Category: In Which We Mock Our Illness

This week I encountered two new ways of looking at MS. I’m going to run these by the neurologist at the end of the month. (First, I need to see if he covered either in his podcast.) ================ First new way of looking at MS: MOGAD So, per this link, MOGAD is “an autoimmune disorder…

When I was young, I was shy and modest. “Impossible,” you scoff. “You’re a vulgar inappropriate whore who barfs up all her business on to the internet.” “Harsh, but true,” I say. “Yet both statements are accurate.” In my youth I was always modest: shying from attention in my childhood bathing suit, covering my chest…

I bought a measuring device and my output has doubled. Only a drip of leakage. No one said I’d be leak-proof. No promises there. I sleep through the night for five out of seven nights without getting up. That was not promised. And best of all … I said something to Gary as I was…

The Botox is definitely having an effect. Not the effect I was expecting, but it’s only just shy of a week. (I’ve read it takes two weeks to really lock in.) Here’s what’s different. The ease. I wake up, close the bathroom door, sit down, and instantly what feels like a weighty amount of urine…

I am here to tell you all about bladder Botox in the form of Frequently Asked Questions. Does it really feel like menstrual cramps when they inject your bladder with the Botox? Hahaha, no, not at all. Menstrual cramps are much much worse. This just felt like having a needle poked into your bladder. They…

There is an added benefit to having a chronic illness. It lets you walk a mile in someone else’s shoes. I need to walk that mile, because my husband will tell you I am a very unsympathetic person. (Other people will not tell you that. Evidently you really need to get to know me before…

Well, I’ll be darned. The insurance IS going to pay for the bladder botox. Evidently I have cracked the code for insurance issues. It is: do not poke the insurance bear. Alert other parties involved to the situation, and do not call, worry, or look at your insurance web site for three to four weeks.…

So, I am going in soon for the Bladder Botox, and I confess I am a bit nervous about it, but if I am to be intermittently out in the world I can’t walk about clutching my crotch to keep the pee in. Gary gives me gentle reminders that BOTOX IS POISON and I could…

Usually when there’s a health insurance problem, I get very agitated, get on the phone, and get angrier and angrier until I find out it is all my fault. This last time was different. Instead of calling immediately this time I made a spreadsheet consolidating numbers from the insurance website, the health debit card website,…

The report is in for our physicals: despite how we feel, we are doing great. We both were sent off with vaccine recommendations. I need a Covid vaccine and Hepatitis B. I suppose I need Hep B because of my rampant drug use and philandering. (That was sarcasm for anyone Googling “Ellen S____ rampant philandering”.)…