Living Well with Multiple Sclerosis

Last Weight Watchers meeting for the month

noreply@blogger.com (Michon Montgomery) — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 23:52:00 +0000

I went to my last Weight Watchers meeting last night for the month of January. That was also my first month with them and I lost a total of five pounds! Not bad if I have to say so myself! Someone in the group made a statement that really stuck with me and it was, "you didn't put the weight on over night, therefore, you're not going to lose it over night!". Another woman in the group mentioned a visual idea she saw on Facebook and said that a woman took a picture of two vases with marbles in them. For every pound she loses, she transfers a marble from one vase to the other showing her progress in the program. I need to come up with a similar idea. I'm looking forward to a good month in February!

Multiple sclerosis information

noreply@blogger.com (Michon Montgomery) — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 17:37:00 +0000

Please check out the following link for good information on MS! http://expertscolumn.com/content/multiple-sclerosis-life-and-treatment-today

Just the rules

noreply@blogger.com (Michon Montgomery) — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 19:56:00 +0000

I was watching E! News yesterday and I caught an excerpt talking about this woman named Tosca Reno who is the author of the book called, "Just the rules". It's a book about leading a healthy lifestyle by following her guide on eating right. It has 51 food laws to live by and if you follow it, you WILL achieve weight loss!
I was impressed with what I saw on TV and looked the book up on Amazon. It was reasonably priced, so I purchased and downloaded it. I'm going to review it today and come up with my own conclusions!

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Eating right and exercise

noreply@blogger.com (Michon Montgomery) — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 00:13:00 +0000

Since I joined Weight Watchers, I've learned a lot about eating the right food and finding the right exercise that you don't mind doing. I know that part of my problem was eating late and not eating frequently with breakfast, snack, lunch, snack and dinner. Now that I'm doing that and exercising regularly, I'm seeing a slow but good change. I'm eating frequently, but at the same time, watching what I eat and watching the portions as well. I'm only drinking water and green tea (a cup of coffee very sparingly)and surprisingly, it's not hard to do! I've always liked Zumba for a form of exercising and I've been doing kickboxing as well. I'm not a big fan of kickboxing, but it is a good workout. I discovered kettlebell weights and I LOVE that exercise just as much, if not more than Zumba. Kettlebell weights are a quick, but effective workout, I do it at home and I do it everyday! I've even decided just today that it's going to replace my kickboxing workout, so it's kettle bell weights and Zumba! I'll still do kickboxing every now and then. This is very positive for my MS and because my Weight Watchers experience is different and new for me, I created a blog to post my process and my learnings with this experience. Check it out at http://weightwatchersadventure.blogspot.com !

Any MS questions?

noreply@blogger.com (Michon Montgomery) — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 04:03:00 +0000

My family and I went to an MS seminar tonight and as always, all of the therapies were discussed. The food was really good. I think I did well for my weight program, grilled tilapia and green beans. After the Neurologist went through her slides, she said it's time for a question/answer session. A few people asked questions and then the Neurologist went to random tables and said I haven't heard anything from this table, are there any questions? People would ask a question, she would repeat it so everyone could know what she was answering. The Neurologist came to my table and asked if there were any questions. There was one other woman and her guest sitting at the table and they didn't have any questions. My family didn't have any questions and they looked at me. The Neurologist looked at me as well. I currently don't have any issues and the only thing I could think to bring up were MS hugs. The Neurologist was very familiar with them and began speaking about it. A woman sitting at a nearby table said she experiences MS hugs a lot and she gets infusions, which gives her great relief. I can't recall the technical term she used for the medication that she gets infuses for, but I'm sure it won't be hard to find out what it is if I ever need it. I must say, this Neurologist seemed to be very knowledgeable as to what she was speaking of and that makes a difference!

Weight Watchers update

noreply@blogger.com (Michon Montgomery) — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 14:37:00 +0000

Tuesday, January 10th, will be my one week mark being on Weight Watchers. There's very little challenge because I think I'm a disciplined person with a little guidance! I go in tomorrow for my first weigh in and I'm excited to see the outcome. I told myself that I wasn't going to get on my home scale and only weigh in at the meetings. My husband has been begging me to weigh myself, but I refuse! I have so much to say about this experience to where I think I'll start a Weight Watchers blog because I seem to get on everyone's nerves talking about it! Because this experience is related to my health, I'll share some of the postings on this blog as well. I'll keep you posted! - Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

New Year Resolutions

noreply@blogger.com (Michon Montgomery) — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 17:09:00 +0000

Happy new year! I think my new year resolutions are indirectly related to my health. I intend to join weight watchers, go to the gym and exercise and read my bible daily.
I don't really have bad eating habits, but I don't eat enough, causing my body to hold on to whatever I do eat. I have a few family members on weight watchers and they've lost a considerable amount of weight!
I started eating breakfast (cereal) since that's suppose to be the most important meal of the day, 2 light snacks, breakfast and dinner. I'm going to sign up with weight watchers tonight and my husband said he'll go to my first meeting to support me! I plan to do the meetings and the online plan because I am motivated!!

