Tomorrow is Janet's son's high school graduation day. It is also World MS Day. What a great time for everyone to acknowledge the widespread effect of multiple sclerosis. Our Wisconsin Chapter of the National MS Society serves over 10,000 people in the state. We guess that Tim will not be the only one in the gym tomorrow night who has MS.
Here's an eye-catching video that emphasizes how many people around you have MS. Thanks Lisa!
Janet writes: Tim and I had an argument the other day over a project we are working on. The argument started because I was attempting to explain something to Tim and he was feeling overwhelmed by how I presented the information. He responded by plugging his ears, which ticked me off, of course. The project ended up thrown in his lap.
After we were both cooled down, we left the house so we wouldn’t be disturbed and tried again. Tim still didn’t understand me, so instead of talking, I proceeded to write everything down and had him read it. Success! He understood what I was talking about. He had questions, I wrote down the answers as well. More success! We were able to resolve our argument and finish our project in about an hour.
This strategy is used by teachers every day when teaching students, and can be very useful in your house if you deal with the cognitive symptoms of MS. We all know that MS acts differently from day to day. Your ability to take in and process information may also differ from day to day. One day, you may understand what you hear right away but have to read the same sentence five times to understand it. The next day it might be the opposite – you feel overwhelmed by anything you have to listen to, but can scan a page of writing and understand it just like that. And there are some days where you just have to do it before you get it.
If you feel like you are having difficulty understanding something important, try changing the way you get the information. If you can’t read it, have someone read it to you. If you can’t listen to it, get it in writing. If both are escaping you, have someone help you with a sample or demonstration. One way or another, that information will get into your brain. Oh, and a helpful hint – don’t plug your ears when your spouse is trying to talk to you. You will not have any trouble understanding their reaction!!!!
We attend a monthly MS support group in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and for the past year our group has had a website under construction. Why has it taken a year? Well, we don't really know, but as with anything connected to MS, we can bet the cognitive meltdown had a little something to do with it. Anyway, it is finally finished and functional! Hooray! We are pretty proud of it. Here is the link:
Janet writes: I stumbled across this interview today with Barbara Strauch on how the middle aged brain functions. There seems to be lots of good news here! I guess it would make sense to know how your brain is supposed to work before making comclusions about how your brain is actually working. Has anyone read this book and what do you think of it? Personally, I will be purchasing a copy. Here are the links for the interview and and book:
