A Big Spider

What a day! We had Little Ray in on the show with a few of his "friends" and I got brave enough to handle the tarantula!! Not for the faint of heart.




S.

Positively Shocking

I have seen a few picture galleries of close ups of electronic equipment and thought it would be neat to try some myself. They look like mini industrial cities or industrial parks. Of course I swiped, with permission, a dead motherboard from someone's laptop at work. Cool, eh?

I find the mechanical components quite fascinating, more so than the electronic parts for some reason. Perhaps because I seem to have a love/hate relationship with electricity and negative experiences with static (pun intended). Perhaps because I can never seem to remember Ohm's Law. Or perhaps because it's just one of those things I can't seem to wrap my mind around. Like time travel.

When I was first learning to drive, I was very frustrated because I just didn't "get" how cars work. And why did we only use one foot for two pedals instead of both feet?

Same thing with computers. Punch cards? Just one of those things out of place and I was destroyed for another 7 hours.

So anything more complex than a simple machine seems to be beyond my grasp. Give me a wheel, a pulley, an incline or a lever any day. They were good enough for Leonardo da Vinci. He came up with flying machines and submarines without knowledge of electricity or electronics.

Thank God that electrical things are of interest to other people and that wonderful things can come of that interest. Like lights in the night time. Radio. The internet.

Of course, electricity powers our bodies, though to a lesser degree. It is no less important. Without electricity in our bodies, we'd have no thoughts, heartbeats, or life as we know and enjoy it. For those of us with MS, we need stronger and more resistant insulation to cover the nerves that conduct that electricity.

Power companies have to spend money to maintain power lines, poles, transformers and the billions of other parts that keep us in the light. As MSers, we have to try to maintain our infrastructure as well, through diet, exercise, and mental stimulation. Some of us take medications that, like the power company linesmen, try to prevent power outages and maintain the system.

My dad is a retired electrical engineer. He understands all that electrical stuff that I don't. When I was five he took us for a drive to the construction site of a transformer to show us what he did for work. It wasn't until I was 16 or 17 that I finally understood what he did. I've been to a few of the other project sites that he worked on and while I found the experiences interesting, to be honest it was the mechanics of everything that I found most fascinating. Hydro-electric site? Never mind the electricity the water would generate, I wondered how the water tanks got full, how the dams opened and closed. Looking at the electrical plans for different buildings I wondered more about the blue ink used to print the plans or the different symbols on the paper. Sorry, Dad. I am amazed that human beings have figured out how to harness various sources and turn them into electricity; I just have a mental block when it comes to understanding how it works. I just know and trust that it does.

I also know and trust that there are people who understand the mechanics and electronics of the brain. They are the people we MSers are counting on to fix our power bumps.

S.

An Observation

I kid a lot about MS, about how people with MS are the best looking people I know or how they have the best sense of humour.

Truth is, people with MS are no different from any other group of people. Some are idiots who I want to slap into next week, but we are all just people.

People have their faults of course. Some people are in denial about their surroundings, blaming their personal relationship problems on MS. Some are ostriches, ignoring the problems they do have, whether it's because of MS or not.

I know people who are constantly angry, seemingly about their MS, but they were angry before the MS. I know people who have ignored their MS to the point that it has done irreversible damage.

There are people who constantly make a loud noise who actually have the least to complain about. Their glass is always half empty.

Mostly people are nice and they are the ones I will continue to speak for when talking to donors. The up side is that the whiners will benefit as well, only they will never know it.

Goggles

I am doing my Amelia Earhart impersonation with the goggles and the scarf.

In 1980 I was in my first year university in the general science program. One of my required courses was Chemistry and I'll never forget the day we had our first chem lab, specifically our professor's instructions should there be an emergency, like an explosion or fire. We were instructed to go straight to the shower stall conveniently located in the middle of the lab, strip off everything we were wearing and pull the chain to release the tank of water in order to put out any fire or rinse off any chemical spill.

That scared the crap out of me, being a natural born clutz. One of my first purchases at university was a (required) pair of safety goggles. $20!! I wore them in lab all the time. For a year. And then they got stored away until after I graduated. When I began working and fending for myself, learning the intricacies of the kitchen, I remembered my goggles. Perfect for cutting up onions or garlic, keeping the released chemicals from my eyes. So I kept them in the kitchen.

5 years ago today, Nova Scotia had one of its worst winter storms ever. 95.5 centimetres of snow in 48 hours. That's about 3 feet. It was an incredible storm. One woman was carried by a front end loader (in the bucket!) through her unplowed street to a street that was clear, to a waiting ambulance so she could get to the hospital and deliver her baby. The winds were wild and a bunch of us in our apartment building took shifts shoveling all our cars out when a plow came by to clean up our parking lot. I wore my safety goggles over my glasses to keep the wind and snow out of my eyes.

