what is MS

Today was a good day.  I am starting to feel better again, hopefully for a long long time to come.  I thought maybe I would write today a little more information about what is this disease called Multiple Sclerosis.
The word sclerosis implies scarring and that is essentially what happens.  A person with MS usually has more than one scarred area in the central nervous system (brain, brain stem, spinal cord) which causes a loss or delay in transmission of nerve impulses.  They believe the lesions (scars) are caused by inflammation, but what causes the inflammation is a source of great debate.
The extent of damage and disability depends on location (kind of like real estate, it's all about location, location, location).  I have been told that someone can have numerous lesions and have very little disability, while someone else can have just a few lesions in the "right places" and have significant disabilities.
There are essentially four different types of MS:

•   One is Relapsing Remitting, which is what I have.  In RRMS, you periods of attacks where your neurological function becomes impaired, depending on where the inflammation is occurring is directly correlated with the symptoms you can experience, and then a recovery period which can take months.  During the recovery period you can actually regain most or even all of your function back.  The problems comes with the more ocurrances you have the less function you regain and your "baseline" starts to come with more disability.  Baseline refers to the point of most recovery.  So at first you can return to normal, then the next time you may recover to have foot drop and that will be your new baseline.
• The second type is Secondary Progressive.  This is when you have more frequent attacks with smaller recovery periods and more disability.
• The third type is Primary Progressive.  This is when you have more attacks and no real periods of recovery noted.   More disability at a faster rate, very little periods of relief.
• The last type is known as Progressive Relapsing.  This one is a little confusing to me as it seem similar to the one above except that your disability is from the onset, meaning you never really return to any baseline, but you still have small periods of relief.

Phew, that was a lot to absorb and my brain is fried.  More information to come.  Be sure to check out the links on my blog page for more in depth information.

"Wrinkles should merely indicate where the smiles have been." ......Mark Twain