Great Day and Clinic Visit

I had such a great day today! Best in a month--no kidding. Figures that is when the neurologist sees me.

I felt alert all morning; my fatigue was not bad at all. I started to get tired around 12:30, but not like it has been the last month.

I spoke with Alyssa about my fatigue, and they called in a prescription for amantadine. I am not to get my hopes up, but it might help a little. I guess I will give it a try. I hope it is not terribly expensive. I hate buying medications that I do not end up using.

While the neurologist was testing me, I got really tired. He wore me out! He kept testing certain muscles again and again. I guess he was being really careful in his ratings. But I am supposed to use all of my power each time, and my power only works for a few seconds. He seemed surprised by that--obviously a general neurologist. It seems like I always see general neurologists for the EDSS eval. I did not see Dr. Rick, my MS neurologist, today. But the one I did see was nice. Not as nice as Dr. Andy... I miss him. But much better than the Asian chick!

I had to do laps today which suckkkkked. It is a certain number of meters--two million, I think--which amounts to five laps around the neurology unit. I barely dragged myself around the last two laps, but I did it without holding onto him or taking a rest.

They usually ask me, "Do you think you could walk X number of meters or football fields or whatever meaningless distance we ask?" Maybe next time I should say yes. Maybe I would not have to walk it with them.

So after the strength testing and the walk, I was pretty tired. Not as tired as I have been every day for the past four weeks just from going to work! But tired enough that I was feeling overwhelmed. Thank goodness I had a friend with me to drive me home! When I started to feel upset over being fatigued, I just said to myself that I did not need to worry about getting home. I knew that I could rest in the car and that I did not need to go anywhere in the evening, and those thoughts helped. Then I did not cry. I tend to cry when the fatigue is overwhelming.

Although I was tired, I was still able to talk, so it was not as bad as it has been getting. I had to rest when I got home, but within an hour I was able to sit up and chat with a couple of friends. We watched a movie, and my ADD got to me (I do not really have ADD, but it feels like it these days). I laid on the couch, but my head felt clear. My muscles are relaxing again.

Oh man, speaking of muscles, when I did my shot today, my muscle jumped and clenched! I worked to relax it and had some success. Well, at least I did not hit a nerve or vein again, so it was not too painful. My shots have been going so well. I have not had a really bad one in at least three months. Bad side effects, but not bad shots themselves. I am so much less anxious about giving the shot now.

Seriously, if the bad fatigue comes back tomorrow, I will be crushed.