Seminar luncheon last week

noreply@blogger.com (Michon Montgomery) — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 16:42:00 +0000

I went to another seminar luncheon last week and I've come to realize that no matter who they have as a guest speaker, they all talk about the therapies that are available. It's good information if you've never been before, but if you go several times as I have, you know the therapies inside out! What I find beneficial about the seminars is one, they feed you well (it's a tax write off for them!) and second, it gives you the opportunity to ask questions if you have any.
I really didn't have any new questions, but based on how this speaker was talking, I decided to ask a previous question I had for the last seminar I went to. I indicated that I experienced MS hugs recently, I was off of my medication for a couple of weeks and could that have been the reason I had my relapse. She replied yes (the previous neurologist said not necessarily). I realize different doctors have their own opinion, but I tend to agree with the latter response because I did not have any real issues up until that point. She indicated MS is a life long disease once you get it and it's important to do everything possible and available to you to try and maintain your health...that means staying on your therapy!

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What was I thankful for on Thanksgiving

noreply@blogger.com (Michon Montgomery) — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 02:52:00 +0000

I'm a little late, but I wanted to share what I was thankful for on Thanksgiving. I'm thankful for my immediate family as well as my extended family and friends, I'm thankful to have a job in today's economy, for my girls doing well in school (one is a sophomore in college and the other is a sophomore in high school). Last but not least, I'm very thankful for my health. Yes, I have multiple sclerosis and I do have my struggles here and there, but I'm thankful they're far and few. I could struggle with something related to the disease on a daily basis, but I'm thankful I don't. Last but not least, I'm thankful that I no longer suffer with the MS hugs/girdle....for now anyway! LOL

Keep S'myelin

noreply@blogger.com (Michon Montgomery) — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 18:38:00 +0000

I got a tattoo last week that I have been wanting to get for some months now. I have a total of four tattoos and I'm not one to want to be all tatted up, but this one is my latest and hopefully my last tattoo. I wish I would have got this tattoo in place of one of my others and because I didn't, it just had to be added to my collection because I had to have it. One day I was just thinking that it would be neat to have a tattoo that relates to MS. I did some research for ideas and I really liked the saying, "keep S'myelin". That stuck with me and is very meaningful to a person who has the MS disease. I hope it's liked because I really do like it!

EMD Serono

noreply@blogger.com (Michon Montgomery) — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 15:52:00 +0000

I went to another MS seminar the other night at Pappasito's...(good food!). It was pretty routine in going over all of the therapies that are currently being offered. A couple of other topics were also discussed, which I'm not real familiar with. They are CCSVI and PML, which is associated with TYSABRI. I've seen both topics, but I don't really have a connection to them.
Both topics were interesting and people in the audience had some interesting questions for the guest speaker, who was Louzeen Frost, Key Account Manager of Neurology at EMD Serono.
I was able to throw in my off topic question about MS hugs. He didn't quite understand the term, but people in the audience did and further explained what I was talking about. He then understood what I was talking about and basically told me if the pain continues, I need to ask my Neurologist to put me on steroids. He also mentioned a couple of other medications, pregabalin and gabapentin. Fortunately, my pain is gone...for now anyway and I'll be better prepared if it returns!

MS Hugs have been getting the best of me

noreply@blogger.com (Michon Montgomery) — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 16:05:00 +0000

I'm a true testimony that you can go months, even years without relapsing and then out of no where, it hits you hard!
I've been dealing with MS hugs since this past Wednesday. I had this pain once before, but I didn't associate it with MS plus, it was short lived.
It comes and go, but when it comes, I'm not able to do ANYTHING! I didn't think it could get any worse, but Saturday was my worse day. I stayed in bed all day and couldn't do anything. My daughter said you must be really sick because your not on your computer.
I tried to research what could be done to ease the pain. I went to Target on Friday and bought a heating pad. That helped very little. I asked my daughter to get on the computer yesterday to look again for anything that could be done for this pain. In addition to heating pads, ibuprofen and Advil were mentioned. I told her to look in our medicine basket because I was sure I had one of them! Eureka! Advil was found and has been my best friend since yesterday!
I had one episode since I took the pills. I took one more before I went to sleep and I haven't had any pain since.
While I feel up to it, I've been doing some cleaning around the house and I'm going to step out and by another bottle of Advil or ibuprofen just in case!

