Fifty-six is reasonably old to be diagnosed with multiple sclerosis given that the average age of onset is around thirty-four years and I will always be grateful that, even in the unlikely event that I live to be 100, I will have spent most of my life blissfully free of this debilitating disease. Like most … Continue reading MS – My Story My Strength
“Why do we have to go all the way to her place?” I grumbled as Ron, Squeak and I made our way down Marine Drive to Serafina’s house. “She said she’s got something very important to announce and she wants to do it from her new “podium” rather than the wheelbarrow at your house. Plus, … Continue reading The Red Zebra Setting
I haven’t posted anything on here for a while. In my last post I was floundering around in a sea of bureaucracy in my efforts to get a temporary vaccine mandate exemption. I had also explained my situation to my GP by email, i.e. that I had been taking an MS drug which had the … Continue reading Exemptions, Extubations, Advertisements and Infusions
The only way to fight a plague is honesty – Albert Camus 1947 A couple of months ago I had woken up at around 3:00am and was finding it difficult to fall back to sleep. When this happens I normally search around You Tube for a nice sleep meditation but this particular night I sort … Continue reading What Plague Should we Really be Fighting?
Full disclosure: I’m one of the unwashed, unvaccinated people who, given the current climate, have been told I deserve to be unable to access healthcare or to food supplies. But hang on a minute … I think I do have a valid reason which might be accepted by others if they were in my situation. … Continue reading Unwashed and Unvaccinated
Over the past few days I’ve been receiving numerous messages by text, email and in my letterbox from the Ministry of Health telling me that getting a COVID-19 vaccine is an important step I can take to protect my kaumātua and whānau from the effects of the COVID-19 virus. The message states that at this … Continue reading The Covid Vaccine and Auto-Immune Disease
I watched a You Tube TedTalk this morning entitled What Happens When You Have a Disease That Doctors Can’t Diagnose. It is presented by Jennifer Brea who suffers from ME (Myalgic encephalomyelitis), also known as CFS (chronic fatigue syndrome). A link to this video can be found here: Click here This woman’s plight really resonated … Continue reading Lost in a Medical Wilderness
I felt truly awful the day after writing my previous post. My legs felt like lead and although I needed to get some things from town, I didn’t feel confident driving the car. Since I live on my own, I began to feel a bit worried in case I fell over and no-one except my … Continue reading Seeing Things Differently
My Pharmac funding was approved and I’m now in my fifth week of taking a Biogen manufactured drug called Tecfidera. I started on one 120mg tablet per day and have gradually increased it to the point where I’m now taking two 240mg tablets daily which is the maximum. The active ingredient in Tecfidera is dimethyl … Continue reading Drugs, Drawbacks & Discoveries
“You wouldn’t read about it,” said Squeak, shaking his head and making a tut-tutting noise. “We did read about it,” said Captain Obvious, Ron. “But what are we going to do about it?” I just wanted to smooth this all over as quickly as possible. Serafina jumped on top of the rusted wheelbarrow which she … Continue reading A Head of Steam
Claire Jewitt 