MRI's - tips and tricks for the chamber

MRI - a torture chamber for multiple sclerosis patients.

Just kidding.  Kind of.

Technically, a MRI is a chamber tube that uses magnetic fields and radio waves to develop a picture of a human's insides.  MRI's of the brain, cervical spine, and thoracic spine (brain, neck and back) are taken at various times with MS patients to look specifically at the central nervous system.  For those with MS, MRI's will show white spots that indicate a lesion.  These white spots, lesions, are places of the nervous system that have been damaged.  (Basically....)

MRI's are not only used as a diagnostic tool for multiple sclerosis, but also as a tool to determine the progression of the disease.  If a patient is presenting new or increased symptoms, a MRI will usually be ordered to determine if there is activity present.  

Here's how the MRI actually works:

"OMGGGGGG" - a new post

OMGGGGG

The sparkled life blog is back!

But wait...didnt I swear off writing and blog posts February 2016?  Isnt the previous post titled "the last post"? Are we trying to make blog writing happen again?

Yes, to all the above.  

I had sworn of writing on the sparkled life.  Why?  It got too difficult.  I needed a break.  My finger muscles contract making typing difficult.  I didnt want to be known as the "the girl with MS".  I felt I had nothing more to say.  And on and on and on. 

Recently I was at my neurologist where there was a new patient, a woman my age.  She didnt look scared but she did look overwhelmed.  It took me back to when I was first diagnosed and how I had wished I had someone to tell me it was all going to be ok.  

That's why I started this blog in the first place - because I had searched for someone, anyone, with a "story like mine" and couldnt find one.  All I could find on MS were stories from people with less hard symptoms like a numb thumb (any symptom is challenging but where were the people who could no longer walk/talk/use their arms?!?!?) or kids with info on how they "healed" their ms with witchery.  

So, I thought, "hell, I'll write the story".  

That was a while ago.  And I had forgotten that flame, that ambition, until I saw this girl the other day.  I so wanted to go up to her and tell her its going to be ok, that she was going to get through this, that it was going to hurt, it was going to be a bitch, but she was strong and was going to make it. 

Butttttt you cant really do that in doctors offices.  

Instead, that fire ignited in me again.  I thought about all the lessons and mistakes I've gained in the past 5 years since diagnosis and how they just might be able to help others.  And maybe, that girl will get a random facebook message from her aunt with a link to this blog.  And she'll be comforted that shes not alone.  

And that's why Im back.  (:

That One Time I Started Walking Again

Something magical happened recently in The Sparkled Life. 

I started walking again.  Like legit walking.  Without trusty arm crutch Edward.  (cue celebrations!!!)

This is a huge deal being that my first symptom that led to my diagnosis with multiple sclerosis in 2012 was my inability to walk correctly.  Add to it that last year I was in my wheelchair...literally, this is huge. 

Technically I dont walk "correctly".  I walk a new walk that includes thinking really hard and gaging things properly since I cant feel my feet at all or my legs half the time.  Yet still, it's walking.

Easter Sunday I even walked the church parking lot in two inch platform shoes.  And I thought I'd never.

Learning to walk again wasnt just a decision I made lightly.  Walking with the arm crutch had become exactly that: a crutch.  People looked at me and they could see something was wrong with me.  I parked in handicapped parking and it was ok because I had the crutch.  I would stumble but catch myself before I fell because of, yes, the crutch. 

Now, if you look really close, I sometimes look like a drunk person walking.  I park in handicapped because I still cant walk very far, and I see the judgement stares.  And the worst part, if I miss a step and fall, there is nothing to catch me anymore. 

Yes, this is a huge achievement for me.  It's also a dangerous and hard one.  

I dont let that stop me though.  I even take it steps forward and GO for walks (legit two mile ones).  I push myself.  

Why? 

Yes, part of it is to show the people who said I would never walk again that they had no idea who they were talking to. 

Part of it is because I want to feel normal again.

Mostly though, it's because I want to show the world that I'm sick, I'm in pain, I'm held together by a weird drug, I wake up hurting and go to be hurting, I'm unsure of the quality of my future, etc. etc.  I have the best excuse in the book of excuses to stay in bed and watch netflix while eating goldfish all day.

And you know what kid?  I woke up today and freaking (excuse my language) walked.  

Now go get your sneakers and start walking with me.  

(:

Not everything you put your mind to you can achieve (this is real life).  But if you work hard, pray hard, and dont give up, you might just land yourself darn close to that dream.

To walking!!

Love,

Oops

Oops. 

I guess it so happens I'm not so good at keeping new year's resolutions.

Aka The Sparkled Life blogging is making a 2014 comeback.

(ya baby!!)

Ive done much thinking about this decision.  I struggled to determine exactly what route I wanted to take as a blogger.

The most popular and "cutesie" blogs out there usually fall under three categories: 

DIY, wifey, motherhood (and usually a mix of all three).

Here's the issue...I'm actually pretty terrible at DIY, I'm not a wifey yet, and motherhood just isnt my thing at this time (besides you have to actually have a baby for that part...go figure).

So as I was comparing my past, current, and future blog life with those most popular and cute, I wasnt measuring up. 

That's when I realized that I wasnt suppose to be measuring up to those blogs.  I had a stance, a platform so different.  One that needs to be expressed, because unfortunately, there is little awareness about it. 

And that platform, ladies and gents, is my life with multiple sclerosis, aka The Sparkled Life. 

I may be horrible with a hot glue gun but I've gotten pretty damn good at living with ms.  And that's what I can share: my story, my secrets, my struggles.  

So here we are again...two years after I first started TSL I find myself logged back in and ready to share.  

Eek.  I'm even a little bit excited about it.  Who would've thought?  

Here we go, another chapter sparklers!

Love,

PS: check out @thesparkledlife on instagram to see what's been going on these past 120 days

 http://instagram.com/thesparkledlife