Rooftop Yawp

OK, Day Two. We’re off to the races now. You betcha.

So it’s Saturday morning, and that can mean only one thing … at least lately: Ouch. I feel like a herd of charging buffalo trampled me in my sleep. Especially in my upper back, shoulder and neck area. You’d swear someone beat me about the head with a sock full of pennies. And that’s pretty much been the case for the past five Saturday mornings, as my body continues to adjust to my Friday night injections of Avonex.

Hmm. Guess I better explain what Avonex is and why I’m on it.

Here goes. After a summer of medical tests (not to mention wringing of hands and empty-eyed stares into the middle distance), I found out August 14 that I have MS. As awful as the news should seem, I was almost relieved to have an answer after 2 MRIs (four, really, because the second was a “triple” of my brain, C-spine and T-spine that took 90 minutes — which is a long, honkin’ time to lie still inside a coffin-like tube), visual and aural evoked potentials and a lumbar puncture (which gave me the most persistent headache of my life.) 

I’ve told a few folks. Many more have learned from Cabrina, my mother and the simple momentum of word-of-mouth. Regardless who tells them, people seem to pretty much say the same thing: “I don’t know too much about it.” Neither did I. But Google quickly became my best friend, as did the National Multiple Sclerosis Society Web site.

Basically, it’s an immune system problem. For reasons nobody seems to understand too well, instead of attacking foreign cells, the immune system in an MS patient attacks a protective covering around nerve fibers, called myelin, in the brain and spinal cord. The resulting damage interferes with the signals the nerves send, which leads to the assorted manifestations of MS, such as numbness, tingling, pain, blurred vision, cognitive dysfunction and plenty more crap I don’t like to think about.

In many respects, the diagnosis has spurred me to create this blog. As I tip-toe my way through the emotional and physical minefield of multiple sclerosis, I want to keep track of things — fears, symptoms, lessons. Let’s face it: When a disease starts messing with your brain, you want to use your brain as much as possible.

Oh, the Avonex. Right. It’s one of four “disease-modifying” therapies available for MS patients. (There’s no cure.) The drugs, all administered by injection (damn it!), supposedly increase the time period between symptom flare-ups and slow the progression of disability. I picked Avonex because it’s the only once-a-week treatment. The shot goes right into the muscle, which means the needle is big (about 1 1/2 inches), but I only have to see it once a week. A daily shot was just too much for me to contemplate.

So I’m slogging my way through the Saturday side effects (which allegedly will subside after a few months). Aches, pains and low, low, low energy. A trip to a local pumpkin patch last weekend with my friend Dawn (visiting all the way from Dallas, Texas), absolutely tapped me out. I had to take a nap, for chrissake!

But dealing with a mini-flu every Saturday sure beats the alternative, which is no medicine at all. So I’m trying to keep my bellyaching to a minimum.

Now, where did I leave that Tylenol bottle…?