...The day that changed my life It was a phone call from the hospital in S.C to my mom back in MI that changed my life forever. I was 18 years old newly married, traveling around the states with my husband for his job I was in Greenville, S.C. when one of my usual migraines started. Migraines have been a part of my life since the age of 12 so this was not out of the ordinary, until day 3 and no change. We knew something had to be wrong and that’s when the journey to where I am today started. I went to the emergency room to get a Toradol shot as I had before, I explained the situation and the length of the migraine and that when the nurse felt something was more serious than a migraine. I was rushed to the back for an MRI and that when it was seen I had a quarter sized tumor in the center of my brain. They were sending me over to a neurosurgeon to talk about immediate brain surgery the tumor needed to be removed before any further damage was done. I was only a kid all alone with just my husband in a state that we didn’t know a single person and I was being prepped for an overnight stay in the hospital while having to break the news to my mom over the phone. I was admitted at 11 pm and was scheduled to have the surgery at 5 am, after a sleepless night and the hours slowly passing 5 am came and was gone and I had yet to see a nurse or a doctor. A few more hours passed and finally at 3 pm I saw the neurosurgeon who advised that he was releasing me and that he would not be performing...
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...The extension study experience confirms that daily glatiramer acetate injections are well tolerated. Injection site reactions rarely led to early termina- tion of dosing, and the self-limited, transient sys- temic reactions were rare and did not lead to permanent or life-threatening sequelae. There were no laboratory abnormalities considered to be associ- ated with glatiramer acetate, a finding previously reported in trials of glatiramer a ~ e t a t eT. ~he adverse events profile for glatiramer acetate is distinctly bet- ter than the experience observed with the beta inter- ferons when used in similar patient ~opulations.'~J~ The role of neutralizing antibodies in limiting the effectiveness of long-term therapies used to modify MS is still unclear. There is preliminary evidence that the beta interferons lose effectiveness once neu- tralizing antibodies to them develop16; however, these finding are still being investigated. Patients chronically injected with glatiramer ace- tate commonly develop binding antibodies that peak at 3 to 6 months and then decline. However, inde- pendent studies have failed to demonstrate that an- tibodies neutralize either experimental or clinical effects of the drug treatment.17-19The continued clin- ical benefit, observed in regard to both the MS re- lapse rate and on neurologic disability when this study was extended, suggests that the modifying ef- fect of glatiramer acetate on MS was not compro- mised by appearance of neutralizing antibodies...
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...Today, I look back through vague but wonderful memories, memories of childhood, memories my mother and I share. I remember playing games, cards and putting together puzzles which I still have stored in my attic. Did you ever know that "I Love Lucy" reruns were on at 3: 00 a.m.? On occasion I would run downstairs and wake my mom, who already knew that I had had a bad dream, and we'd watch together. She was very comforting. She showed alot of affection not only for me, but also for my brother and sister. All of us have experienced the same happiness our mother brought to our lives. In 1992 my best friend's mother died of cancer. It was a tragedy, but as usual, my mother used her power of healing and got his family back on their feet. I remember she cooked for the grieving husband and sulking kids for two weeks. If you asked my friends (or the community) about my mother, they would say, "That woman has a heart of gold." I agree one-hundred percent. I think the reason she is such a wonderful person is because the Holy Spirit resides within her. She is very holy and has persuaded me to go to church with her every Sunday for as long as I can remember. She belongs to the RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults) which gives people the opportunity to become part of the Catholic religion. About six years ago my mom decided that she wanted to pursue her lifelong goal of becoming a teacher. She knew it would be hard work raising three kids, doing housework, and studying at...
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...Group Project – Final Draft Multiple Sclerosis – The Physical and Behavioral Effects Multiple Sclerosis, also known as MS, or Demyelinating disease; a disease that not many are aware of. It is “an autoimmune disease that affects the brain and spinal cord (central nervous system).” (A.D.A.M. Inc, 2011) The symptoms vary depending on the individual affected by the disease, and it also differs in duration for each symptom. In this paper, we will discuss the definition of Multiple Sclerosis, review the main symptoms affecting Multiple Sclerosis patients and their loved ones, its risk factors, how to recognize potential symptoms, the tests available, and support groups that can provide more information on this disease as well as how to cope with it. Depression is one of the main side effects Multiple Sclerosis patients have; it is unfortunately very common for someone with Multiple Sclerosis to experience depression. To learn more about the disease, we have to understand what MS is. Multiple Sclerosis, or MS, is an auto-immune disease that affects your brain’s nervous system; the “T-Cells” attack your neurons which function is to send signals to your brain. Each nerve cell control different parts of your body and emotions; having the T-cells attacking your emotional nerves can impact your way of living. If these T-cells damage the nerves of the brain that are involved in emotional expression and control; it can create a variety of behavioral changes resulting in depression...
