i'm still alive and kicking! so's dave, but he's still asleep :P

so yeah i'm still here ;) so..here i am...still here :)

those who are close by to me know that my mom arrived early for her extended visit to l.a. following my hospital stay. she has been wonderful(and at times frusterating lol) helping us get our home back in order and organized.

in my "formal" life, while i was never a neat freak, i was organized, i love to cook, and i even enjoyed house cleaning and doing laundry. it's hard for others to imagine not being able to do this due in part to extreme fatigue and depression. you loose all motivation for all that you love and more. it hurts you and others....

so, while she has been out here, while we planned on doing fun things, i have still been unwell. i had a month long migraine that affected my right eye and now, everytime i go outside, it feels like a red hot poker is stabbing that eye all the way to my brain. my sunglasses are my best friend.

for that month i have been on fiorcet eveyday and now i must carry it with me everywhere i go. one night the pain was so bad, i almost had to go to the ER as i was maxed out on maxalt, and i was to recieve a demerol injection.

my fatigue has been bad to ok depending.

recently this week, my right arm is numb. actually it started with my right thumb and has travelled up to my shoulder. with it came what my neuro and i thought could be an allergic reaction to lexapro.

my right side of my face from forehead to cheek has had these HORRIBLE itchiness, like bugs crawling inside my skin. no redness, no hives, no rashes at all. i can't sleep, it's like, no wait, it is TORTURE!

here is what i found online last night:

Pruritis (itching) may occur as a symptom of MS. It is one of the family of abnormal sensations - such as burning, stabbing, or tearing pains, or "pins and needles" feelings - which may be experienced by people with MS. These sensations are known as dysesthesias, and they are neurologic in origin.

Different from Allergic Itching
Dysesthetic itching may occur suddenly and intensely, but for brief periods. It may be present over any part of the body or face. It is different from the generalized itching that can accompany an allergic reaction as there is no external skin rash or irritation at the site of itching. Corticosteroid ointments applied to the skin are not helpful in relieving this type of itch.

Medications Can Treat Itching Associated with MS
There are, however, several medications that are generally successful in treating dysesthetic itching. Among them are: anticonvulsants, such as carbamazepine (Tegretol®) and diphenylhydantoin (Dilantin®) antidepressants, such as amitriptyline (Elavil®) and the MAO inhibitors an antihistamine, hydroxyzine (Atarax®). People who experience itching should consult their physician.

Paroxysmal itching in multiple sclerosis

* P.O. OSTERMAN11Department of Neurology, University Hospital, Uppsala, Sweden

*1Department of Neurology, University Hospital, Uppsala, Sweden

SUMMARY

In three women with multiple sclerosis, paroxysmal attacks of itching occurred. There were several similarities between these attacks and other types of paroxysmal phenomena previously described in multiple sclerosis. The attacks were brief, but usually lasted several minutes, they started and ended abruptly, and recurred several times a day. They were controlled effectively by carbamazepine. It is suggested that paroxysmal itching is caused by transversely spreading ephaptic activation of axons with-in a partially demyelinated lesion in pain-conducting fibre tracts in the central nervous system.


Paroxysmal itching in multiple sclerosis during treatment with external magnetic fields.

Sandyk R.

NeuroCommunication Research Laboratories, Danbury, CT 06811.

Paroxysmal attacks of itching constitute a rare sensory symptom of multiple sclerosis (MS). It is generally thought that paroxysmal itching, a form of subthreshold pain sensation, is caused by transversely spreading ephaptic activation (i.e., activation via an artificial synapse) of axons within a partially demyelinated lesion in fiber tracts in the CNS, most commonly in the spinal cord. In MS, attacks of paroxysmal itching have been reported to occur either as the initial symptom of the disease or at the onset of an acute relapse. I present two female MS patients aged 36 and 40 years in whom paroxysmal itching was a prominent sensory symptom which occurred at the onset of treatment with external picoTesla range magnetic fields (MF) and coincident with the process of neurologic recovery. This report suggests that picoTesla range MF may cause activation of neuronal transmission along partially demyelinated axons of pain conduction in the spinal cord. The occurrence of rapid neurologic recovery with initiation of treatment with MF supports the notion that impaired synaptic conductivity rather than demyelination underlies some of the neurologic deficits of MS.

oh "yay"....

i am so tired, i can't even sleep on my right side as makes my face itch more, and when i don't it still itches, waking me up feeling like a dog that can't get rid of something...so far, this is the WORST MS thing i have had to deal with so far...and it SUCKS ASS! :(:(

oh and there's more:
i finally got a disabled card that hangs from my rearview mirror in my car. the plus side is i get to park almost anywhere and i don't get to pay the meter ;) so i guess i'm "official" :P

oh and one more thing:
we were invited to dave & jodi's housewarming. i wrote down that it was this past sunday. well, i'm a DODO! it's THIS coming saturday! sigh...at least we all have a good sense of humor about it :)P


here are the great things that have been going on otherwise:

1. my mom, my husband, my daughter and my dog.

2. a week before my hospital stay, i had received the gift of a new camera. a canon 20d complete with vertical grip, extra batteries, 2 lenses, new bag, a 2 gig card, etc. i LOVE it!!!!

3. i did a maternity photoshoot of one of my best friends from NDHS, lisa. she is literally due anyday now with a little girl. so i shot her and hubby henri at their home in del mar on the beach. it's literally their backyard. they turned out really great :)

4. my daughter got her ears pierced. i'm half puerto rican, so this is the norm for baby girls to have done. and omg! she looks so cute!

5.new tires for my car.

6. gorgeous weather, love the "june gloom" :D

there's more but i right now i need to feed canela, our dog :)