Too much! Too loud! Overstimulation awakens MS

  

It’s easy to become overstimulated in these busy times. We are bombarded with images, messages, noises, smells, and other stimuli – even in our own home. And when we go out, even if we aren’t agoraphobic or claustrophobic, we often face crowds, traffic, and commotion. 

Overstimulating situations can take many forms: 

• a rush-hour traffic jam, with honking horns and lane-hopping drivers, while the radio is playing
• a family dinner, with everyone talking at once
• a loud restaurant with booming music, clanging dishes, and boisterous diners
• a grocery checkout line, with PA announcements, impatient customers, your own kids in tow, and a hurried cashier
• a too-loud TV or sound system, especially if you’re trying to focus on a project
• multitasking on deadline

 I bet you can come up with even more triggers of overstimulation. Essentially, volume and chaos are key contributors. Even sitting at a computer with too many tabs or windows open at one time or trying to work at a cluttered desk or counter may set things off. Of course, everything goes up a few notches with illness, injury, insomnia, or a crisis in the mix. 

And ladies: Toss in PMS, pregnancy, or menopause, and all bets are off.

 

Sensory overload is a neurological circus, and it is common with MS.

 We may experience this in several ways, such as: 

• agitation
• anxiety
• aversion to touch
• concentration problems
• confusion
• disorientation
• distraction
• dizziness
• feeling faint
• frustration
• muscle spasms
• numbness or tingling
• overheating
• oversensitivity to light (especially flashing lights)
• physical pain
• speech difficulty
• sudden-onset fatigue
• sweating
• tremors
• and more.

 You know, it’s basically the whole kit and caboodle of MS symptoms. But they seem to subside, soon after the overstimulation diminishes.

 

What can MSers do about this?

 Turning down the noise is key. But it’s not always possible.

 Noise-canceling headphones can help. (I frequently wear the big old-fashioned headphones while working at my own desk at home. And I don’t even plug them in. They help to cut the overstimulation clutter in my own home, where loud phone conversations and high-volume TVs can become uncomfortable and overstimulating.) Playing calming music through those headphones is a plus for others.

 Wearing sunglasses and selecting glare-reducing eyeglasses (if you wear glasses) may minimize some visual overstimulation. Night-driving anti-glare glasses are available. Also, polarized glare-reducing sunglasses can be found to fit over regular eyeglasses.

 Softer-glow light bulbs (or dimmers) ease some of the harsh stimulation of the brighter ones.

 Stepping away from chaotic situations may be an option sometimes. I’ve left often left crowded rooms during noisy gatherings (even for a few moments) or stepped outdoors for brief walks and fresh air.

 Simplifying our schedules can help as well.

 Stress management techniques do wonders for those who must deal with overstimulation. A lot of these involve finding moments of privacy and quiet. Some folks practice prayer, quiet time, meditation, gentle exercise, yoga, slower and deeper breathing, singing, reading, and other means of reprioritizing their attention and reducing sensory clutter for a while.

 The hardest step is often to recognize when we are growing overstimulated before it throws us into MS turmoil. There are times when it simply happens without warning. But even identifying the problem can make it a bit more manageable.

 Turning down the noise is a sound decision, when we can. 

 

Related items:

• A-Z promising quotes: Noise
• MS is like a carnival thrill ride without the thrill.
• Multiple Sclerosis: 3 most troubling MS cognitive symptoms
• Tuning in sometimes clears the clutter for an MSer

 

 

Image/s:  Public domain photo/s, Pixabay

 

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What is it with MS and sleep apnea?

 

Sleep can be a common concern among those with multiple sclerosis. Possibly up to 60 percent of MSers struggle with some sort of sleep disturbance. Sleep apnea is a frequent contributor to this issue.

 

What is sleep apnea?

 This is a condition that causes a person’s breathing to stop and start unpredictably during sleep. During those intervals (which may last for several seconds or more), the body is deprived of ample oxygen. An individual may gasp and awaken, or slightly stir and resume breathing. Each time this happens, it’s called an apnea, and it can occur many times each hour throughout the night.

