Multiple Sclerosis is an inflammatory disease of the Central Nervous System which consist of the brain and spinal cord. It is also called the disease of the “white matter” tissue. White matter consists of nerve fibers which are responsible for transmitting communication signals both internally within the CNS and between the CNS and the nerves supplying the rest of the body. Multiple Sclerosis can be very slow in destroying your CNS, which is why it makes it hard to characterize. People who are affected by this disease have patches of damage called plaques or lesions that seem to appear randomly on the CNS white matter. Multiple Sclerosis never affects any two people the same way and each intervals disease is unique only to him or her, just like fingerprints. The body’s immune system attacks the outer nerve sheath or myelin , which causes scarring or sclerosis , and this scarring interferes with the transmission of the signals required for normal operation.
The most common symptoms of Multiple Sclerosis are sensory in nature including tingling, peculiar nerve sensations such as a “pins-and-needles” feeling over part of the body, numbness or paresthesias, clumsiness, weakness of a let or hand, visual disturbances. Recent research indicates that the biochemical make-up of lesions may vary between different forms of the disease, causing nerve damage to one site usually causes completely different symptoms than damage to another, and this is one of the reasons Multiple Sclerosis differs so widely between people. People with Multiple Sclerosis can experience partial or complete loss of any function that is controlled by, or passes through, the brain or spinal cord. Inflammation happens in areas of the white matter of the central nervous system in patches and destruction of myelin is soon to follow. Myelin is the fatty covering that insulates nerve cell fibers in the brain and spinal cord. Other weaknesses occur in one or more of the extremities, slight stiffness or unusual fatigue of the limb, spastic involuntary movements, difficulty with bladder control, incontinence, vertigo, and in some cases mild emotional disturbances. Excessive heat may intensify symptoms.
Because the symptoms of Multiple Sclerosis vary and can be very unpredictable. It may affect the eyes first and usually only one eye at a time. One may notice blurred or double vision, blind spot, distortions of reds and greens, or blindness in both eyes. Certain muscles may become weak or extremely stiff and prone to spasms; you may start to have trouble talking because there are disturbance between the central nervous system and the rest of your body. Half of all patients with later stages of Multiple Sclerosis have problems with memory loss. Once a doctor suspects the disease he or she will order an MRI scan to look for signs on the brain and spinal cord. If you have any of the symptoms described here, go to your doctor and get checked out. The sooner you learn you have a disease, the sooner you can start fighting it.
What does multiple sclerosis (MS) look like? The answer is not simple. However, a new photo exhibit is challenging public perceptions about MS, and helping put the disease in focus. In doing so, the exhibit is meant to encourage those with symptoms of MS to seek early diagnosis and treatment.
The exhibit, called “The Image of MS,” was photographed by famed photographer Joyce Tenneson and was recently on display at New York City’s Grand Central Terminal. According to Tenneson, the 27 photographs capture the “grace and courage in the everyday existence of people with MS.”
The exhibit is slated to visit several hometowns of the participants and can also be viewed at http://www.ImageofMS.com. Symptoms of MS vary from person to person and can include fatigue, vision problems, weakness, numbness, tingling, stiffness, dizziness, loss of bladder control and slurred speech.
Among the 27 participants is Cindy Heitmann, 48, a native of Buffalo, N.Y., who more than a decade ago was diagnosed with MS after awakening one morning unable to move. Suddenly, the nurse of 20 years also became a patient. It took months of testing before doctors were able to finally diagnose her with MS.
Says Heitmann, who now travels the country encouraging others with MS to take control of their lives: “When someone looks at me, I want them to see me as a mom, as a wife, as a nurse, as someone who’s positive and supportive and active. I don’t want MS to stop me from doing anything.”
“MS is a potentially debilitating disease, so we need to strive to diagnose and treat it earlier to help halt or slow the damage,” said Barry G. W. Arnason, M.D., professor of neurology at the University of Chicago. “We need the public to be aware of the early symptoms and understand that treatments available today can help slow disease activity and help prevent the appearance of symptoms.”
tip(idea) is an image existing or formed in the mind. The human capacity to contemplate tip(idea)s is associated with the capacity for reason, self-reflection, and the ability to acquire and apply intellect. Ideas give rise to concepts, which are the basis for any kind of knowledge whether science or philosophy.
However, in a popular sense, an tip(idea) can arise even when there is no serious reflection, for example, when we talk about the tip(idea) of a person or a place.
This source goes on to say that given the fact that the human mind in mature life is in possession of such universal tip(idea)s, or concepts, the question arises: How have they been attained? Plato conceives them to be an inheritance through reminiscence from a previous state of existence.
Sundry Christian philosophers of ultra-spiritualist tendencies have described them as innate, planted in the soul at its creation by a Diety. Empiricists and Materialists have endeavoured to explain all our intellectual tip(idea)s as refined products of our sensuous faculties.
For a fuller account and criticism of the various theories we must refer the reader to any of the Catholic textbooks on psychology. We can give here but the briefest outline of the doctrine usually taught in the Catholic schools of philosophy. Man has a double set of cognitive faculties sensuous and intellectual.
All knowledge starts from sensuous experience. There are no innate tips(ideas). External objects stimulate the senses and effect a modification of the sensuous faculties which results in a sensuous percipient act, a sensation or perception by which the mind becomes cognizant of the concrete individual object, e.g., some sensible quality of the thing acting on the sense. But, because sense and intellect are powers of the same soul, the latter is now wakened, as it were, into activity, and lays hold of its own proper object in the sensuous presentation. The object is the essence, or nature of the thing, omitting its individualizing conditions.
The act by which the intellect thus apprehends the abstract essence, when viewed as a modification of the intellect, was called by the Schoolmen species intelligibility, when viewed as the realization or utterance of the thought of the object to itself by the intellect, they termed it the verbum mentale. In this first stage it prescinds alike from universality and individuality.
retired from real estate in SW Washington, but only when I could no longer walk. Over three years previous, the doctors had said I needed to “Get rid of stress and stop working.” In denial, I was slow to accept Multiple Sclerosis. Who, after all, would embrace a diagnosis of the dread disease of no known cause, and for which there was no cure? I continued to operate my own real estate company, increasing the number of experienced agents who required less hands-on supervision.
Putting renters in my house, I moved closer to my office, using a handicapped scooter to get back and forth on those days when I didn’t have appointments set up to ‘List’ or ‘Show’ homes. I refused to give up driving because one leg still worked, most of the time.
In hidden panic, I began to make more hasty decisions. On a week that required my personal intervention on behalf of two of my agent’s real estate transactions, I decided to sell my company. For a coffee cup, I traded my principle share of the real estate corporation to my new partner (another hasty decision), just to get out. I had no problem obtaining an Associate Broker position with one of the major corporations.
When it became apparent, even to me, that I could no longer provide the level of service I expected my clients to have, I took the Social Security Disability option. Gritting my teeth, while the mandatory waiting period ticked away, I tried to decide what to do with the remaining years of my life. Although I had once owned art stores, even taught oil painting, always the optimist, even I could not paint a portrait of future prosperity. I think they had a special on despair at the time, and I considered trading in my depression on it. At 53 years of age, with a pre-teen daughter yet to raise, and an ex-wife who couldn’t work, life looked pretty bleak.
A good friend suggested that I write a book. As I had published two poetry books twenty-five years before, I considered the possibility. In an attempt to overcome personal depression, I decided to write about making better choices. I chose a novel format because it allowed the freedom to develop hypothetical scenarios, involving fictional characters, while forcing awareness of real dangers. I wanted to make a compelling case for right choices, not just in marketing ones home, but in all aspects of life.
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