MS Maze

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced that it is investigating Salmonella contamination in pistachio products sold by Setton Pistachio of Terra Bella Inc, California.

According to a press release, the company is voluntarily recalling specific lots of bulk roasted shelled pistachios and 2,000 lbs., 1,700 lbs., 1,800 lbs. and 1,000 lbs. tote bags of roasted inshell pistachios sold to wholesale customers due to potential contamination with the Salmonella organism…

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Pistachio Product Recall

Jake offers advice for the MS Caregiver:

Here’s the truth as I see it. Once you become a caregiver to someone with MS, life will never again be as it was before the diagnosis. The faster you accept that as fact, the better off you’ll be and the quicker you’ll be able to move forward with our new goal of pretend normalcy. Whenever Mandy and I start down the road of wondering aloud about what our lives might have been like without MS, one of us will eventually look at the other and utter an oft-heard phrase: “It is what it is.”

Life doesn’t come with guarantees. No guarantee of happiness, no guarantee of financial security, no guarantee that you’ll have a big happy family, no guarantee of anything — except for one thing. That your life will be full of unexpected and unexplained events. You can tell yourself that there’s some grand plan, that things happen for a reason, but I’ve dismissed that line of thinking. We’ve given up all pretense of believing that some master plan simply called for Mandy to contract MS. To me, life is like running across an active battlefield with your eyes open, senses on fire, every ounce of your life’s training and experience being pulled into use. With all that going for you, sometimes you’re just going to get hit.

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New to the Game?

President Obama, in a televised press conference centering mainly on his proposed budget, repeatedly mentioned health care reform as one of the key elements of economic recovery. Spending on health care is rising at an unsustainable rate. It is crushing the family budget as well as the national budget.

Naysayers continue to argue that it is BECAUSE of the economic meltdown that health care reform MUST wait. Their point being that we have to get the economy back on track before we can tackle other issues like health care. But health care is not another issue. It is the same issue. How can we promote economic recovery by ignoring some of the very problems that are dragging it down in the first place?

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Obama Holding Firm on the Need for Health Care Reform

The financial impact of multiple sclerosis cannot be overstated, whether you have medical insurance coverage or not, it becomes a large part of your struggle with the disease. Like it or not, MS and money are go hand in hand.

So what if you find yourself among our country’s nearly 50 million uninsured? Continue to research and pursue all insurance options. In the meantime, there are other resources available to the uninsured, but it’s going to take some time and a great deal of persistence.

Having MS and no insurance — or inadequate insurance — is a bitter pill to swallow. I cannot in good conscience say that you will be able to access all the services you need. We just have do the best we can with the resources at our disposal. And by all means, contact your representatives in congress. Put a human face on the state of health care!

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Guide for Uninsured Multiple Sclerosis Patients

The problems with health care in the U.S. are many and there’s plenty of blame to go around. That doesn’t mean that we bear no responsibility for our own health and well-being.

There are a great many things individuals can and should do to remain healthy and to ward off preventable illness. The same is true of hospitals, clinics, and nursing homes.

Cases of Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) are on the rise worldwide. MRSA, often referred to as a “super bug,“ is a fast-spreading infection that is highly resistant to antibiotics and is sometimes fatal. The most deadly strain is specific to health care facilities.

According the the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2005 there were 18,650 hospital-related deaths in the United States due to MRSA, more than AIDS-related deaths…

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Calling on Hospitals to Prevent Spread of MRSA

March is Multiple Sclerosis Awareness Month. Widely misunderstood, MS has a profound effect on those who must live with it, or in its wake. The physical, emotional, and financial toll on the entire family is enormous.

What MS is:

* MS is a neurological disease in which lesions form in the central nervous system, interrupting the transmission of signals to the rest of the body.

* Relapsing/remitting MS, the most common form at onset, causes flare-ups followed by periods of remission.

* There are several types of progressive MS in which symptoms worsen over time.

* Symptoms vary greatly from patient to patient (and from day to day) and include fatigue, numbness, visual impairment, slurred speech, difficulty swallowing, cognitive impairment, tremors, vertigo, pain, lack of coordination, paralysis, and blindness.

* MS is more common in women. Most people are diagnosed between the ages of 20 and 45. Due to MRI, more children are being diagnosed with MS.

* There is currently no single definitive test for MS. Rather, it is diagnosed through clinical history and a series of tests, along with elimination of other diseases.

* MS is not contagious.

* The cause remains a mystery. A combination of genetics and environmental factors is one avenue that researchers are pursuing.

* Though symptoms are often invisible, it is a serious medical condition.

* There is no cure, but there are disease-modifying drugs thought to slow progression.

What MS is not:

* A psychological condition, although depression in MS patients is common.

My own journey through diagnosis, acceptance, and learning to cope has taught me a lot about this business of living. Just as I was hitting midlife, the body I knew so well became a stranger, and a frightening one at that. As the daily struggle with MS continues, I must constantly re-evaluate my physical self and make adjustments. But the person who lives inside this mutinous body is not only surviving, but thriving, with the support of my loving husband and children, as I approach my 50th birthday.