Rebif copayments

noreply@blogger.com (Michon Montgomery) — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 17:14:00 +0000

I mentioned in an earlier post that my co-payments for Rebif increased from $30/mo. to $50/mo.
The Pharmacy has my debit card on file and every time I speak with them to place an order, I expect them to place a debit against my card.
I received a bill indicating that I owe them $50 and when I spoke with them to place my new order, I questioned the billing. The Pharmacy checked to see if they had a card on file, which they did and the person I was speaking with said that whoever took my last order must not have asked if I wanted it to be paid with the card on file. I then asked if they can add documentation somewhere on my file that I need to pay everytime an order is filled because I don't need nor intend to create a bill with them!

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Can MS be cured or go into remission?

noreply@blogger.com (Michon Montgomery) — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 00:06:00 +0000

I've seen some comments on the internet from people saying they no longer have MS. I also see where people state their MS has gone into remission. I've said over and over that I haven't had any major relapses in the past few years, but I do have some mild symptoms of MS that will come and go. I can understand if someone hasn't had relapses in an extended amount of time believe they no longer have MS, but that's not the case. I'm an example of being initially diagnosed in the early 1980's and literally forgot I had the disease until it re-occurred in the early 2000's. That's proof that it doesn't go away! I can accept that it goes into remission because one could have a relapse, get back to being normal, another relapse and back to normal again. It all depends on how much time is between being normal and having a relapse. Some people continually go back and forth and there are others (like myself) that have a long extended amount of time between being fine and having a relapse. Make no bones about it, those of us that have long extended amount of time between relapses need to consider ourselves blessed because we do still have MS! I also read people indicating their doctors took them off of their meds because they were no longer having relapses. HELLO, the medication has a lot to do with them not having relapses. My doctor wouldn't think about taking me off of Rebif...as a matter of fact I had my relapses during the brief times I wasn't taking the medication. Is there anyone that believe they have been cured from having MS or have long remissions like myself?

Where's your best injection area?

noreply@blogger.com (Michon Montgomery) — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 00:36:00 +0000

We're told to give our shot/injections in the stomach, hip, leg and arms, but if you're like me, some areas are easier to receive the shots than others. I've tried all areas and frankly, some areas were more painful than others. I rotated areas as I was instructed to do so initially, but I got tired of the pain. I realized that my stomach was the area that was least painful in receiving my injections. I'm not sure if it's the right thing to do, but I just choose different areas of my stomach....left, right, up and down. I rotate, but I rotate in a specific area. I haven't had any problems or major side effects in giving shots in my stomach area only and I've been doing it for months, maybe for one year now. What is your favorite area on your body or do you rotate in all specified areas?

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Did MSLifeline have an answer about Rebismart?

noreply@blogger.com (Michon Montgomery) — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 00:37:00 +0000

I was curious about when Rebismart was going to be approved for the U.S. and I searched the internet, but with no success. I then contacted MSLifelines hoping they would have an answer for me. The first lady who answered said she would have to transfer me to a nurse. Because I am currently on Rebif, they wanted to make sure they had all current information on me and then proceeded to ask my why I was calling. I told the nurse that I recently discovered information about Rebismart and that it currently was not available in the U.S. and if they could tell me if there are plans for it to be available in the near future. She said it currently is not available in the U.S. and they do not have ANY information as to if or when it will become available in the U.S. I told her that I realize that it's being offered in other countries and it's odd that it's not offered in the U.S. The nurse indicated that the U.S. has stricter guidelines and the FDA, like other medications or it's aids, has to approve the use here in the U.S. I told her that I understand and hope that it does become available in the U.S. very soon. She then asked me if I would mined if they would call me periodically to check on me and I told her sure, I welcome the calls!

RebiSmart

noreply@blogger.com (Michon Montgomery) — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 19:36:00 +0000

RebiSmart is an injector for Rebif, made by Merck Serono, which is the first electronic injection device, adjustable to give a pre-set dose of Rebif medication for MS.
It's user friendly, requires a cartridge reload once a week and is an easy 3 step process. There's also settings for needle speed, injection speed, injection depth and injection time.
RebiSmart is a real cool device and I would give it a try, but it currently is not available in the U.S.
If there's anyone that reads this blog and have a RebiSmart, let us know what you think about it!

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iGenApps

noreply@blogger.com (Michon Montgomery) — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 00:18:00 +0000

I blog about the different applications I locate on my iPhone that are related to MS. If you're interested in possibly creating your own app, check out iGenApps. It's an app creator for those of us who would like to create apps, but don't have the programming knowledge to do so. This app also allows you to create your app(s) directly from your mobile device. IGenApps is available for Android users and will be available for iOS users soon. If you try it with an Android platform, let me know how you like it. I'll give it a try when it's available for iOS users!

