The beginning....

Like everything, we need a beginning to our story.  I have not meet anyone with MS or any chronic disease that does not have a story.  So where do we start???  How about what is MS - Multiple Sclerosis?  To understand my story you need to know about MS.  MS is a chronic, neuromuscular disease, what happens is that my body is literally attacking and working on distroying the insulation (myelin) that wraps around the nerves.  This causes numerous difficulties - since your nerves go throughout your body and controls everything.  So what kinds of difficulties do I experience?  Chronic fatigue is one - everyone says you do to much that is why you are tired.  No it is not like that...  A wonderful MS described it the best in a graphic way...  image being in a public place where you know people and suddenly having a bowl accident on yourself - you are SO TIRED that you actually do not care.  Or watching an I Love Lucy episode feels like work.  Chronic fatigue is debilitating and very isolating.  There is the constant feeling that my legs, feet, and hands are "asleep".  This makes things hard to determine true feelings - such as being truly injured.  I once had to have 2 cavities filled and I am allergic to Novocaine.  My very nice country dentist did not have the special numbing medication on stock to fill my two cavities.  There were both very deep and one especially close to the nerve.  I told him to go a head and fill it without any medication.  I did not feel anything only a dull feeling of him working on the teeth.  He was AMAZED!  You may say - well that is a good thing.  Yes and no... The other side is actually and truly getting hurt and not being able to assess how severe the injury is.  Another symptom that I deal with is muscle spasms and spasticity.  Sometimes the spasms at night are very intense - I can literally find myself all shriveled up in a ball. It may actually take me up to 1/2 an hour to literally unfold myself so I can get out of bed.  Another symptom is the restless leg.  This is a feeling where your legs HAVE TO MOVE - it can happen at night or when needing to sit still for a prolong period of time.  There are so many symptoms I deal with daily from the feeling there are fire ants running up and down my legs, to not being able to control my bladder, to not being able to verbalize my thoughts, to getting confused when over stimulated, to feeling like you are in a fun house and everything is unsteady, feeling and getting off balance, to not being able to control motor skills - sometimes my legs decide not move, and more and more....  Yes - so now you have read this much - do you see why running is such a big deal.  Currently, I am training for a 10 mile race --- YES 10 mile race in May of this year.