Bezzy MS

Females with MS may receive fewer disease-modifying therapies (DMTs) than males with the same disease severity. Anticipation of pregnancy may be part of the reason. Many females of childbearing age who have MS make plans to conceive, and this could mean some restrictions on the medications that they can take. I did not have those restrictions, as I had already decided that I didn’t want to conceive, so my neurologist approached my treatment planning with that knowledge.

Sleep disturbances in MS are quite common. Bladder urgency, muscle spasticity, and anxiety can contribute to poor-quality sleep, which can lead to increased difficulties with cognitive function. I’ve studied the spin of my bedroom ceiling fan more nights than I can count. My legs twitch first, then my eyes snap open to start the long stare at the slow spin, enduring the spasticity, hoping the clenching in my legs will settle. By the time the sun slides through my window, sleep feels unreachable.

Rest is essential for people managing chronic illness. Guilt is what turns a “bed day” into “bed rot.” Here’s how to tell the difference, and stop interrogating yourself every time you close your eyes. I’ve spent entire Saturdays under a blanket with the curtains closed, phone battery dead, and deadlines stacking up in my inbox. For a long time, I spent those Saturdays doing something else, too — ruminating and interrogating myself the whole time. Do I actually need this, or am I being lazy?

There’s never quite enough time in a neurology appointment to explain what it’s actually like to live with MS. But, over time, I found practical ways to organize symptoms, questions, and follow-ups when time is limited. For a long time, I walked into neurology appointments already feeling behind. I’d sit on the paper-covered table, trying to compress weeks or even months of changes into a few minutes, watching the clock before we’d really even started talking.

When it comes to chronic illness, it can be difficult to decide what to say at work, what to keep private, and how to ask for things I need without over-explaining. My answers change with my symptoms. I remember standing in the back hallway of the restaurant, staring at my shoes. They were part of the uniform: heels, dress, polished. My shift hadn’t even started, and my foot already felt unreliable, and my balance was slightly off. The subtle drag that had been easy to ignore was now harder to hide.

Higher temperatures can cause worsening MS symptoms, such as fatigue and brain fog. Healthcare professionals often refer to this worsening as Uhthoff’s phenomenon. I used to think I was just bad at summer. When the season hit, so did the fatigue, arriving without warning. My legs would become heavy and unreliable in a way that had nothing to do with how much I’d walked.

Keeping a simple system for test results, imaging, notes, and medications makes life much easier when managing a chronic health condition. Living with a chronic illness means your life inevitably turns into a flurry of incoming documents. You know the ones — test results, MRI reports, and medication pamphlets. Follow-up instructions, new prescriptions, symptom trackers. Medical mail piles up in your foyer, like insurance claims, old bills, and more bills. Initially, it may not feel like too much.

After switching to the intravenous (IV) MS medication, ocrelizumab (Ocrevus), a new subcutaneous version of the drug became available. It has significantly reduced the time I spend in the hospital for treatment. Health anxiety has been a hurdle for me for as long as I can remember. As a child, I fought shots with all my might. When MS began at 21, and foreign symptoms like weakness and pain disabled me, my diagnosis evaded doctors for 13 years.

Sometimes, my body looks fine, but my brain feels like it’s buffering. MS brain fog can feel different from day to day, and there are different tools to help you live fully without hiding symptoms. Brain fog is tricky to navigate. I’ll open my laptop and forget why. I’ll walk into a room and blank. I’ll say one word but mean another, completely convinced I said the right thing, while everyone around me looks confused. Once, I traveled across the country and arrived without my debit card.

A curb-to-gate walkthrough can help you get through an airport with the least amount of stress, and there are tips that can help you request help without feeling guilty. There was a period when I treated airports as though they were a test of character. Just check in, get through airport security — officially called the Transport Security Administration (TSA) — make it to the gate, and hop on the plane. “I can totally handle this,” I’d tell myself.