Columns

Diligent research and planning have left me confident in my ability to enjoy upcoming travels, while managing  MS and health concerns. Decisions have been made regarding luggage, medications, airport travel, car rental, and accommodations. I know whether to expect sun or snow, cobblestone or freeways, and have been practicing…

Most of us have heard Rachel Platten’s Fight Song. It became an anthem for many people who struggle with illness and adversity. Fight Song has become one of my favorite odes. As a writer, I love to listen to the words of song lyrics. The music is…

Sooner or later we’re all going to die. We may not want to think about it, but it’s important that we do, especially those of us with a chronic disease such as multiple sclerosis. Though we don’t have a choice about dying, we can have a…

So, I’m lying on the floor taking in the stippled ceiling we’ve never changed in the past 19 years. My son,  also 19, is now at university. That’s how I can be so exact on the age of my relationship with the hideously slathered ceiling. We moved in one month…

Relaxation and serenity are both attainable with the correct calming techniques. When overwhelmed by stress, the skills that have been gained and practiced become second nature to be summoned as needed. The combination of stress and multiple sclerosis can wreak havoc in the body. It can lead to a…

Here is my Pick of the Week’s News, as published by Multiple Sclerosis News Today. Ocrevus and the hope of ‘ending MS forever’: Interview with MS Society’s Tim Coetzee Ocrevus possibly being one of the most significant advances in MS treatment, especially for people with PPMS, the…

March is Multiple Sclerosis Awareness Month. That means we need to make the most of these four weeks to raise some money for research, and raise awareness about the disease and the 2.5 million people in the world currently living with it. What’s the best way…

Alexa, Amazon’s little voice-activated information box, has just received a multiple sclerosis infusion. As part of MS Awareness Month, fifty facts about MS have been loaded into Alexa’s memory. If a user says “Alexa, start MS Awareness” the system will respond with a random MS fact. (And a short…

News that daclizumab, brand name Zinbryta, has been given the go-ahead to be available through the U.K.’s National Health Service (NHS) for treating relapsing MS, at least in part of the country, is good news. But why has the decision taken…

In pursuit of an answer for breathing difficulty The MRI of my cervical and thoracic spine showed no active lesions last week. That was good news. Other…

A couple of weeks ago I had a curious encounter with the friend of a friend. I live in a small town. In some ways we’re all at least neighbors. Huddled in a small group at the local grocery store, we were chatting about our experiences with the…

The past few months have not been fun. We lost my father-in-law, put our beloved cat down, and moved from our home to a townhouse that is too small and poorly built. With a low inventory of rental properties in our area, and…

This was an eventful week. I was not feeling well and ultimately ended up in the hospital for a couple of days. I had severe neck pain that radiated to my shoulder and arm. In addition, I woke up one morning with severe chest pains. I couldn’t determine whether…

Allison Wheeler is an unconventional heroine of a novel, but she found her way into my heart as I read A Million Ordinary Days by Judy Mollen Walters, a book being published today, March 14. Author Judy is also a Bionews Services columnist. She has Crohn’s disease and, writing…

One of my favorite movie lines appears in “Jerry Maguire.” Sports-agent Maguire is trying to convince one of his football-player clients to stay with him and the client keeps insisting: “Show me the money.” I got to thinking of that line the other evening, while reading a Facebook post…

When describing a multiple sclerosis exacerbation (also called a relapse, attack, or flare-up), comparing it to a home’s circuit panel is a good analogy to use. When a fuse blows on the circuit board the power is interrupted. During an MS attack, the myelin sheath that covers nerve axons…

Editor’s note: Our IBD columnist, Judy Walters, will have a new book out Tuesday in which the central character has multiple sclerosis. Here, she remembers how MS affected her own family during her childhood. I was only 10 when my grandmother died, but I remember so much about her. I remember…

Here is my Pick of the Week’s News, as published in Multiple Sclerosis News Today. ‘Liberation Therapy’ Is Useless, Costly, Potentially Dangerous, Study Finds At last, some positive research to debunk a supposed treatment that is not supported by any genuine repeatable research. To hear this ridiculous…

The practice of collecting data about how we MS patients go about living our lives, and then using that data to improve our patient care, seems to be gathering steam. In the European Union a project called Real World Evidence Data, or RWE, is working outside of the…

The sky-high costs to Medicare for prescriptions of the MS medication H.P. Acthar Gel,  as reported in Multiple Sclerosis News Today were highlighted at the Americas Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis (ACTRIMS) 2017 Forum in…

We all know, because we have heard it so many times, that MS is not the same for everyone — that no two people have exactly the same combination of symptoms. That got me…

When it comes to multiple sclerosis, mastering your own understanding of the disease means you need to mind your Ps and Qs, dot your Is, cross your Ts, and recite your ABCs. There is so much to know about this complex disease. But the more you know as…

If I were playing “Chronic Disease Bingo,” I’d be a winner! In addition to MS, I have three other chronic health conditions. While that may sound bad, it’s not unusual in the world of autoimmune disease, and I consider myself fairly healthy. This is thanks partly to attitude, but…

I believe myself to be a person with great self confidence. It was a long journey to arrive at this destination, but once I arrived I knew I was here. I realize that chronic illness doesn’t only affect us physically, it manifests in other ways, too. There are psychological,…

A few weeks ago I wrote a column titled, “Why Can’t Some MS Docs Communicate With Their Patients?” It’s very unlikely that two doctors from the Cleveland Clinic — Mikkael A. Sekeres and Timothy D. Gilligan — read that column. But they, too, have written a piece about a…

Here’s my Pick of the Week’s News, as published in Multiple Sclerosis News Today. MS Organizations Join #MySupportHero Initiative to Help Patients Salute Those Who Care Oh, I can see me fitting in well here. To see what I mean, just take a look at two previous…

When people ask me what I love, I usually respond, “God, my family, and St. Louis Cardinals baseball … in that order.” Other than the Razorbacks, Arkansas (my home state) doesn’t have much in the way of athletic bragging rights. Both when I was a kid and now,…

You probably talk about multiple sclerosis (MS) symptoms, drugs and therapies when you meet with your neurologist, but I’ll bet that most people don’t talk very much about working. Being able to work, and continuing to hold down a job, is important. I see concerns about this all…

I was in Washington, D.C. for a meeting, and had the opportunity to dine with some fellow multiple sclerosis advocates. I thought it might be of interest to get their take on the most pressing issues of 2017 for people living with MS. I wasn’t sure what to…

There is now less than a month until the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is expected to approve Ocrevus, generic name ocrelizumab, for use as a therapy for multiple sclerosis. Clinical trials have shown Genentech’s drug to be a promising therapy for relapsing MS and, significantly,…