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...Exercise and Multiple Sclerosis Rebecca Milligan April 29, 2010 Participation in an exercise program can be a challenge for most people, but it can be especially difficult if someone loses mobility as a result of a chronic condition such as multiple sclerosis (MS). While these challenges may often seem insurmountable, there are many strategies that make it possible for people with MS-related mobility problems to participate in, and gain significant benefit from, a carefully designed and customized program of regular exercise. THE IMPACT OF MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS Multiple sclerosis is an auto-immune disease of the central nervous system. It degrades the myelin sheath that covers and protects axons or nerve tissue in the body. There is also evidence that the disease damages nerve tissue itself. MS can compromise the ability of nerves to function normally, which can also affect mobility, feeling, and sensory perception. It may also cause fatigue and a loss of muscle mass due to the inability of the patients to exercise adequately. A critical element of treatment is the need to watch for signs of progression of the disease. Multiple sclerosis progression is most commonly measured through a scale called the Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS), which focuses largely on a person's ambulatory ability.(n1) Many doctors also use a measurement called the Multiple Sclerosis Functional Composite (MSFC), which is a three-part composite assessment that uses a wide variety...
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...Personal Impact: Multiple Sclerosis Nbiyea N. Conley University of Phoenix NUR/427 Multiple Sclerosis Multiple Sclerosis or MS is a chronic as well as progressive disease of the central nervous system. MS effects primarily women, between the ages of 20 and 40. MS is not a curable disease and the exact cause is unknown. It has been shown that Multiple Sclerosis has a major connection with genetics, environment, pathogens and vitamin D deficiencies. There are four types of Multiple Sclerosis relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis, secondary progressive multiple sclerosis, primary progressive multiple sclerosis, and progressive relapsing multiple sclerosis. My sister whom is 20 years old was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in January of 2015. She simply took a shower one day and couldn’t determine the temperature of the water on her right side. She has never been one to complain so there was a definite concern from my entire family. Her gait remained steady, she has not has any falls at home. So my mother and I which are both nurses wrote it off as just general fatigue cause by her college final exams. After visit to the emergency room, spinal taps, MRIs and series of other test it was confirmed she had Multiple Sclerosis. I can remember the day the neurologist confirmed the diagnosis and that she had lesions on her brain. She looked at my mother and said “I have always tried to be a good person, why is this happening to me”. Since her diagnosis a series of things...
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...Multiple Sclerosis: A Neurological Enigma Multiple sclerosis is a neurological immune-mediated disease that affects the brain and spinal cord. It is an unpredictable, often disabling disease that disrupts the flow of information within the brain and between the brain and the body. MS affects one in every 500 persons, women twice as frequently as men. It is more common in young adults, and causes a variety of neurological deficits (visual loss, paralysis, sensory loss, ataxia, brainstem signs, psychiatric disorders, and dementia). Many MS cases evolve over a long period (20-30 years) with remissions and exacerbations. Some cases have an acute, even fatal course, and others go into a relentlessly progressive phase after a period of remissions and exacerbations. MS involves an immune mediated process that develops when a previous viral injury to the nervous system has occurred in a genetically susceptible individual. B lymphocytes, plasma cells, and activated T cells, along with pro-inflammatory cytokines, cause inflammation, oligodendrocyte injury, and demyelination. Early inflammation and demyelination lead to irreparable axonal degeneration and scarring (Huether & McCance, 2012). MS not only causes focal inflammatory changes but also causes diffuse injury throughout the central nervous system called MS lesions or plaques. MS lesions can occur anywhere in gray or white matter with localized areas of demyelination, changes in the components of myelin, damage to oligodendrocytes...