 Experts say approximately one in five American adults may suffer from sleep apnea, although many may not be aware they have it. (Often, it's identified after a sleeping partner complains enough about intense and sudden spurts of snoring that a person seeks medical advice for it.)

 

What are the symptoms of sleep apnea?

 People with sleep apnea find themselves extra tired during the day. They might wake up with frequent dry mouths and nagging morning headaches.

 

What are the risks of sleep apnea?

 Untreated sleep apnea can be deadly, or at least add to potentially fatal conditions. Some researchers claim it can take as much as 10 years off a person’s life, largely because it increases a person’s vulnerability to high blood pressure, strokes, and heart attacks. (This has something to do with decreased blood oxygen levels that occur during each apnea episode.)

 

How does sleep apnea play into MS?

 Specialists have identified two types of apnea.

1.  Obstructive apnea occurs when the muscles in a person’s throat and nose relax (usually during sleep), blocking the airway and stopping breathing momentarily. This is the type that is commonly associated with loud, sputtering snoring and most often with obesity. Smoking is a risk factor as well.
2. Central apnea occurs when the brain fails to direct the body to breathe for a short interval. This may be more of a neurological issue. (That concept sounds familiar to anyone with MS and how it can pay tricks on all sorts of body part and functions.)

 MSers are widely regarded to be at higher risk for both kinds of apnea. Neuroscientists have pointed to reduced brainstem function issues as possible reasons for this, such as may be caused by demyelinating lesions that may be caused by MS over time.

 Whether obstructive apnea, central apnea, or some combination of both, this sleep disorder wreaks havoc when it strikes someone living with MS. Even without MS, sleep apnea tends to make people extremely sleepy all day long, due to the diminishing of quality sleep overnight. MSers already face bouts of (or ongoing struggles with) a crushing fatigue that is nearly indescribable.

 When sleep apnea prevents quality sleep, it considerably complicates this battle. The lack of rest can also aggravate memory loss, increase accident risks, lead to depression, and worsen diabetic symptoms (for MSers with that comorbidity).

 Certain medications frequently used to alleviate MS symptoms may make sleep apnea worse. These include those prescribed for insomnia, pain, spasticity, and more.

 

What can be done about sleep apnea?

 Once sleep apnea has been diagnosed (usually through an at-home of in-lab overnight sleep study, ordered by a neurologist or other physician), the patient will likely be prescribed treatment using a CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure) machine. This regulates breathing during sleep, piping humidified air into the person’s airway via a special mask. In many cases, sleep apnea may also be lessened somewhat when a person stops sleeping on his or her back.

 It can take time and practice to adjust to CPAP treatment, especially the wearing and breathing through the mask while sleeping. (Trust me. It can take weeks or even months to get used to it!) But this adaptation has been shown to reduce sleep apnea episodes (as well as their duration), and eventually to improve restorative sleep and rest.

 That’s worth plenty to an MSer.

 

 Related items:

• 15 things never to say to anyone with multiple sclerosis
• Got up. Got dressed. And got back in bed.
• Learning to plan down-days
• MS comorbidities: Welcome to the party!
• MS has made me more body-conscious.
• The perfect storm can bring on an MS maelstrom
• Thermostat wars and MS

 

Image/s:  Public domain photo

 

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Should MS treatments stop after age 50?

 

Maybe you’ve heard this: Plenty of multiple sclerosis doctors seem to be halting patients’ disease-modifying treatments at or after age 50. Others point to 60 as the magic age when such prescriptions may cease. The popular theory says the efficacy of such medications commonly diminishes as patients age, while the risks of continuing with the drugs may increase.

 However, recent research also reveals that up to a third of those included in the studies found their MS relapses and related disabilities increased after discontinuing their meds.

 

Holy moley. What’s a middle-aged MSer to do?

 We have to wonder whether this is an efficacy issue (for the medications), an economical one (for insurance companies), an efficiency concern (for medical providers) or perhaps an ethical one (for all of us).

 

We have to be our own advocates.

 Most definitely, each MSer needs to continue to research and learn and question his or her own care and treatment.

