Hacking my way back against the MS MonSter

Spring allergy season and the warm-weather cold season are raging, and multiple sclerosis warriors are slugging it out against extra symptoms. Some face added frustrations, as any illness can make living with MS increasingly challenging.

For me, it started with seasonal allergies. Heck, I never even had seasonal allergies till my mid-30s. Now they are a pretty predictable harbinger of spring.

Warm winds blew, as I planted my garden and patio pots with bright spring flowers. Dust and pollen whirled (most unseen) around me, while I trotted my dog out for daily jaunts in quiet neighborhoods and woodsy trails.

Then the sneezing started. We’re not talking about a few dainty little sniffles. These were non-stop manly snorts that took my breath away and could have cleared crowded amphitheaters.

Before long, simple allergies led to head congestion, followed by sinusitis and then a full-blown sinus infection. Meanwhile, fluid began building up in my lungs, leaving me wheezing and coughing like a sick dinosaur. At night, I gasped in my bed, with a rattling rale that sounded like someone was moving heavy equipment inside my chest walls.

Breathing difficulties exacerbated the nearly ever-present MS vertigo too.

This is not exactly the spring picnic I had hoped for, I groaned to myself.

Yada. Yada. You know the drill.

MS complicates everything. In a flash, the dreaded MS hug wrapped around my torso. I couldn’t catch a breath – or a break.

Like any experienced MSer, I know we face an increased risk of contracting pneumonia. And the stark reality is clear: People don’t die of MS. But they can die of complications of MS. And the primary culprit is often pneumonia.

“Get thee to a doctor,” is the perennial refrain.

Finally, I did.

At the clinic, they diagnosed me with a sinus infection and bronchitis. They gave me a boatload of prescriptions, including antibiotics and a powerhouse antihistamine/decongestant and an inhaler.

Oh, and pretty clear instructions to slow down for a while.

Yeah, right.

Mostly, this is all helping. I get that it’s gonna take some time. I’m still overdoing it (in terms of personal exertion), nearly daily, and paying a price for that.

Like any medications, these drugs have a few side effects I don’t like. And the antibiotic pills are ginormous and hard to swallow, especially with the MS gag reflex in full attack mode.

But I am grateful to have the prescription treatments. In days gone by (like before antibiotics), basically healthy people used to die from these sorts of illnesses. Now those conditions may just lay us up for a week or so. Sure, I know it will take a little longer to come back to full speed (just because the MS MonSter lurks for times when we are compromised like this).

I’m still hacking with a chest-racking cough. I’m still sneezing non-stop. I’m still going through tissue boxes like they are going out of style. I still run out of steam far faster than usual.

But I’ll be back … once I catch my breath again!

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Zoning Out - Facing MS symptoms from A to Z

Yesterday, I rode in a car through a raging thunderstorm. The clouds were so low to the road that they blocked most of the visibility. The driver had to follow the brake lights of the vehicle in front of us for several miles until we had passed through the stormy area.

Cruising through the foggy stretch was disorienting and uncomfortable. It took all of the focus the driver had, just to keep our car moving forward safely and on-route. Even so, it was a struggle to focus and stay on course.

Sometimes multiple sclerosis feels sort of like that.

People call it “brain fog.” Similar symptoms can accompany other medical conditions.

Folks report attention issues, focus problems, memory challenges, and multi-tasking difficulties with chemotherapy, chronic fatigue syndrome, chronic stress, depression, exposure to toxins, long periods of physical inactivity, lupus, menopause, nutritional deficiencies, pregnancy, sleep deprivation, when taking certain medications, and during the grieving process after a loved one’s death.

Anyone can zone out a bit when overtired, overburdened, or overloaded. MS just tends to tip the scales in that direction much of the time.

Despite our earnest efforts to pay attention (especially when we’re viewing programs and presentations or when someone is speaking to us), we may zone out for a moment. We might miss a piece of something a person just said, take a few extra moments to answer a question, or forget an appointment.

Sensory overload can do that to us. So can MS fatigue, pain, or any number of other MS-related symptoms that interrupt our daily functioning and ability to concentrate.

MSers join the countless crowds who keep daily calendars, to-do lists, and other reminders, just in case they zone out. We might ask others to help us remember something important (although we cringe at the idea of inviting nagging). We set up notes on our smart phones.

And we try like heck to stay in the zone.

Note to loved ones: Beware of telling an MSer that he or she has brain fog or is zoning out. It’s much safer, more tactful, and wiser to let us tell you about it, if we feel like sharing.

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Yuckies - Facing MS symptoms from A to Z

Multiple sclerosis can give a person the yuckies.

It’s not just that icky metallic after-taste that comes with mid-exacerbation steroid treatments. It’s not the, um, unpleasant and potentially embarrassing personal and private problems that some MSers face. And it’s more than the queasy, woozy, bluesy feeling that goes along with the nearly ever-present vertigo of MS.

MS just feels yucky a lot of the time.

“Where does it hurt?” someone might ask. We may not have specific answers (although we may).

“Are you sick again?” another might query. “Maybe it’s the flu.” But it’s probably not influenza, allergies, food poisoning, or typhoid fever. It’s just life with MS, always running in the background.

The MS yuckies are not like depression or grief. They’re more like riding a tandem bicycle and pedaling hard, while the other person is simply sitting there like dead weight. Add a significant headwind, a light rain, a bit of midsummer humidity, three or four blaring radios (tuned to different stations), a pair of fogged-up glasses, a charley horse in one leg, a too-tight belt tucked up around the rib cage, and some stomach upset – now you’re beginning to get the picture.

And, unless the MS yuckies turn into a full-blown exacerbation, then they just feel like a reasonably difficult day with MS. Sure, some of us have days when we can keep up with fit folks. But we also have times that feel … well … yucky.

Maybe we’ll bounce back again tomorrow or the next day or next week.

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Series title graphic adapted from public domain artwork.

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