January 25, 2023 Columns by Beth Ullah MS cognitive fog is the hardest symptom for me to accept “You only begin to grasp the import of an event – and its larger implications vis-à-vis your life – long after it has entered into that realm marked ‘memory.’” — Douglas Kennedy, “The Moment“ I am reading…
January 11, 2023 Columns by Beth Ullah With an Epilepsy Diagnosis, I Face Another Battle With Chronic Illness “The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new.” — Dan Millman I’m now living with multiple chronic illnesses. Lately, time has been rushing past like…
December 7, 2022 Columns by Beth Ullah How I Plan to Have a Cracking Christmas With MS As an adult, it hasn’t been easy for me to get into the Christmas spirit. Planning festivities and buying gifts don’t come naturally to me. Perhaps it’s because adult life never ends, whereas as a student, I had holiday…
November 2, 2022 Columns by Beth Ullah Making the Difficult Decision to Step Away From Fertility Treatment Ten years ago, my husband and I lost our twin girls during my 18th week of pregnancy. In some ways, it feels as though this decade has flown by in the blink of an eye, but in others, it…
October 12, 2022 Columns by Beth Ullah How I’m Managing the Challenges of Study With MS Fatigue Just like a surgeon’s prize hand or a ballerina’s plié, my mind has been my most valued asset. That’s been true all my life, through realizing my passion for science, achieving my undergraduate degree in biomedical science, and even…
September 14, 2022 Columns by Beth Ullah My Wedding Anniversary Reminds Me to Find Strength in Silver Linings It’s in my nature to get a little reflective around significant dates, such as New Year’s and the changing of the seasons. I love that these occasions represent change and starting fresh. So celebrating my seventh wedding anniversary on…
August 17, 2022 Columns by Beth Ullah Overcoming MS Setbacks to Find Abundant Love on a Special Day Last week, we welcomed a wonderful person into our family. My not-so-little brother got married! The wedding was beautiful — so beautiful that I couldn’t let myself feel it all in the moment. Who wants to hear the loud,…
August 10, 2022 Columns by Beth Ullah How Paw-fect Pets Improve Life With Chronic Illness Having grown up in the countryside, I’ve been around animals my entire life. We always had dogs and cats, and I learned how to ride horses. It was tranquil and storybook. When I left home to take a trip…
August 3, 2022 Columns by Beth Ullah Sometimes Pushing Boundaries With My MS Management Pays Off My brother is getting married in two weeks, so last weekend, I attended my future sister-in-law’s bridal shower in London. When it came to managing my relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS) on the trip, I pretty much broke every rule…
July 20, 2022 Columns by Beth Ullah A Big Step Forward: Using Public Transportation With MS As anyone with chronic illness knows, leaving the house requires planning. There’s much more to think about than what’s visible, especially if you’re relying on public transport. In the days preceding last week’s appointment with my multiple sclerosis…
July 13, 2022 Columns by Beth Ullah Fighting Fire With Fire: The War Between Lemtrada and My MS “So can you lift me up/ And turn these ashes into flames/ ‘Cause I have overcome/ More than words will ever say.” — Kate Voegele My relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) diagnosis stole my life from me. The reverberations…
July 6, 2022 Columns by Beth Ullah While Living With MS, Good Planning Is Key to Avoiding Chaos “Without leaps of imagination, or dreaming, we lose the excitement of possibilities. Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning.” ― Gloria Steinem For as long as I can remember, my father has always had a saying: “Perfect planning…
June 29, 2022 Columns by Beth Ullah Managing Fatigue and Other Vacation Tips for People With MS “A holiday is an opportunity to journey within.” — Prabhas Last week was only my second weeklong holiday since my relapsing-remitting MS diagnosis in 2017. My husband and I have had weekend getaways here and there, mainly to…
June 22, 2022 Columns by Beth Ullah Grappling With the Sensory Overload That Can Come With MS Imagine this scene: There’s a rowdy crowd of nearly 40,000 people in a rugby stadium with music blaring over the Tannoy speakers. Newfound numbness spreads throughout the majority of your body, and on top of that, you can hardly…
June 15, 2022 Columns by Beth Ullah Just Because We Aren’t Relapsing Doesn’t Mean We Are Symptom-free In relapsing-remitting MS, relapses and exacerbations involve a worsening of symptoms or the appearance of new ones for 24 hours or more. My disease baseline has changed many times over the years, but has never returned to…
June 1, 2022 Columns by Beth Ullah Tipping the Scale: When Today’s Choices Become Tomorrow’s Consequences Like watching a scale tip up and down, I’m constantly assessing how any choices I make could affect how I feel tomorrow, or even later today. Although my multiple sclerosis was as aggressive and unstable as a hurricane in…
May 25, 2022 Columns by Beth Ullah It’s Time to Start Thinking About Seasonal Adjustments and MS The thought of summer approaching both worries and excites me. I’ve always preferred the changing of seasons and fair weather to the height of a season, even before my MS diagnosis. I prefer change and the idea of…
May 18, 2022 Columns by Beth Ullah After Standing Still, Finding My Next Step “The carousel never stops turning.” – the TV drama “Grey’s Anatomy” At the 2019 European Patients’ Forum Congress in Brussels, which focused on patient involvement in healthcare, attendees were invited to write down a list of goals they…
May 4, 2022 Columns by Beth Ullah Recovering My Self-esteem After Adapting to MS-related Incontinence Without hesitation, I would say that my bladder and bowel issues have been the hardest symptoms to manage and overcome following my MS diagnosis. It comes down…
November 30, 2023 Columns by Benjamin Hofmeister Is multiple sclerosis everywhere, or am I just more aware of it now?