 Some of us may be able to stop disease-modifying treatments without suffering for it. After many years of unchanged MRIs (e.g., no new lesions), this may be an option. But this tactic is clearly not for everyone battling multiple sclerosis. Those with the most progressive forms of the disease may be least likely to benefit from such a choice.

 This simply cannot become an across-the-board standard for all MSers, regardless of health challenges, symptoms, and other conditions.

 

It’s not like the medical world can turn us out to pasture, as we age.

 Some 50-somethings (or even 60-somethings, 70-somethings, and beyond) still pursue a wide range of activities and endeavors. We may still have careers in our later years. We juggle multiple responsibilities and chase all sorts of interests.

 

Don’t let them tell you it’s all downhill from here.

 We still have mountains to climb and summits to reach. And if that means we need to continue disease-modifying therapies, then let’s make darn sure those remain available (and insurable) for us.

 

Related items:

·        Ain't nothin' pseudo about a pseudo-exacerbation

·        Beware the MS hiatus hangover

·        Changing meds: Safety tips for tossing leftover drugs

·        Reviewing the four types of multiple sclerosis

 

 Image/s: Adapted from public domain image/s.

 

 

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Flu shot won't awaken MS? Beg to differ.

 

Does the flu shot aggravate multiple sclerosis? This question seems to come up perennially.

 Plenty of MS experts (like the folks at the Cleveland Clinic) contend that a flu shot is unlikely to exacerbate MS. And that was my experience for several years. I had annual shots to prevent influenza, and I experienced no measurable side effects. OK, sometimes I had some mild soreness in the arm receiving the shot. But that was it.

 

Until this year.

 Curiously, I had very little reaction to the COVID-19 shots (#1 and #2), except for some fairly significant fatigue and overall achiness after the second round. And I had those vaccines about six months ago.

 

But the flu shot was another story this time.

 Sure, the influenza shot is different each year, as scientists try to target those flu variants that seem likely to be the most problematic at the time. But generally, we might expect the actual science to be similar.

 

Go figure.

 Almost exactly one month ago, I had this year’s flu shot. It seemed pretty routine.

 One day later, MS vertigo (one of my weaker links) rose up with a vengeance. I also experienced extra tingling in my hands and feet. My vision blurred in one eye (which happened to be the one where optic neuritis had led to my MS diagnosis in the first place).

 Within a couple weeks, the symptoms lessened a bit, but they are still with me. The vertigo comes and goes in waves and seems to be the last complaint to quit.

 

MS gets worse when we’re sick.

 Ask any MSer. When our immune systems go into overdrive, our MS symptoms tend to come alive. And what does a vaccine do? It alerts our bodies to gear up to fight illness. The problem is, if we have MS, our bodies begin fighting themselves. It’s complex, but also quite simple.

 So when I hear medical experts calling out that flu shots won’t affect MSers, I beg to differ. I’ll have to think twice about having one next year.

 Anyone else have a similar experience?

 

Related items:

• Are flu shots safe for people with multiple sclerosis?
• Got MS? Should you get the COVID-19 vaccine?
• Is MS gonna make me a germophobe?
• MS means I might have the flu for DAYS without knowing it.
• MS symptoms fire when we’re sick.

 

Image/s: Adapted from USAF/public domain image.

 

Feel free to follow on Twitter. Please visit my Amazon author page as well.

You are invited to join the Kicking MS to the Curb page on Facebook and the Making the Most of MS board on Pinterest.

Got MS? Should you get the COVID-19 vaccine?

 Multiple sclerosis warriors are wrestling with this sticky question, as pharmaceutical giants feverishly roll out their own versions of coronavirus vaccines. For many, this is an answer to prayer. But for MSers, the whole COVID-19 issue may be stealing our sleep.

 

The answer is that there is no easy answer.

I’m not playing click-bait or bait-and-switch here. It’s the reality.

 

MS is different for everyone who has it. And that colors the answer about the vaccine.

Each of us needs to make his or her own inquiries about the vaccine.

At this moment, it seems specific testing has not been done with MS patients and COVID-19 vaccinations. That makes our decision more difficult. It does appear a group of MS experts are examining the possibilities, so we may learn more about this eventually.

