Finally Over

Well we all made it. This was the hardest class I have had so far. I am just grateful that we had Professor Thomas without him I don't know if I would have made it. Along with mu classmates encouragement through our discussion board post and here in our blogs. Just want to let everyone know that without your encouragement I don't know that I would have handed in my final paper. I owe each of you a big giant thank you. I am hoping to try and keep my blog updated throughout my time at Kaplan, and hope that you all will visit me from time to time. Thank you all again and please please keep in touch it will be nice to keep in touch with you if your interested.
Best of luck to all of you.
Your new crazy friend with multiple sclerosis and who knows we may even enjoy each others stories.
Hope

Thank You Dian

Thank you Dian for even reading my blog. I know that it was a lot to read and I hope you found it interesting to read. I was able to get my paper posted in the unit 7 discussion if you would take a look at it and give me your opinion of the paper I would really appreciate your input and be honest I need that to help me turn in a final draft. Thank you again.Hope

Here's my paper

I posted my paper here because I could not get it to attach in unit 7 discssion so please post comments I truely need the help

Coping with MS
Hope E Woollens
Kaplan University
CM229-12
















Introduction:
Multiple Sclerosis is a chronic illness that changes one's life a lot. First a person has to get a diagnosis, which can take a little time or months, even years, the waiting itself is a horrible thing. I was lucky my family doctor did all the right testing, and made the Neurologist able to give me a certain diagnosis. There was one scarier test in the hospital; a spinal tap was my final step to my new life with MS. I was told that my immune system was eating the myelin sheath, which is the coating on the nerves in my brain. Like I knew what that meant. It still was a diagnosis. I was very lucky. People however say the waiting can be so long, you end up with anxiety, and depression running your life along with the symptoms of MS. Symptoms can be vision changes to total loss of vision, numbness that feels like you foot is asleep that never wakes up, and can be quite painful, problems walking properly, another words you can eat a lot of carpet, and kiss a lot of walls trying to walk. The quality of your life changes in ways you never thought possible. The chance that all these changes can cause you to possibly lose your job or leave your job, “as it was in my case.” This shows how MS cause financial troubles. The ugliness of MS can also cause bladder and bowl problems. Changes in personality which friends and family don't understand that we do not have control of these changes. Overall learning to live with MS is like starting your life over. Learning how to adjust your life to compensate for your new friend MS. MS changes people's lives in ways they never thought possible. Multiple Sclerosis causes changes in quality of life, cognitive problems, fatigue, challenges with family and friends, and loss of a steady income.
Making MS a friend in each of these areas will help a person cope with the diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis.
Living with your Quality of Life being changed forever is something that takes a lot of hard work. From day to day one has no idea how you will feel when you get out of bed. You may wake up feeling fine, or you will feel like MS has reiuned your life. When you start to realize that MS has taken control of your life, it is time to take steps to try and get your life back to what it was before MS, or at least as close to that as possible. There have been studies done that show people with MS have issues with quality of life changes, fatigue, mood changes. (Dalgas et al., 2009) Exercise is something that I have found works for me. I use swimming to improve my balance. I take a class once a week for 45 minutes. Swimming is a great way to exercise in water you do not put stress on your body the same way that you would on land. I also walk, walking helps improve my balance, and the fatigue that I have seems to improve with walking. Exercise seems to help with a lot of my MS symptoms. It helps many of my symptoms, fatigue lessens, balance improves, and most importantly it gets me out of my home and around other people which helps with depression and moods. In my opinion exercise is vital to keeping my life balanced and more structured. Without exercise my quality of life would be really, really bad and I would not be as healthy as I am, with the ability to do things that otherwise I would not be able to do. There are many studies on exercise and how its effects on people with MS. One study was based on Progressive Resistance Training (PRT) (Moris2009). This study worked on improving the muscular strength, and functional capacity. The study was over a 12 week period using a Randomized controlled trial (RCT). During the study improvement was noted in knee flexors, and extensors, walking performance, and stair climbing were all improved after PRT was implemented over the 12 week period. There was also a hypothesis tested that MS patients after leg strength and function improved with PRT showed some improvement with fatigue, moods, and quality of life (QoL).Cognitive function is the ability to remember and process things in the brain, like remembering how to do something like a math problem, or remembering how something works, where the car is parked. This is a really bad issue that arises with the diagnosis of MS. Remembering how or where you are can pop up without notice. Cognitive changes vary a lot from person to person. Cognitive issues can cause a person with MS to stress over forgetting something. This stress can also take all of a person with MS energy. Then you have those patients who have no symptoms at all. It is important to acknowledge cognitive changes as soon as they appear. This way patients can find and develop strategies to help remember and manage the issue. Staying proactive by getting organized will help to minimize the effects of cognitive changes.(MS Active Source, vol 2.,2010) How to handle cognitive changes is something that is very individualized, what works for one person may not work for another. Making list, putting a calendar up, writing down important dates on the calendar. This is a couple ways to help a person with MS deal with the changes relating to cognitive changes. Myself I have had to stop working due to cognitive changes. I was unable to keep my focus on my job, which involved very important financial numbers for the bank I worked for. I also was not able to deal with the stress that this caused me. I would beat myself up about what I forgot at work at night when I came home each night. I would lose my car in parking lots until I made a change or let’s say realized I could not remember. I know park in the same spot or same area always when I park. I also get to the grocery store and if I have not writing a list of what I need I might as well turn around and go home or I will spend money on things I don’t need. Now this leads to how MS leads to changes in the amount of Income. MS can cause a person to retire prematurely. (Rodriquez, 2000) This leads to a person with MS and their families, if they have one learning that financially things are going to be different. The reason for financial problems with MS can cause a person to have to leave the professional world. The disease is so unpredictable people may choose to retire early usually many years before they should. Once this happens income usually drops and expensive go up due to medical bills, medication. I was fortunate to have worked for a company for 19 years and had long term disability insurance. The insurance cost me a few dollars each month, but it gives me a guarantee of 66 1/3% of my pay at the time I left. What that is that after social security disability (SSDI) is achieved and approved I will receive 66 1/3% of my pay even if SSDI is below that the insurance company will make up the difference. I also had private insurance through my husband’s company from 2005 when I left work until 2009 after his death. Now I live on SSDI and have Medicare for health insurance. This is good and bad I have to pay a monthly premium for Medicare, I also pay out a lot of money monthly for medications. With the loss of my husband my then 17 year old son chose to not be part of my life, as he did not and does not understand the changes in my personality from the MS. I actually am grateful that I had extended family that was willing to take because there was no way financially I could have cared for him properly. MS has taken some really important parts of my life away. The financial problems are great I do not know month to month if I will have enough money to pay my bills. I also worry each month how I am going to pay for my medications each month due to what is called the gap in Medicare coverage. Now my payments are greater and because of that I have had to stop certain medications due to their cost.
Conclusion:
It is a lonely life living with MS because you lose touch with your family and friend due to personality changes. You are unable to go out socially because you don’t have the money. There are so many reasons why MS is very hard to live with. Having MS changes your entire life in ways you never thought possible. You have to learn how to make MS your friend. You are starting your life over in a lot of ways learning how to stay as healthy as possible. Learning new skills to help you cope with the cognitive changes by making lists, parking in the same spot at the store. Teaching your family and friends about all of the changes MS causes. That way hopefully they will help you with the quality of life, cognitive changes, and being supportive when it is time to stop working which lowers our income. Though it is hard to learn to cope with MS it can be done I am living proof of that. I have MS but MS does not have me.


















