So little time and so much to read.

 If you are like me, living with MS can take a lot of time, especially if you want to stay current on what is happening in the MS world.

 Recently I was contacted by Cathy Chester, a well-known writer in the MS world, who offered to write a guest blog. She has done a great job of writing about the many resources that we have available. I do hope that you enjoy reading this.

Guest post provided by Healthline

It was easier to keep up with news and information about Multiple Sclerosis twenty-five years ago.  There was none.  There was no Internet, no FDA approved medications and no complementary medicines being recommended by physicians.

Today there is a plethora of information about approved medications, clinical trials, therapeutic modalities, assistive technology, emotional support, employment opportunities and financial assistance.

Now, more than ever, it’s important to stay current with information that suits your needs. 

But who has time to work, take care of your family, tend to your MS needs and stay current with the latest news?

Here is how I try to keep up without having to spend a lot of time combing the Internet to find answers to my questions.

My first piece of advice is this: sign up for alerts: As a writer, health advocate and MS patient, this simple technique is one I rely on every day.  I use Google as my email program (Gmail).  In their settings, there is an area that allows you to type a phrase (or a website, blog, online magazine, etc.) and then specify how often you’d like to receive an alert (daily, weekly, monthly). 

For example, I typed in the words “Multiple Sclerosis”.  Every day I receive alerts for news or blogs appearing on the Internet that contain the words “Multiple Sclerosis”. 

If you don’t use Gmail, and are unsure how to set up your own alert, do a Google search on setting up alerts for your specific email program.

I also do alerts for news and information from reputable websites that I’ve come to trust for reliable information:

·      Healthline

·      The National Multiple Sclerosis Society

·      Multiple Sclerosis Association of America

·      MultipleSclerosis.net

·      Multiple Sclerosis Foundation

·      Medline

·      Health Central

·      Carnival of MS Bloggers

·      MS Views and News

·      Consortium of Multiple Sclerosis Centers

·      CAN DO Multiple Sclerosis Center (formerly The Jimmie Heuga Center for MS)

·      Accelerated Cure Project

·      Myelin Repair Foundation

·      Disability.gov

·      ADA.gov

·      WebMD

I like to also keep up with complementary medicine, and how that can help me manage my MS in addition to the traditional medicine I follow.   Here are some sites I use:

·      Healthline

·      Dr. Andrew Weil

·      The Self-Healing Coach

·      Daily Yoga – My Yoga Online

·      Center for Mindfulness/Jon Kabat-Zinn

·      The Mayo Clinic

·      Psychology Today

·      Naturopathic Sleep Medicine Blog

This is a small sampling of what is available to keep you up-to-date on the news and information that matters to you.  Search for others.  Once you find something you like, set a bookmark, sign up for an alert or subscribe to them.

The Internet makes it easier for you to find answers to your MS questions, and to help you better manage your disease.  (Of course if you don’t own a computer, perhaps a visit to your local library will do the trick!)

Good luck and best of health.

About the Author: Cathy Chester is a writer for Healthline.  Diagnosed with MS in 1987, today her life is dedicated to two things: writing and paying it forward to others with MS.  Her blog, An Empowered Spirit, is dedicated to being healthy and vibrant over the age 50.  It is also to empower people with disabilities to live a joyful and healthy life.  She also writes for other health websites and is a blogger for The Huffington Post.  Her mantra is “Life is delicious, so seize each day by doing the best we can with the abilities we have.” 

Participate. Make a difference. Live a life that matters.

The most important exercise to do every day.

No one argues that exercise is important. We can debate the virtues of cardiovascular exercises and strength training. We can discuss how often a person needs to exercise (some people just have more discipline than others). We can make long lists of all the reasons why exercise is so important for the body, mind, mood and spirit and we would never finish listing all of the reasons why exercise is so important.

