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
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
I haven’t written much about my MS lately, primarily because up until about July this year it just bubbled along in the background. Always there, sometimes painful and a bit debilitating but on the whole, not causing me too much grief. I was diagnosed with MS when I was 56 which is unusual because the … Continue reading MS – Eying up the Future
I wondered whether we’d offended Serafina by not leaping to support the C.A.T. Extinction Rebellion after her “address” at the Mindfulness meeting because we didn’t see her for several days after that. The fact of the matter was that not one of us had the faintest idea what we were supporting or how this extraordinary … Continue reading Weasley’s Breakfast Show
Claire Jewitt 