Planning The Unpredictable

Pulled a mother…

nina — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 06:11:01 +0000

My mother is one of those outgoing types that talks to strangers. She will randomly talk to people on the bus. THE BUS! There are lots of weird people on the bus. She is also related to half of eastern Washington it seems. A good example of this was many years ago when I convinced her to go to my nutty gay hair stylist. I had been seeing him for a few years and he was at this crazy young kids salon. Anyway, I never really asked him about his childhood because who does? Well, my mother. Within the first 10 minutes of this appointment, she found out where he was from and that she knew his mother and father. His father turned out to be in prison for attempted murder.

But anyway, I was at Walgreens the other day and a woman was getting her prescription for Copaxone. She was diagnosed at age 59 which is outside the diagnostic age. I actually talked to her AND invited to her to our ladies MS Starbucks morning. I called this a mothers moment. It’s amusing. Even Tom knows what that means…

New Years Anti-resolutions

nina — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 16:17:12 +0000

Since less than 10% of folks actually keep their new years resolutions, I decided to do the opposite and post what I don’t want for my resolutions. That way, I have a much higher success rate.

I would like more lesions for my MRI in May.
More pills! I love pills!
More doctor appointments! I LOVE DOCTORS!
I want to gain lots of weight!!!! Mmmmm chocolate.

But really… all I hope for this year is less drama. I told Tom that I wanted to end 2008 on a positive note since the whole year completely sucked ass. So we ended the year engaged. For a quick review of the good, bad and ugly -

January 2 - Surgery on my Achilles tendon. I was off my foot for 7 weeks so I had to scoot around. I fell three times, ran over the cat at least three times and I am still in pain some days. I can’t wear cute shoes yet.
Jan-June - Fight thyroid and Vitamin D problems until it finally stabilizes.
April-August - Physical therapy every freakin week.
May - Randomly go blind in one eye while I am alone. Tom was in Chicago and my parents were overseas. A week later I was diagnosed with MS.
May-August - Doctors, shots, needles, doctors, MRI’s
June - I get to meet Tom’s kids and his exwife which was tons of fun.
August - Vacation
December - Snow storm locks me inside for a week but I am ENGAGED - I finally roped him in. Mwhahaa!

To all my readers, thank you for all the wonderful comments over the year. Here is to a healthy, happy blogging year. Drink up… we are in for a ride.

Breastfeeding and Copaxone

nina — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 04:43:22 +0000

I am a bit of a childbirth nerd. I have been trained to be a doula and attended three births. I don’t know if I will ever have kids so my family reading this shouldn’t get the wrong idea or anything.

I decided to do some research on breastfeeding with Copaxone. The expert in medications and breastfeeding is Dr. Thomas Hale from Texas Tech University Medical School. He does research studies on breast milk with different medications to determine if they are safe. Every year he publishes a book on breastfeeding and medicine. So another words, he is the expert in this area.

He has a message board which is open to everyone to read and only medical professionals to post. He has researched Copaxone and breast milk. He *believes* it is safe to breastfeed while on Copaxone! I am not sure what medical professionals would say. I forgot to ask my doc the last time I was there but anyway,

The reason he thinks Copaxone is safe is that it is a large molecule that is unlikely to enter the breast milk. Copaxone is also NOT orally bio-available which I think we are all very aware of. He also says “large peptide antigenically similar to myelin basic protein. I can’t imagine that even if microscopic amounts were absorbed, it would harm an infant.”

It is a calculated risk but very low considering all the other risks in your life. Talk with your doc and stuff but I’d do it (again family, no crazy ideas here).

2008 Medical Weblog Awards!!!

nina — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 07:10:55 +0000

The nominations have been updated and Brass and Ivory has made finals! Yay Lisa!

Love and life after MS?

nina — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 03:00:22 +0000

Well, it wasn’t a new love but… he stuck around after my MS diagnosis. This Christmas he gave me this:

I guess that means he will be sticking around for a lot longer.