Here are the questions I have asked, in my personal search for answers about the accepting a coronavirus vaccine. Frustratingly, there are at least two sides to every answer.

 

What kind of MS do I have?

Life is very different for those with the more progressive forms of MS than it is for those of use currently living with relapse-remitting MS (RRMS). So is the COVID-19 threat.

 

Based on my type of MS, how should I proceed?

Those with progressive types of MS may be categorized as high-risk and boosted ahead in the line to receive COVID-19 vaccinations. The coronavirus can be extra dangerous for those already immunocompromised and physically challenged in various ways by MS. On the other hand, their personal medical conditions (and MS medications) may increase their risk of MS complications arising in response to the vaccine.

Those of us with RRMS tend to have stretches of time (of unpredictable duration) where some or most of our symptoms seem to abate. Of course, the last thing we want to do is awaken the sleeping giant. COVID-19 can do exactly that. Can the vaccine to that too?

 

Am I taking medications that may compromise my immune system?

Many of the disease-modifying therapies commonly prescribed for MS are aimed directly at the immune system. That may forestall some MS flare-ups, but it can also leave a person extra vulnerable to infection. And that includes the coronavirus. For that reason, a physician might direct an MS patient to have the COVID-19 vaccine.

At the same time, lots of experts recommend MSers refrain from this vaccine (and perhaps also flu shots) because those shots are intended to cause the body to produce antibodies. That means rousing the immune system.

The issue is really a double-barreled shotgun for anyone with MS.

 

Which would be worse, catching COVID-19 or reacting to the vaccine?

It’s a crap shoot for sure. The simplest response sounds like a pat answer, but it rings true:

Check with your own MS doctor.

Sorry, that’s the best we can do.

 

Which COVID-19 vaccine will I be offered?

It’s too early to tell, at least around here. Currently, two coronavirus vaccines are in play, with more potentially entering the arena soon. Each may come with its own set of potential side effects and risks. We may or may not have the opportunity to pick which shot we receive, as shipments seem to target various organizations and facilities.

We kind of have to watch and wait … and pay attention.

 

As for me, I am generally leaning towards receiving the COVID-19 vaccine.

I took a flu shot for the first time in a decade last fall. And I had minimal adverse reactions. I did feel a little funky for a couple days, but I have (so far) avoided the flu. My hopes are high that I will respond similarly to the COVID-19 vaccine.

 

My opinion about the COVID-19 vaccine may change before I am eligible for it.

We are likely to learn a lot more in the coming months, so I’ll be reevaluating my position on an ongoing basis. My personal characteristics place me pretty far down the list in vaccine priority.

I refuse to pass judgment on anyone who does or does not choose to have the coronavirus vaccine, although I do look forward to the day when the pandemic lifts.

 

On the up-side, we MSers are pretty good about enduring injections.

We definitely take this in stride. I cannot tell you how many people I have heard complaining about having to get a COVID-19 vaccine, simply because they dread shots.

Heck, we could do it ourselves!

 

Related items:

• Reviewing the four types of multiple sclerosis
• Are flu shots safe for people with multiple sclerosis?
• MS is like the cancellation disease.
• MS symptoms fire when we’re sick.

 

Image/s: Adapted from public domain image.

 

Feel free to follow on Twitter. Please visit my Amazon author page as well.

You are invited to join the Kicking MS to the Curb page on Facebook and the Making the Most of MS board on Pinterest.

Numbness - Facing MS symptoms from A to Z

If you have multiple sclerosis, how do you feel about it? We may live with all sorts of emotions, as we battle the MS MonSter. But from a physical standpoint, we might face a loss of feeling in random body parts. 

Maybe a foot or hand goes numb. It might be a shoulder, the neck, or the face. Numbness could even strike the tongue, impairing speech and making swallowing difficult or even perilous for a while.

The numbness MS can bring could be temporary or permanent. Sometimes it starts with pins-and-needles tingling, and sometimes it simply starts. That’s part of the uncertainty of living with this thing.

MSers don’t tend to be apathetic, callous, detached, or insensitive. But we can certainly be numb.

Images:
Word cloud generated by Kicking MS to the Curb - All rights reserved

Series title graphic adapted from public domain artwork.

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