I wear them every time we have wild weather and I have to take the bus in to work because the roads are too bad for cars. Or when I go to shovel the walkways into the building for some exercise. Like today.

So my goggles have served their original purpose and two others. And other people giggle when they see me wear them, so that's a bonus for a clown like me.

I mentioned in my last post about the drug amitriptiline. It was originally used as an antidepressant. But soon other properties were discovered that led to the drug being used as a treatment for bed wetting to insomnia. And for neuropathic pain.

Many drugs are initially thought to be good for one thing but turn out to be beneficial for others. Rogaine was initially developed for treatment of high blood pressure, but when many men reported hair growth as a side effect, researchers took note and now use it for treating some types of baldness.

Lysergic acid diethylamide was originally being studied for medical uses of ergot alkaloid derivatives. (Ergot is a fungus that infects grains and because of its various effects on the human body, derivatives were used for a wide range of medical treatments, from inducing abortions to treating migraine headaches.) Of course we know this acid better as LSD. And it has been studied extensively by many researchers including the American CIA for use as a mind control substance.

In the early 1980s, 7 people in Southern California were diagnosed with Parkinsonism. They had all taken a contaminated illegal drug and the side effect was motionlessness; they were, in effect, physically immobile. But it took a while for a neurologist to connect the dots and discover the compound that made them remain immobile. Once the connections were made, two of the seven patients were successfully treated with neural grafts of embryonic stem cells. The compound that made the drug takers ill in the first place has now been manufactured for use in Parkinson's animal studies. (The Case of the Frozen Addicts by William Langston is a fascinating read - part mystery, part medical research)

There are studies under way as I type this, of the effect of the presence of parasitic worms in the bodies of MS patients. The worms seem to have some effect on the immune system that lessen symptoms of MS. It was an accidental discovery, but one in which I would find extremely gratifying if it is a possible treatment. As you know, I have a thing for "bugs". One of my favourite cartoons is of a guy at the pharmacy holding a bottle of something with the pharmacist looking on and saying, "Take them all at the same time and wait for them to hatch."

My goggles are something like all those drug examples I just gave you - and the parasite one. They have multiple uses and accidental discovery of those uses may be the key to solving the puzzle of MS. We need more happy accidents.

S.

Pain Shmain

I saw a copy of this sculpture (original by Rodin)a few years ago at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia and was almost in tears at the pain and anguish they expressed.

Prepare for a maze of thought. There is no cheese at the end.

Last week as part of Valentine's Day, my boss got a barbershop quartet to barge into the morning show and serenade the team on air. I was in on the plan and led the group into the control room as they sang. Of course we surprised the morning team as they were on air at the time (and timing was critical for this operation) and we got to promote this particular group's activities - serenading your sweetheart for Valentine's Day. A few of us were treated to a couple more tunes just before they left.

I have always loved barbershop quartet singing and harmony in general. But listening to these guys last week led me to the internet because I wanted to know why. Why do I get chills at certain points? Why do I have such a satisfied feeling after a song sung by them? Why? Why? Why?

I'm sure Lisa from Brass and Ivory could explain it better, being the resident musician in these parts, but I'll do my best, as I understand it.

It seems that the secret to the quartet harmonies lies in the appearance (both figural and literal) of a 5th note being sung. When sound hits our eardrum it reverberates at a specific frequency based on the sound. From Wikipedia:"The precise synchrony of the waveforms of the four voices simultaneously creates the perception of a "fifth voice" while at the same time melding the four voices into a unified sound." Personally, I think the unified sound of the four voices creates a separate reverberation on the eardrum itself, which when added to the four voices gives us that "full" sound and sends shivers up and down our spines. Added to that are the types of chords sung, which often are spine tingling anyway. Not sure if any or all of that is correct, but until someone can explain it better to me, I'll stick with it.

While researching this topic I came across references used to describe the emotional effects of barbershop singing. They are often rapturous, quasi-religious. Hmmmm. There is a so-called "religious" site in our brain believed to be in the temporal lobe area. People who have temporal lobe epilepsy often report feelings of awe and wonder, seeing lights, sudden insights into life, and a connection with a higher being. They report feelings of "being at peace". It's been theorized that Joan of Arc had this type of epilepsy and that her visual and auditory hallucinations were a result of her illness, not communication with God.

Saint Lidwina of the Netherlands (in the late 1300s) is believed to have suffered from Multiple Sclerosis. In fact if you read any account of her life, she displays a good many symptoms of MS and much is made of the absolute misery she suffered. She was a very pious woman; accounts of her life indicate her gift of prayer, and she also had "visions" of God. Or hallucinations. Hard to say. Either way, it seems to me that she may also have suffered some form of epilepsy as well. I've met a few people with both epilepsy and MS, so it's not unheard of.

