Category: In Which We Mock Our Illness

Well, I don’t know, but it certainly seems like the botox did not have as much of an effect on my bladder this time. The lack of urgency is still as good, and I am not waking up in the middle of the night, but the force and frequency seem to be back to one…

Bladder Botox Part Two I got some more botox last Wednesday, because what I got three months ago was effective but short term. At the end of the three month minimum I was back to my usually spotty self. Three things of note from this visit: So, let the countdown begin. I already have another…

I got the bladder Botox on or around June 28th, and in a month the check-up doctor said, “So, our schedule is busy, so if you start to see evidence that the effects are wearing off, call immediately so we can schedule the next series of shots well in advance.” Last week, I noticed effects…

All I have left of my SUPERNOVA clinical trial is just one phone call in November. I began to wonder if that meant I could see some early results. Just as with my last trial, the drug has passed through a progression of names: code name to trial name to brand name. Just as FTy720…

I had an MRI recently, and it was full of firsts. First MRI without contrast. I always get two passes through the MRI machine: pass one, and then they pull me out and push the “Contrast” solution through me so that — literally — the images of the new lesions will show up in higher…

Earlier, I signed up to be in the NARCOMS database of people with MS who have DNA and can spit. The scientific spitting supplies have arrived! Tube for spit: VERY exciting baggie to hold the spit: And there are instructions that I must put the tube of spit in the exciting baggie and take the…

I got my yearly mammogram. I have never in my life had such a stellar mammogram experience. I parked well, I arrived early, I was in the first waiting room less than five minutes, changed, in the second waiting room less than five minutes. I even got to use my no-gown mammogram hack again. And…

The neurologist’s assistant said I was 233 pounds. “Impossible,” I said, “That’s down, and I’ve been eating like a pig since my cat died.” So then we talked about Goldie, and how sad Gary and I are. Then she tidied up, and went to inform on me to the doctor. (I’m not mad. That’s part…

I watched the Olympics for six hours last weekend without using the bathroom. This morning I was tested to see I wasn’t holding on to my urine and never giving it up, and no I am not. In fact, I was surprised to hear I still had a cup or two in there even after…

NARCOMS (North American Research Committee on Multiple Sclerosis) is a group that maintains a database of people with MS. I’ve filled out their on-line questionnaire dutifully for decades now. They use that data as the basis for research papers such asMeasures of general and abdominal obesity and disability severity in a large population of people…