when more than homecare is needed Multiple Sclerosis

From Multiple Sclerosis Foundation’s MS Focus Magazine, Winter 2012 (pages 43-45):

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pg 44

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pg 45

Caregivingly Yours, Patrick Leer 

videos: www.youtube.com/daddyleer

RX laughter / MSFocus magazine

No doubt that laughter is medicine and Multiple Sclerosis Foundation’s MSFocus Magazine, Spring 2011 is all about laughter and living with MS.

It’s also kind of cool to find Patti and myself on pages 50-51, “Mooned By Snails”.

“…If you ask us whether it was easier to laugh together before MS, we both will smile and evoke the memory loss defense. MS brought new dimensions; our sense of humor evolved. As a caregiver, I discovered the reward of a slapstick laugh the first time I ran over my own foot with a wheelchair. Patti’s MS-induced pseudobulbar affect flips emotional tables – she laughs at funerals. …

… Oh, we are never boring to be around. Humor as intervention can disarm anxious strangers, friends, and family.

‘Common sense and a sense of humor are the same thing, moving at different speeds. A sense of humor is just common sense, dancing.’ ...

A giggle can change a mood; a guffaw is as good as any medicine. You cannot do much about multiple sclerosis, but you can do a lot about living with multiple sclerosis. Some situations are just funny, and sometimes as a caregiver it takes a little clowning around to get the laughter going …

… EDSS>8 and ADL<1 may be quantitative measurements of Patti’s MS, but I would like to think that laughter is a better measurement of quality of life. And, well, sometimes it takes a little help from those darn snails.”

To view on line edition click MSFocus Spring 2011 also available in pdf format 

While the blogosphere has always been home for Caregivingly Yours, it was both challenging and fun to rewrite an entry as a magazine article. Special thanks to Multiple Sclerosis Foundation (MSF) for believing our story of living with MS was worth including. 

Caregivingly Yours, Patrick Leer 

web site: caregivinglyyours.com  

videos: www.youtube.com/daddyleer

caregiving: multiple sclerosis and cognition

Special thanks to the Multiple Sclerosis Foundation for enabling our story to bridge from the blogosphere to print media.

"A Caregiver’s Perspective: MS and Cognition" will appear in their Winter 2009 edition of MSFocus Magazine. Below is an excerpt:

"Our then elementary-age daughter discovered the first clue: Her mom laughed hysterically at the word “brick.” Then came the day I opened our monthly credit card bill to find $2,000 in charges from a home shopping network. Homecare agencies cancelled our aides due
to incidents involving my wife, Patti’s, verbal and physical outbursts. Finally, I returned home one afternoon to discover our stove top on fire while Patti sat unconcerned or unaware at the kitchen table.

Looking back, were there earlier clues that my wife’s MS symptoms might not stop with the physical? Yes, but who knew to look? We were still reeling from the physical symptoms of Patti’s diagnosis and trying to learn to live with MS as a family. In a few short years, my wife had become wheelchair-bound. We were swamped in physical adaptations, and in the early and mid- 90s, cognitive problems associated with MS were simply not mentioned very often..."

After years of journaling it was fascinating to work with a different medium including submitting copy, editors, revision, and such.

This journal / blog began, in part, four years ago because the challenges of people with progressive and severe MS, their caregivers, and families were invisible to mainstream MS publications.

Thank you, Multiple Sclerosis Foundation for this opportunity.

Caregivingly Yours, Patrick Leer
web site: http://caregivinglyyours.com/
videos: http://www.youtube.com/daddyleer
musings: Patrick Ponders ...