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...Background: Mediterranean Spotted Fever (MSF) is characterized by maculopapular rash, fever and eschar at the tick bite site. It is a summer illness caused by Rickettsia conorii that is endemic in the Mediterranean basin. The main known vector is Rhipicephalus sanguineus. Although the majority of cases are benign, complications and mortality can occur. The objectives of this study are to clinically characterize and to delineate predictors of bad outcome in patients hospitalized with Mediterranean Spotted Fever during 23 years. Material/methods: We performed a retrospective cross-sectional study of adult patients hospitalized in an Infectious Diseases Unit between 1992 and 2014. The MSF was defined as positive R. conorii serology, positive R. conorii Polymerase Chain Reaction or clinical diagnosis (typical rash and eschar). The patients were identified by our hospital database (ICD9 082.1) and afterwards clinical records were consulted. The primary outcome of this study was patient outcome (heal or death) and secondary outcomes were Intensive/Intermediate Care Unit (ICU) admission, complications (consciousness impairment, pneumonitis, renal failure, meningitis and gastrointestinal bleeding) and predictors of death. We used the most appropriate measure of central tendency, measure of distribution and statistic test. The significance level used was 0.05. Results: We included 91 patients with MSF (68 serological, 2 by Polymerase Chain Reaction and 21 clinical diagnosis). The majority...
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...Multiple Sclerosis Laney B. Pope Health Science 1 Honors Hobbton High Sch L. Pope 2 Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a long-lasting disease that can affect the brain, spinal cord, and optic nerve of the eye. MS occurs when the immune system attacks a fatty material called myelin, which wraps around nerve fibers to protect them. Without myelin, nerves become damaged resulting in the brain being unable to send signals through the body. (WebMD). There are four types of MS; Relapsing-Remitting MS (RRMS), Secondary-Progressive MS (SPMS), Primary-Progressive MS (PPMS), and Progressive-Relapsing MS (PRMS). Each type of MS is named according to the way the disease acts on the body over time. The severity and type of MS depends on the size and location of...
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...alcohol. Marijuana has never caused a death when many legal products have caused millions of deaths each year. Our government wastes millions of dollars trying to keep marijuana out of the United States each year. If medical marijuana was legal, I believe the world would just be a better place. In 2003, Canada was the first country in the world to allow doctors to prescribe patients medical marijuana. There is only a small amount of evidence that marijuana is bad for you. Medical marijuana is not harmful in anyway, it cannot kill you. There are no significant health risks. Marijuana is proved to relieve pain from arthritis; it decreases anxiety, can control epileptic seizures, slows down Alzheimer’s disease, and eases the pain of multiple sclerosis. The first marijuana based prescription was called Sativex, it came out in the United Kingdom in summer 2010. If medical marijuana wasn’t available, many people would be somewhere, useless, suffering and lying in pain. Smoking marijuana has also been known for even stopping the spread of cancer. Marijuana can stimulate an appetite for people with AIDS. Also, it controls vomiting and nausea for patients in chemotherapy. Marijuana can be used like medicene, to make you feel better. This is one of my many reasons America should just legalize Medical Marijuana. Damaged and weak from the war on drugs, the U.S. prison population is six to ten times higher than that of other European nations. In 1973, Oregon was the first...
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...The Controversy with Medicinal Marijuana For thousands of years, marijuana has been used for various medicinal purposes. As early as the 19th century, physicians in the US used marijuana to treat migraines, as an analgesic, as hypnotics and anticonvulsants. However, between the 1st and 2nd World Wars the US vied the production and usage of marijuana as a conflict between the American culture and morality. This conflict resulted in the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937, which was intended to diminish its usage and the production of marijuana through high taxes. In the 1950's, the government started to institute mandatory jail sentences and/or fines for possession of marijuana. By the 1960's marijuana became more popular; which resulted in the Controlled Substance Act of 1970. This act classified marijuana in a class with cocaine and like drugs. In the late 70's less-strict policies against marijuana changed leading to revocation of jail sentences for marijuana charges. In 1980's Reagan was very strong on the anti-drug policy which changed the policies of the late 70's. Followed by Reagan, George Bush Sr. instituted harsh penalties with marijuana users and distribution. In 1996, California passed Proposition 215, this permitted the use of medicinal marijuana for medicinal purposes. As of November 2008, 13 states have legalized medicinal marijuana. The United States government opposes, to many doctors and patients, when marijuana is suggested to have medicinally legitimate use. Marijuana...
