by Michael S. Kaplan, published on 2011/09/20 07:01 -04:00, original URI: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/michkap/archive/2011/09/20/10214076.aspx
Perhaps you read somewhere that I have Multiple Sclerosis.
It's true.
I have had people ask me about my prognosis, with my MS.
And for some people, my prognosis can even be a soup question.
But the one thing I had was some perspective.
The kind or perspective that being in the "last phase of Multiple Sclerosis, progressive MS, the one that even the pharmaceutical companies have largely given better up on, since the market for lucrative ways to sell long term hypoethtical hope for $1000 a month is covered by insurance....
But the one thing that MS has taught me even when the fat lady is singing that this show can find a whole new to start up.
In the beginning of last week I went to see my neurolgist so she renew my prescriptions (they have to see you every once in a while!), but this time I had news: I was showing some new symptoms! Like something acute, you know!
Some thing that hasn't happened for years.
She recommended a 3-day course of methylprednisolone (a steroid), kind of a mainstay of assisting in relapsing piece of relapsing/remitting multiple sclerosis....
But I was less convinced, since in the last 20 years, methylpred seemed to be less useful over time....
And then on Friday, I was at a party. A wine tasting party.
The name of the party was La Figa.
I swear I didn't know what that mean in French slang until later....
Somewhere between halfway in between half of the second glass (a nice chardonnay) and half of the second (a Syrah I had been admiring), I was stuttering.
Well, not really stuttering.
I mean, you know when Porky Pig
tries to say "gug-guh-guh- that's all folks", where he works around his inability to say "Goodnight folks" by saying "That's all folks!", right?
Yes a stutter. But in my case it was some type of aphasia, much more of an expressive aphasia than Porky's presumed dysarthria.
I knew what I wanted to say, but before I actually said it I could feel the wrong word coming out, and rather than saying the wrong thing I found some other thing to say. A thing that sometimes made less sense of the context.
A slightly more cerebral version of what Porky was doing, which is ironic since his solution made the same intended point with while I would often fail to make the original point entirely.
As the evening progressed and I mentally workout out in my Manter & Gatz what was happening -- not dysarhria, and not a true Wernick's (receptive) aphasia though with similar impact but not a Brocca's (expressive) aphasis, either.
I eventally I ended up in the emergecy room, as although a stroke or TIAs were unlikely, I was being foolish to not make sure.
And in the end, no bleed or TIA, but the most active MRI in terms of enhancing MS lesions in almost a decade!
And now suddenly all the drugs denied to progressive MS are back on the table -- Copaxone and Tysabrri and the rest.
It's a whole new ballgame, people!
John Cowan on 20 Sep 2011 8:52 AM:
I think he just stutters and says "Th-th-th-th-th-that's all folks!", with no actual word substitution.
jeremy on 20 Sep 2011 9:58 AM:
So this is a good thing?
Maybe I am not hip on the whole disease, but am I getting that the wine + steroid = stuttering & increased brain activity?
Doug Ewell on 20 Sep 2011 12:31 PM:
I always thought Porky sounded more like "a-ba-bee-ba-da-bee-ba-da-that's all folks!" Which is neither here nor there.
Michael S. Kaplan on 20 Sep 2011 3:05 PM:
The problem is not with alcohol; that just brought closer to the surface....