Story
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I'm Chelsea, aged 25 years old. I will be running the Great North Run to raise money for MS Society on September 13th. I am doing this to support my Auntie Jackie who is a sufferer of Multiple Sclerosis. Multiple Sclerosis currently affects more than 130,000 people in the UK, which is 1 in 500 people in the UK.
My Auntie Jackie has suffered from MS for the past five years now. It's only recently that she has started to decline rapidly with her health and her MS symptoms have also worsened and I have seen how badly it affects her mentally, emotionally and physically. Not only has MS affected Jackie with her day-to-day activities such as driving, walking, remembering things and just doing things independently like going to the toilet by herself, but it has also created a ripple effect on my family including my grandma, who herself has sight difficulties by trying her hardest to look after Jackie by helping her with her daily activities and my mother, who often have to take the taxi to see both my grandma and Jackie and support, especially Jackie, both of them, which can be very tiring for my mother.
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a disease of the central nervous system (your brain and your spinal cord). The central nervous system cells are covered in a protective layer of fatty protein called the myelin sheath (a bit like the insulation on an electrical cable). MS is an auto-immune disease, where the immune system gets confused and instead of attacking an infection or virus, the immune system turns on itself and attacks the nerve cells, damaging this protective sheath. This process is called demyelination. The demyelination disrupts the ‘messages’ being transmitted from and to the brain, causing them to slow down, become distorted or not get through at all.
MS symptoms and signs
Multiple sclerosis can cause many different symptoms. Often, when they first start to happen, they come and go, and are quite mild. They often are not serious enough to need medical attention. Sometimes it is only after people have been diagnosed with MS that they realise they were having early symptoms before.
The most common symptoms of MS are as follows. (Note: this list is for information only, not for self-diagnosis.)
Main symptoms of Multiple Sclerosis
- General
- Constant tiredness/fatigue
- Memory loss and other brain-related problems (e.g. attention span, reaction time, spatial awareness abilities)
- Depression/unstable mood
- Visual disturbances
- Eye twitches (nystagmus)
- Inflammation of the optic nerve (optic neuritis)
- Double vision (diplopia)
- Speech & Throat
- Difficulty with speech/articulation (dysarthria)
- Swallowing weakness (dysphagia)
- Body
- Muscle weakness
- Muscle spasms or spasticity
- Lack of coordination (ataxia)
- Sensation
- Pain
- Sensory changes or loss (hypoesthesia)
- Tickling, tingling, burning, pricking, or numbness of skin (paraesthesia)
- Bowel & Urinary
- Incontinence
- Diarrohea or constipation
- Increased frequency of going to the toilet
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