Tuesday, June 25, 2013

I started my day yesterday with an hour long MRI. I have decided there are better ways to kick off the week. I don't mind them, but plenty of other people don't like them at all. And I can see why. MRI's are a cold, noisy tiny tunnel. The noise is best explained as machine gun fire, with the occasional seize fire for daleks to have a chat and a game of the 80's electronic toy, Simple Simon. All this whilst someone pops open a jar of coffee by repeatedly bursting the paper seal with their finger.

It's not very often that I have a whole hour to myself of uninterrupted(ish) thoughts, and I couldn't help but think about the images the radiologist would be seeing. Me, in slices. The whole of my spinal column and brain, separated into sections, as they search for scarring and inflammation. These should correlate with, and answer why I have the symptoms I do. Clever init?

And a far cry from the diagnostic techniques from yesteryear. A way of diagnosing MS was to put people in a hot bath and watch as they wilt. This is due to Uhthoff's syndrome, where the slightest raise in the core body temperate can result in the temporary exacerbation of symptoms.

It's amazing how so much has developed in understanding this disease, and the development of the drugs, and the MRI, but there is still a long way to go. In the 70's it was thought there would be a cure within 10 years. 40 odd years later, and we're still waiting. Will it be in my lifetime? I don't know.......there's still a long way to go. But I'm not going anywhere. So I'll be just here, impatiently waiting.

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