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...Multiple Sclerosis (MS): An Autoimmune Disease. You are in your mid twenty but you feel fatigue, numbness of extremities, chronic pain, vision problem, etc almost daily. Then sometime, you feel dizzy, vertigo, loss of balance, involuntary muscle spasms, and difficult to move around. You may feel depress and mood swings in addition to these symptoms. What is wrong with you? You are at the age where as young adults with full energize life ahead, ready to take charge of an independent life and assume a various social roles and economic responsibilities like a new career after college and graduate school, begin an intimate romance relationships, or maybe starting a family of your own (Falvo, 2009). What you are experiences are the common symptoms of Multiple Sclerosis (MS), a Central Nervous System (CNS) disease which affects over 400,000 Americans, and every week about 200 people are diagnosed. Worldwide, it affects about 2.5 million people (NewsRx Health and Science, 2012). Its exact cause is unknown, however the common thought is some unknown virus or gene defect is the blame. To really understand Multiple Sclerosis we will need to look at it definition and history, the statistics of number people afflicted with it, what are the social-psychological challenges of the disease. We will also need to look at what kind of research projects and experiments have been done regarding the disease, what kind of help and support that the community have to offer to its patients,...
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...comprehensive approach to health and illness that is crucial to improving the quality of life. The purpose of this essay is to describe a practice experience from a biopsychosocial perspective of a patient admitted to a unit for respite care. The patient has a diagnosis of secondary progressive multiple sclerosis and the area being considered is the patient’s immobility. To begin, biopsychosocial will be defined and a brief description of the patient will be given before discussing how this central nervous system condition has affected the patient. The patient’s primary symptoms affecting their mobility will be described, along with a secondary symptom which the patient is vulnerable to developing. Subsequently, the associated tertiary symptoms affecting the patient psychological state and social systems will be discussed before summarising the knowledge gained and how this will alter skills in future practice experiences. To respect and maintain patient confidentiality in line with the Nursing and Midwifery Councils (2008) code, a pseudonym will be used and will be referred to as Mary throughout this essay. Mary is a forty-nine year old female who was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis twenty-one years ago. In 2006 her mobility deteriorated after a significant relapse and as a result of her symptoms she has been confined to bed since 2010. Additionally Mary has mild speech difficulties, is doubly incontinent and has a history of depression. In 1977 George Engle developed the biopsychosocial...
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...States, some states such as Washington and Colorado have also legalized the possession and usage of marijuana for medical purposes. On the other hand, various penalties are imposed for use or possession of marijuana in most countries. The penalties generally range from simple to severe punishments. Possession of small quantities of marijuana is not punished the same way as possession of large quantities. In this argumentative essay, I seek to argue the reasons why marijuana should be legalized, and why it should not. Primarily, marijuana should be legalized since it is used for medication, and its legalization means better and higher quality health standards. For example, Sativex is a recent drug that has been discovered to cure Multiple Sclerosis (Kmietowicz 89). The drug has been used in the United Kingdom to treat MS patients, and it has been found to work effectively. Therefore, banning of marijuana would be a disadvantage to people who suffer from diseases that use marijuana as a major component in their medicine. The usage of marijuana for medical purpose is the strongest reason to legalize it. Marijuana helps a condition that is known as cancer chemotherapy. The condition causes extreme vomiting to its patients. It also helps to open up lungs of an asthma patient. Moreover, the legalization of marijuana can also yield a new tax source for the government,...
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...about causal relationship between MS and pregnancy. Although, many years ago, women with multiple sclerosis are advised to avoid pregnancy that their condition would not worsened, but today we access different insights. Studies conducted over the past few decades have shown that the symptoms of multiple sclerosis can be alleviated or even disappear during pregnancy. The analysis of works that report about 13 144 women with MS revealed the following data: * MS has no effect on pregnancy. * No increase in negative symptoms nor for mother nor for the child. * Woman with MS can expect a normal pregnancy and normal delivery. For all these reasons, women with MS, especially those with mild neurological deficits, should be encouraged to become pregnant as soon as possible due to the progressive flow of the disease. It is important to break down some of the prejudices that exist and women provide the necessary information: 1. Does MS affect on the fertility of women? 2. Does MS affect on pregnancy and the baby's health? 3. Is it possible to apply spinal or epidural anesthesia during childbirth? 4. Is it recommended breastfeeding and is it safe? 5. Does pregnancy affect on the MS during pregnancy and after childbirth? 6. How to treat MS during pregnancy and breastfeeding? 7. Is there a risk that child inherits this disease? Multiple sclerosis does not affect the fertility of women but pregnancy should be planned due to drugs used. The use...
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