Anniversary

[Howie]

That's a small price to pay for what you may be getting out of it. Keep it up!

[Virginia]

I can't say congratulations about having MS, however I do congratulate all of you who are still surviving the effects of MS. Howie, Vicky really baked you a good looking cake.

I have been diagnosed 16 years, but my Neuro and I got my past records from my PCP of 25 years before that and I had had MS for 20 to 25 of those years, so looks like I have had it for way over 40 years.

[Howie]

Virginia, that practically makes me a newbie! I don't mind that at all!

Some info about the Herpes virus. Last I checked, there are 8 different types.

Chicken Pox is one. Almost everyone has had that. After that first outbreak, you will still carry it in a dormant state, and usually don't get it again. If it wakes from that dormant state, then the new outbreak is called Shingles. Almost everyone has heard of Chicken Pox and Shingles, but didn't know they are caused by the same virus.

What I'm trying to do is make the Herpes Virus that triggers my MS, return to a dormant state. I think I have done that by taking Valtrex religiously for 2 years .

Not having Cold Sores or exacerbations since I stopped Valtrex shows me the triggering virus has returned to a dormant state, and will hopefully stay there. But the only way to test that is stop the Valtrex and see. 16 years, and so far it has been quiet on it's own with no medication.

[Catdancer]

Virginia, I was diagnosed with MS in 1983...so I say 33 years, but like you, when my medical history is traced back from there, it is possible that a lot of issues started happening as early as 1965 or so...when I was 18 or 19. Tom Cat remembers taking me on hikes and being upset that I was so clumsy, couldn't balance on rocks across streams, would trip over stuff. He thought it was because I was not used to being in the woods...which is was true...but I was unusually so. Then I would get extremely fatigued, especially in summer heat when we'd go camping. Or I'd come home from work....I was working as a librarian, but sitting at a desk....and barely have enough energy to put together dinner. TC has really never known me to be completed healthy...

[agate]

MS might be something some people are born with?

I was diagnosed in 1980 but the neuro felt that the first episode was 20 years earlier--vertigo when I was 20. It was diagnosed as labyrinthitis at the time but it was severe, more severe than other later vertigo spells I had by a mile.

I always tired easily when walking too.

[Virginia]

Agate, I don't know about being born with it. Anything is possible. However, there were periods of time between episodes that I had really good energy and I always (from age 14 when I could get a worker's permit) worked in public work where I had to be on time and responsible. Even as I got older, until the last several years, I had periods where I had really good energy and could dance the night away, or shop all day.

Looking back, my Neuro and I could almost see a pattern. We spotted things that I went to the Doctor for that were very obviously MS symptoms and then I would go for maybe 9 months to a year without seeing him again. Still, that Doctor should have looked at my file and saw that I had a history of having neurological symptoms and sent me to a Neurologist. When I went on my own, I went without records and still the Neurologist found it right away.

[stillstANNding]

Virginia, "shopping all day" seems like a horrible punishment, doesn't it? I hate to have to even try anything on. After a trip to the dressing room, I am so very tired. Shopping is a real energy sucker. :-(

ANN

[agate]

I don't shop at all except online.

In general this can be done. There are the occasional glitches.

For example, watch repair. If you have a quartz watch that takes those lithium batteries, you almost have to take it to a jeweler to get a new battery put in. Or at least I do.

My watch battery gave out recently, and it made me mad because the watch was only 6 months old. The batteries usually last a couple of years.

I actually pried the case open and was able to get the battery out. I ordered up the right kind of batteries and even put one in.

But I couldn't get the case back on. I went Googling for advice and tried the suggestions. It's such a big problem, apparently, that there are a lot of how-to videos available. None of them worked for me.

I ordered up another new watch.

All of this to save myself a trip to the supermarket that has a jewelry department where they could have sold me a battery and installed it.

[Virginia]

Ann, I feel the same way about shopping now. It is just beyond my ability and desire to try anymore, but back when I was talking about was a different time for me. I had MS, very obviously, but I also had good times where I felt there was nothing wrong, so I must have been RR and now SP.

Agate, sorry you had to have a new watch after all that. I know you were so proud of getting the back off and the battery out.

[Howie]

Agate, the watch could have been where you bought it for a few years. The batteries are installed when it was manufactured and clock is running, so to speak, before they are even sent to the various stores. Those lithium batteries are very dependable, but when the expected life-span is over, they're dead!

I've never been able to wear a watch. I have gotten watches as gifts, but they last about a day before I smash the lense or scratch it horribly.

[agate]

Agate, the watch could have been where you bought it for a few years. The batteries are installed when it was manufactured and clock is running, so to speak, before they are even sent to the various stores. Those lithium batteries are very dependable, but when the expected life-span is over, they're dead!

I've never been able to wear a watch. I have gotten watches as gifts, but they last about a day before I smash the lense or scratch it horribly.

My thought too, Howie--that the watch battery was old when i bought it. No way of finding out, of course.

I need a watch because of the waits for transportation. Those vans run on a tight schedule, and when they give you a half hour "window" when you can expect a ride to show up in, you want to be sure to call them just as soon as that half-hour is up. Without a watch I might call too early or else wait far longer than I needed to. There's often no clock where I have to wait.

I keep forgetting that my handy-dandy cellphone has the time on it but I'd have to pull it out, turn it on, etc. A watch is ever so much easier.

The rest of the world seems to be carrying around a cellphone that is always on. I'm still living in another era when people had watches.

[Howie]

My cellphone stays on the nightstand beside the bed where I stay. I don't take it ANYWHERE. Some carry it EVERYWHERE! If I don't answer, call back later, you know, like the old days.

Why don't you just get another watch. I'll bet you could get one online for very little. The only gizmos that are still expensive, are the newest thing. Once it's been out awhile, it's very cheap in no time.

[stillstANNding]

Re: watch batteries, Mom has started to pull the stem out when she isn't wearing a particular watch (she has a collection). This saves the battery in her opinion.

ANN

[Howie]

They make a self-winding watch that winds itself simply by the motion of your arms, no battery.

[Virginia]

Ann, your Mom is so funny! Can she actually get it back in?