But I am going to suggest that there is one exercise that trumps all of the others. It may be the most important exercise that we ever do and have a greater impact on our overall well-being then weightlifting, jogging and yoga combined. In fact, not only is this exercise good for us, it has the potential to change the world!

Does that sound good? If there was one exercise that could do all of that, would you do it? Are you ready to get your workout clothes on and get started on a program today? You already have all of the equipment that you need. Most of what you need is just the recognition that you already have the tools to do it.

What I am talking about is “exercising our influence”. We all know (and sometimes learned the hard way) that there are things in life that we can control and perhaps many more things that are out of our control. But somewhere in the middle lies this vast arena that is filled with matters beyond our control and yet within our influence.

Some people don't vote because they feel that their vote won't matter. It certainly won't if they don't vote and more importantly, they give up their influence over the outcome of the election.

Some people don't exercise because they “have too much weight to lose”. Not exercising is a way of giving up the influence they have over their weight. The same can be said for diet.

It can also be said for money, fundraising, education, relationships and virtually everything that happens in our lives. We may not have control, but we have influence. The only question is are we going to exercise it?

I have multiple sclerosis. Getting multiple sclerosis was not within my control. The disease and the course of the disease is not within my control. But I do have influence over this disease. I can influence the course of the disease with medications, exercise, diet, education, spirituality, a positive attitude and so much more. Will I do all of it? Some of it? That is within my control. That is up to me.

We may not have control over every aspect of our life. But for most of the things that we do not control, we have influence. The only question we have to ask is will we exercise today?

Participate. Make a difference. Live a life that matters.

I love her more today than yesterday.

It's true. Today is our 33rd wedding anniversary and I can honestly say that I love my wife more today than I did on the day we married.

We were both 22 years old and madly in love on the day we married and like most young people, we thought that we knew everything there was to know. Today we are smarter, more experienced, more grateful and more in love.

At the risk of being redundant, repeating myself, being redundant and repeating myself, I can tell you why “I love her more today than yesterday” (I feel a song coming on). My answer is simple and it all comes down to one word: gratitude.

Ask couples who have been married a long time, or at least as long as we have, what the key to a happy marriage is and you will get a variety of answers. “Respect each other”, “Never go to bed angry”, “Always be friends”, etc., etc.. But I believe that my answer trumps all of those answers.

When you are truly grateful that your mate is in your life, you will respect each other, not go to bed angry and will always be friends. However, feeling grateful is not enough. You must also express it to that person because feeling grateful and not telling someone is like buying someone a gift and never giving it to them.

Actually, the real gift is feeling grateful. It is a tremendous feeling in your heart to experience gratitude, real true gratitude. At least it is for me and I get to feel it several times today.

The older I get and the longer we are together, the more gratitude, the more grateful I become to have this extraordinary woman to share my life with.

I could go on and on. Her days are filled with caring about me, our family and our world of friends. She is selfless, loving, considerate and so much more. She is my great companion and there is no one else that I would rather spend time with then her.

My experience of being married to her has taught me that beauty is in the eye of the beholder and in my eyes she is more beautiful today than ever before.

To me, that feeling of ever increasing gratitude is what makes me feel more and more in love with her everyday that we are together. That is why I can say that  “ love her more today than yesterday, but not as much as tomorrow.” (Thank you for those lyrics Stevie Wonder.)

Participate. Make a difference. Live a life that matters.

Stay Hydrated and Make Memories

 Dan and Jennifer are friends of mine that I met in the “blogosphere”. They are a beautiful couple, both living with MS and both writing about their experience. Besides their own blog, they are now writing for healthline.com.  This is their most recent post which very accurately describes what part of living with MS is like for many of us. I hope that you enjoy it.

Guest post by Dan and Jennifer Digmann

Stay Hydrated and Make Memories

I have so much to say, but it is so difficult and frustrating to get my words out.6

I have the typing software Dragon Natually Speaking which, in theory, is supposed to transcribe my spoken word into text on the screen, but the program only adds to my frustration. When I’m alone, it is hard for me to put on my Dragon headset. And when I finally get the headset over my humongous melon, it understands me 60 percent of the time.