What ties barbershop quartets, Joan of Arc, and epilepsy together? A lot of research has popped up recently linking the mind and the body - particularly of importance for MS patients is the need to reduce stress (in our minds) that can trigger symptoms (in our bodies). The pleasant singing of the barber shop quartet last week gave me such an enormous sense of beauty and relaxation, I was overcome with a feeling of peacefulness. Maybe those notes, or specifically, the "fifth note", stimulated my temporal lobes. Over the years while researching pain relievers for neuropathic pain, I noticed quite a few epilepsy drugs used to treat spasms and other symptoms. Those anti-convulsant drugs work by reducing the rapid firing of neurons in our brain. MS brains sometimes fire will-nilly and tell us things that are falsehoods; I'm not really drooling, it just feels like I am, or there's no hair on my cheek, it just feels that way, or my bones aren't being crushed in a vice grip, it just feels that way. And because our brain needs calming down in order for body parts to stop hurting, they work for people with MS. Cool.

Sometimes we can "distract" our brains from pain with another strong stimulus, like heat. I have used heating pads for over 10 years for my neuropathic pain, usually with good result. By focusing on the heat, my brain is temporarily distracted from the pain. But it's becoming more and more used to the heat and occurring more frequently as well. 10 years ago, about once a month was all I needed with the heating pad. Now it's a couple of times a week. Most times, the heat suffices.But from time to time, the pain continues for a couple of nights and I lose sleep because of it; or has recently happened, the pain begins from the moment I wake. It's annoying, it's tiring, and it damn well hurts.

This post is really just a long winded way to say that I have a prescription now for amitriptiline.And I'm not afraid to use it. I haven't felt the need to use any sort of pain relief up to this point as it was relatively short lived. But I just don't have the energy to spend on pain any more. So just as I take an elevator rather than stairs (don't tell Al Gore) to conserve MY energy, I will take pain relievers as needed rather than have pain. That way I have more energy and time for the things I want to do, like hunting for bugs in the woods.

S.

Flowers and Bugs

Happy Valentine's Day! OK, I'm late, but the wookie wasn't late with the flowers.

Saturday evening we invited my neighbour over for desert and coffee. She happens to be the superintendant of the building, lives right across the hall from me, and has become a good friend. She told us that Friday night when we were out, she smelled smoke in the hallway and was outside my door thinking it might have been in my apartment. Then a bunch of things went racing through her mind: would she go in and grab the fish in its tank to save it? Or could she grab a bunch of my mounted and framed bugs I have hanging on the wall to save them?

I told her if that happens pull the fire alarm to get everyone in the building out, call the fire department and GET OUT! Never mind the fish- I bought it to feed aquatic insects almost a year ago. Never mind the bugs- they're already dead and there are plenty more out there.

But how sweet. That's a true friend, wanting to save my creepy crawlies from being destroyed.

Turns out there was no smoke. Possibly someone burning something in their apartment. But I did learn something new about my friend.

S.

Eagle Watch

Last weekend the Wookie and I traveled to the Annapolis Valley for the final Eagles Weekend. The Valley is the one of two large agricultural areas of Nova Scotia and the chicken farmers feed the wild population of bald eagles all winter. Of course it's the leftover parts of chickens that humans don't consume. The farmers invite the public to view the feedings for 3 weekends in the winter, though I found out we can go anytime during the winter.

The bald eagle has a strong foothold in this province, from one end to another. I always see eagles when I visit Cape Breton and quite often see them in the Valley. To see them from about 50 feet away, though is quite another thing. And so many, too; I lost count of the eagles sitting in the trees near the one farm we went to. I counted 50, with several juveniles in the mix. Of course, crows and gulls make an appearance at the same time and sometimes red tailed hawks. The Wookie took a billion pictures and I've just posted a few of them here.

Many of us have visions of these creatures flying majestically, perhaps grabbing a salmon as they dip into the waters on the west coast. But eagles are mostly scavengers, going after whatever is available (kind of like those folks at the all-you-can-eat buffet) and while they don't show the "misses" of those salmon grabs on documentary shows, they do miss more often than not. Because of their size (5 foot wingspan) and shape, they can appear kind of clumsy as they try to grab a piece of chicken while in flight and I actually laughed out loud at some of their attempts, feeling a bit of a kinship with them. I am certainly not what would be described as majestic or elegant.

The provincial bird is the osprey, a fisher-bird. They are smaller than eagles but just as magnificent and when they return to the mouth of the Sackville River this spring I'll be out taking some pics for you.

In the meantime, enjoy the eagles; for my American friends, especially, as the wild turkey was almost your national bird.

S.