes of Multiple Sclerosis are discovered, everyone's opinion is correct.

I do believe we must each trust and believe in our own experiences. We have endured much anguish and misery, mostly due to ignorance, fear of the unknown, and blindly trusting the "experts".

Yet, no one knows MS better than we do! We must help each other learn, grow, and cope by sharing our experiences, our knowledge.....our hard earned wisdom!

Together, we can move mountains...

Together, we must!!!

Construction Symbol We have work to do !! Construction Symbol

The cunning foe we battle wages a relentless war; sometimes attacking silently without any visible symptoms. At other times, the damage is so massive the signs are glaringly apparent to everyone.

Change is the one certainty Multiple Sclerosis teaches us, and it remains the only sure fact we know about MS today.

There is no amount of training or schooling, which can compare with having lived through it and with it, day in and day out. Where no two days are ever the same. Often how you feel, drastically alters and changes through out each day.

Change has become the only remaining constant in our lives. I know we have each discovered these oddities and have individually developed all kinds of coping mechanism to deal with them.

Won't you share your discoveries and help ease the journey for us all?



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I know this sounds like we are waging the "good fight"; but, are we really? Aren't we quietly suffering? All the while believing we're doing all we can, Frown desperately trying not to let the doubt we see in our families' eyes, tear our hearts apart?

When I learned these other strange, invisible symptoms and oddities, had been discovered and written about for at least the last hundred years, saying I was livid is an understatement!

How can any of today's Neurologists be so totally out of touch with reality? ..... How can a Doctor of Neurology possibly still think MS is only a physically devastating disorder, which doesn't affect ALL the other aspects (Non-Motor Functions) of self which together constitute a real living person???

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