Obstacles? We’ve all got them. It’s in how we choose to handle them that our true self emerges. Inside, I’m still me, only older and wiser.

Ann Pietrangelo (aka Mandy Crest) is a Virginia-based freelance writer for WebCamp One, LLC. She is a featured blogger at Multiple Sclerosis Central and Care2.com, and has been a frequent contributor to Women Over 40 Rock! She is a passionate advocate for multiple sclerosis patients and health care reform. For more information, visit AnnPietrangelo.com.

Cross posted on In The Trenches Productions‘ blog, Women Over 40 Rock!

Despite the forward momentum toward health care reform, opposition to the idea is still strong.

Recently, I heard a commentator say that if you believe in health care for all, you are a socialist.

Does providing affordable and accessible health care make us a socialist country? Those who do not believe that health care is something that American citizens should rightfully expect have a tendency to label that concept as un-American and socialist, that it smacks of government control. Those people usually have good insurance and a reasonable expectation of accessible health care.

Read this post in its entirety and participate in our poll — Does health care for all equal socialism? Got some points you’d like to make? Comments are most welcome.

Does health care for all make us socialists?

If your doctor suspects that you have multiple sclerosis, but you haven’t yet been diagnosed, chances are you’ll be taking an EMG test.

EMG stands for electromyogram. The purpose of the EMG is to assess the health of muscles by measuring their response to stimulation. This can help doctors in diagnosing multiple sclerosis and other conditions when a patient has unexplained muscle weakness.

If you’ve ever heard anyone describe an EMG test in detail, you might wonder if it’s a modern day torture device and be tempted to run for the hills. Well, you can relax. While far from a pleasant experience, it’s not something you need to fear.

View the Educational video explaining the EMG test

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Diagnosing MS: The EMG Test

“Downers,” cows too sick or weak to stand on their own, will no longer be slaughtered and allowed to enter our food supply. President Obama announced that The Agriculture Department has banned the practice, closing a loophole and lessening the odds of humans contracting mad cow disease (bovine spongiform encephalopathy).

There are two very important issues involved here. First, our system of keeping the nation’s food supply safe has proven to be woefully insufficient. Recent years have seen large-scale recalls of beef, peanut butter, spinach, and peppers, causing severe illness and death. The blatant disregard for others and the sheer recklessness of pushing sick and dying animals into the human food supply is shocking…

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No More “Downer” Cows in Food Supply

In an effort to educate ourselves, patients have turned to the internet. We look to sites like Web MD, The Health Central Network, WrongDiagnosis.com, (now part of HealthGrades.com), and RateMDs.com to answer our questions and reach out to other patients who may be able to advise us.

Offering a world of information at our fingertips, these sites provide valuable facts about health matters and prescription medications. But there are pitfalls for both patients and doctors.

The internet gives each of us the power to speak freely in an open and easily accessible forum. With the click of the mouse we can make an instant impact on another person’s life, for better or for worse. It is not a privilege to be taken lightly.

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Online Health Sites: Handle With Care

“You have multiple sclerosis.”

You’ve heard those words and now it’s time to decide what you’re going to do about it. There is no obvious right or wrong that applies to all MS patients. It’s not going to be that easy.

In my last post, Early Intervention in Multiple Sclerosis: Knowledge is Power, I spoke about self-education and research as the first items on the “to do” list, whether you’ve been definitively diagnosed or just suspect MS. Along with that, it is important to establish a relationship with a neurologist. Your doctor will inform you of your options and may make suggestions based on your individual symptoms.

One of the first questions that comes to mind is, “what is my prognosis?”

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You Have MS, now what are you going to do about it?

The National Multiple Sclerosis Society Walk Team just sent me an email containing the following sentence. It speaks volumes.

“It’s only been a week since you registered for the MS Walk, but in the last seven days another 200 people in the United States have been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.”

Visit my MS Walk page

Embryonic stem cell research will move forward with federal funding.

Upholding his campaign promise, President Obama signed an executive order reversing the ban on federal support for stem cell research.

Put in place by the Bush administration in 2001, the ban on federal funding for stem cell research created what Obama called a “false choice between sound science and moral values. In this case, I believe the two are not inconsistent. I believe we have been given the capacity and will to pursue this research — and the humanity and conscience to do so responsibly.”

Embryonic stem cell research, he said, could “help us understand, and possibly cure, some of our most devastating diseases and conditions.”

Can science and moral values co-exist? Read this post in its entirety and sound off in our poll:

Embryonic Stem Cell Research, Sound Science, and Moral Values

There was a wounded look in her eyes, one that stays with me still.

She and her husband both lost their jobs within the last few months and, along with them, their group health insurance policies. She stood next to me at the pharmacy, trying to get a prescription filled.

We were both waiting for problems to be straightened out and the pent up emotion was evident. She sighed and shook her head. “I don’t understand. It’s the same exact policy, except that we’re paying the premiums. It wasn’t a problem before, but now that we’re on COBRA…

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The Human Face on Health Care

MS advocate Alice Kreuger has created a Second Life virtual world for MS patients.

The videos can be viewed on the Johnson & Johnson Health Channel on YouTube.

View Part One

View Part Two