I patiently say into the system’s microphone, “Correct that” 10 or 15 times before I give up and instead focus my energy on a game of Scrabble—my favorite. To play, all I need is the game, a mouse, and my intellect. Then it is game on! But I always promise myself that I’ll write some other day.

My Multiple Sclerosis is being pretty nice to me today, and my right-index-finger typing method is working quite well, so here goes…

As is the norm for my husband, Dan, and me, we’ve been pretty busy. I truly believe that we stay so busy in some sort of feeble attempt to stay ahead of our disease. Yes, Dan also is living with Multiple Sclerosis.

Slow down and our MS will catch up with us. But so far so good, we’ve been able to outrun it. At least I think we have, and really, do any of us know what this disease has in store?

Our battle to outrun MS involves our constant struggle to make every moment memorable and to have as many awesome moments as possible. When the opportunity presented itself to see the rock group Train in concert, we jumped at the chance. Sure it meant a longish drive to the concert and a very late night, but those facts were not going to hold us back.

I mean, c’mon it was Train – Save me, San Francisco; Drops of Jupiter; California 37; Meet Virginia. Yes, that Train – one of our favorites! Did I mention that along with Train, we’d also be seeing Gavin DeGraw and The Script? Sounds like quite a magical, musical extravaganza doesn’t it?

So when Michigan was gripped in the serious 90+ degree heat wave that was making our state and the rest country miserable, we didn’t even think twice about sitting outside at DTE, Detroit’s outdoor amphitheatre. Certainly, a little heat wouldn’t be that bad.

Our MS and unbearable heat … what’s the worst that could happen?

After living with this disease for 15 years, I should know better than to ask that innocent-enough sounding question. And after a decade and a half, you’d think I would have learned to:

A. Respect Mother Nature

and

B. How to stay hydrated

But isn’t water the enemy to those of us dealing with MS and a Neurogenic bladder?  I soon learned that while water may seem like an enemy, it is nothing compared to dehydration!

After sitting outside for a little while before the concert started, I was a little warm, or so I thought. Dan asked a few times if I was okay and did I want something cool to drink?

After kindly answering, “No thanks,” several times, I was becoming increasingly hot – both literally and figuratively. But my difficulty speaking at an audible level and mild confusion convinced me I better take Dan up on his offer for a cold beverage. And that frozen lemonade he bought me was just about the best drink ever.

Brain freeze notwithstanding, it seriously was the best drink EVER! Not only was it cold but it was sweet and refreshing. Almost immediately, my voice was stronger and my mood became much happier. I nursed that $5 frozen lemonade throughout the rest of the concert and it made my evening so much more comfortable; but it also made Dan’s evening more enjoyable because he did not have to worry about his wife’s probable heat stroke.  

We saw a fantastic concert and had a great time. And isn’t that what life should be about? MS or not, we made a memory and that’s pretty awesome.

Plus I learned something – the lesson being that even though I think I know most all there is to know about my Multiple Sclerosis, I can benefit from a new-to-me old common sense idea every so often.

As the dog days of summer approach, I hope you manage to stay cool and hydrated!

And F.Y.I. according to news@kake.com, the phrase “dog days of summer” dates back to the olden days and has to do with the star Sirius, the brightest star in the heavens, which is also known as the Dog Star.

Sirius was nicknamed the “Dog Star” by the ancient Egyptians in honor of a god named Osirus, whose head resembled that of a dog. For around 20 days beginning in late July, Sirius actually rises and sets with the sun, so the Egyptians and Romans put two and two together and concluded that Sirius added its heat to the sun and made things extra hot… hence, the name “dog days of summer.”

http://www.healthline.com/health-slideshow/multiple-sclerosis-stages

http://www.healthline.com/health-slideshow/7-multiple-sclerosis-facts-you-should-know