Injection Tracker3

noreply@blogger.com (Michon Montgomery) — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 04:53:00 +0000

Injection Tracker3 is an app to help people keep track of their medication shot sites. If one is tacking injections for diabetes, MS or any other medications, this app allows them to keep track and remember where they gave their last shot on their body. You tap on the diagram once to identify the site the shot is given, drag your finger to write on the diagram and if everything on the diagram needs to be erased or deleted, double tap the diagram. This app is on the iPhone, not sure if other smartphones carry this particular app, but I downloaded it to help me!

MS Lifeline Seminar

noreply@blogger.com (Michon Montgomery) — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 22:22:00 +0000

I went to an MS Lifeline seminar yesterday and they basically talk about the same thing they do at all of the other seminars, therapies, symptoms, expense, insurance, etc.
What makes the seminars interesting is first, they always have it at a good restaurant that serves excellent food, they have a guest speaker that shares their experience with the disease and they usually have another speaker that has a medical background that can answer any questions the group may have.
You also meet interesting people and can be amazed at how many people have this disease in common with you and you realize you're not in this alone!

Do you like/dislike autoinjectors

noreply@blogger.com (Michon Montgomery) — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 23:55:00 +0000

Rebif, Capaxone and Betaseron gives people with MS the option to use an autoinjector with their therapies. With the mentioned therapies, you can give yourself a shot anywhere that's flesh. With Avonex, you have to give the shot in the muscle and an autoinjector is not an option with that therapy.
Some people, like myself love the autoinjector because I've never been a fan of the needle and I like to just hurry and get the shot over and done with. Others are afraid that they're not ready to receive the shot so quickly and feel they don't have control over the situation....therefore, they may prefer giving themselves the shot without the autoinjector.
What are your thoughts, likes or dislikes about the autoinjector if you use one?

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Book Creator for iPad

noreply@blogger.com (Michon Montgomery) — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 00:32:00 +0000

Book Creator for iPad is for those that inspire to be an author of some type and wants to create their own ebook. It's for iPads only, not iPhones or iPod Touch. It costs $6.99 and it's worth it if you plan to write several eBooks. I'm not sure when this app was first available, but it has recently been updated on September 19, 2011 to fix bugs that customers were complaining about. You can read your eBook in the iBook app, can send the eBook to friends via email or you can sell in the iBook Store. I've started an eBook on Multiple Sclerosis Therapies, but haven't made it a priority to complete, but if I choose to get an iPad, I will definitely purchase this app to motivate me to complete the eBook if I haven't done so by the time I get the iPad and I will create more eBooks when I do get this app!

MS, Osteoporosis and Osteopenia

noreply@blogger.com (Michon Montgomery) — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 03:43:00 +0000

Osteoporosis is when your bones become weak and can break. It's more common with your spine, hips and wrist. Osteopenia is when you lose bone density and if not treated, can bring on Osteoporosis. The proper term for people with Multiple Sclerosis is Osteopenia MS. For people with MS, if you're prone to getting Osteoporosis, you would get it earlier than one who doesn't have MS. It's suggested that you get screened for the condition soon after the age of forty years. If fractures occur in one with MS, it's harder for them to recover. They may not get full functionality back and may end up in a wheelchair. It's said that approx. 35% of those with MS has less than normal bone density. Some suggested treatments for Osteopenia MS are Evista and Protelos. A natural treatment recommended is called Advacal. It's also said that skinny people are more likely to get Osteopenia MS, so it won't hurt to have a little meat on those bones!

MS and aging

noreply@blogger.com (Michon Montgomery) — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 03:13:00 +0000

It's questioned if MS and aging have anything to do with each other. Studies have indicated if one gets MS at a young age, they don't have a lot of problems. If one gets MS after the age of 50, the symptoms show up on a regular basis. The average age for one to get MS is from twenty to fifty years old. Ultimately, the focus isn't really on MS and age, but on the symptoms of MS overall. More studies need to be made on MS and aging and until then, there isn't a lot of documentation about the subject.

Fingolimod not a good value in the UK

noreply@blogger.com (Michon Montgomery) — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 03:14:00 +0000

The pill Fingolimod for MS was determined not to be worth it's cost in the UK. The National Health Service, an independent body of England and Wales who recommends whether drugs should be covered feels the medication would not be a cost effective use of the NHS resources.....they feel that it's too expensive. There are thousands of MS sufferers that do not respond to the other medications and they are very disappointed by that decision. They are rightfully upset because although this determination will not disapprove of the medication, but there is a disapproval that the medication will not be covered financially and the MS patients will have to pay for the Fingolimod prescription on their own.