Great MS Clinic Visit!

I had a great visit at the MS Clinic! I saw Dr. Andy, sadly for the last time. His fellowship is over, and he has accepted a faculty position at a different teaching hospital. I will miss him!

Dr. Andy went through the usual evaluation, which includes checking my strength. He was amazed at how much I have improved. I guess all that PT helped. Maybe the gazillion supplements I take? I think it is mostly up to the Lord, though. He giveth and taketh away. At any rate, Dr. Andy and I celebrated my increased strength together.

He was also amazed at how much my walking has improved. I feel like the last three days have been much better in general; if he had seen me a week ago, things would have been different. Still, I am generally on an upward trend, and I cannot complain.

I liked my new nurse, Ricki, who is filling in for Alyssa's maternity leave. She had her baby on Monday. I was excited when she said that Alyssa had been asking about me, that she wanted to visit. She had an appointment for her older daughter in a nearby building, and she was planning to visit the neurology department to see her friends and look for me. I found her in the infusion room when I went there to get my vitals checked (which were 121/84 and 97--boo). Alyssa bent down to hug me, and I got to see her sweet, wee baby. So cute, and so much hair! And so tiny. I did not get to hold her--Ricki and the other nurses monopolized her. Darn.

And I did great on the 25-foot walk (like 4 seconds), vision "test" (20/20), and fine motor test (about 14 seconds). All of those scores are awesome. So I left the clinic feeling great.

Oh, and Ricki went over the injection procedure with me, since I have had more pain lately. Alyssa had contacted Avonex to see if they had any input. They did, and Ricki also had input, from her experience. She taught me a different way to find a site--it is a much smaller area than what Alyssa had taught me. And she gave me a typed copy of the tips, which was helpful. She advised me to stay away from side-thigh injections, that it is harder to reach the muscle. Good, because those tend to hurt more! I can just use the fronts of my thighs. She told me to check the tip of the needle to see if it has liquid. If the medication touches my skin, it will burn. Hm. I wonder if that happened to me before. And she said to do the shot quickly, like a dart. Eh? No. I will try to do it quickly, but I am afraid I will hit the fingers of my other hand if I jab it in like a dart. My other hand would, of course, be stretch the skin--very important so that the needle can get down into the muscle.

My shot this evening went great! It hardly hurt at all.

This afternoon, I bought paint. Lots of paint. Some friends are coming over to help me pain the whole darn house. Almost. The kitchen, living/dining, entrance, halls, stairs, and bathrooms. I will do the bedrooms another time. One friend and I are planning to pain a bit tomorrow morning but mostly on Wednesday, when other people come to help.

Sensory:

-Pins and needles: 1
-Tingles: 1
-Dysesthetic pain: 5, cold pain in left leg/foot--more in foot
-Paresthesias: 1, some random vibrations in my feet

-Numbness: 2
-Vision: 0-1
-Nerve pain: 3
-Hearing: 1

Motor:
-Walking: 1, fine all day, minor difficulty in the evening--got slow and less smooth
-Sore muscles: 6, left shoulder, left quad, as well as my right upper arm and forearm. Wondering if forearm pain was related to blood draw

-Spasticity: 3
-Weak muscles: 1

-Endurance: 2

-Fine motor: 1

Cognitive:
-Processing: 1, had some trouble following directions at the clinic
-Memory: 0
-Attention: 1
-Confusion: 0

General:
-Fatigue: 2
-Balance: 0

-Sleep: 1

-Bladder: 2, medication I am still guessing
-Proprioception: 0
-Swallowing: 1
-A: 2
-B: 0

Emotions: I was happy at the clinic visit, and I was happy that I was able to go all day and not get tired until around 7:00 pm! Then I was ready to fall asleep by 9:00. Well, I had a busy day. Busy but good.