Sixteen

Health Update (After l0oking at my entry from 11/16/2016)

This one is somewhat appropriate, as I’m fumbling around trying to burn some time waiting to go get four MRIs.

Things were really going awry while I was on travel recently. Some of it might have been the result of the fall off of the bench at the train station, but it there’s also a chance it could be unknown MS progression.

The prescribing information from my disease-modifying therapy used to recommend MRIs every six months with and without contrast. When I was diagnosed, and for several years after, I really did not deal well with venous puncture. I’m okay, for the most part, with an injection. Hit a vein, I’m gonna puke, pass out, or both.

Obviously, with the switch to Tysabri, and the much more-frequent blood tests, the venous puncture doesn’t bother much.

I started on the Tysabri in the middle of 2015. While the dosing is now dosing is now down to every six weeks.

I do have some mild jitters going into the MRI tube. Ostensibly, the reason my neurologist started putting me on Valium for the MRIs was the bad reaction I’d have to the contrast injection.

Today, it’ll be four scans without sleepy pills.

I’m hoping that the MRIs don’t show any MS-related damage/disease progression.

But if I do, I don’t care. That’s part of the mental health work I’ve been doing.

I really can’t explain how much better in whole I am.

Moving everything into one medical group has really positively-affected my condition. Even earlier today, after getting probably the fourth use-this-new-patient-portal in five years from another specialist, I asked my PCP whether I should go ahead and move that treatment to Georgetown, too.

But back to the topic, in many areas I’m much better than I have been. But there’s things where I can’t perform. Some of that might be aging, but probably most of it is due to the MS.

Thankfully, maybe most importantly, I did get a clean bill of health in May for the condition that saw my dad during surgery to treat.

But I’ll keep doing what I’m doing, professionally, until it goes away, or I physically can’t do it anymore.

The pandemic has actually been a positive in showing that remote work isn’t just screwing off. I don’t miss being in a cube farm.

Cubicles are bad for your health.