References

1. rodriquez, m, catanzaro, m, baum, hm, jongblood, l, & rao, sm. (2000). The Social impact of multiple sclerosis-a study of 305 patients and their relatives. Disabilty and Rehabilitation, 22(6),
2. morris, me, thoymie, p, savel, s, krupp, lb, & zorzon, m. (2009). Fatigue, mood and quality of life improve in ms patients after progressive resistance training. sage, 16(4),
3. Games may boost cognitio slowed by ms. mometum, 2(4), 26
4. mantel, h. (2009). Excuse me- i must be brief!. momentum, 2(2), 52
5. barker, ch. (2008). That Dang handicapped sticker. momentum, 2(1), 52-53.
6. healy, c. (2003). New perspectives on living with multiple sclerosis. australian journal of psychology, 556.
7. multiple sclerosis. Funk & wagnalls new world. Retrieved (2010, June 22)
8. dejudicibus, m, & mccabe, m. (2005). Economic deprivation and its effectson subjective wellbeing in families of people with multiple sclerosi. journal of mental health, 14(1), 49-59

Week 9 and I am really behind

I have two papers due at the end of this week and I hope I can actually complete them on time. I have struggled through this class from the start. I have a topic that I know a lot about yet I stil do not feel that what I am writing is good enough to turn in for a grade. Although the rule is turning something in is better then nothing at all. This weekend I am going to try and complete two papers I just hope that I use my APA formatting properly in both papers. I am worried about the in-text citing, because I am not sure when to use that since most of my paper for this class is from personal experience. I hope to get something in to get a grade but I am not sure it will be enough to pass. This is the hardest thing in school I have to do is write, it doesn't come easy to me and so it gets put off to the side until I am backed into a corner and have no choice or I will be taking the class over, that I don't want to do but it is a strong possibility thanks to my fear of writing.

July 2nd week 8 no seminar

Today is Friday July 2,2010. We are now in the final few weeks of our College Composition II class. Our papers are due very, very soon. I am still struggling to get my paper on-line. I still feel like it is not worthy of Professor Thomas even wasting his time to read and grade it. I wish I could find a way to feel the confidence to write an essay, but I can't. I am defeated before I even start because I know my grammar is bad, sentence structure what's that! I do not feel like I can write something that will even get me a passing grade. It is not the topic that I feel extremely good about that, since my topic is very personal coping with multiple sclerosis and how it effects people's lives with symptoms that are difficult to accept and cope with. That was the easy part I just feel that writing is not good coming from me. so I have a really hard time even starting the project even though it should be easy for me with picking a topic so close to home. Go Figure!!!

Feeling Like I have been Beat!!!!!

Hello everyone here I am in week 7 of my College Comp II class and I am struggling to even get my rough draft outline turned in. I am so unsure of my writing skills I seem to rather not turn something in because it is horrible. My grammar and my use of punctation are bad, let alone the run-on sentences. And because of this I would rather almost fail then turn something in that is laughable. I am going to push myself today and tomorrow to try and get something typed up that is somewhat acceptable to turn in. I guess this is showing me as a bit of a perfectionist which has shown up after my diagnosis of my Multiple Sclerosis, unfortunately. I'm trying.

STUCK IN A RUT!!!!!

Here it is week six and I am supposed to have something ready to turn into my fellow classmates and all I have is my rough draft of my introduction.
Multiple Sclerosis is a Chronic illness that changes one's life a lot. First a person has to get a diagnosis, which can take a little time or months, years, which the waiting itself is a horrible thing. I was lucky my Doctor did all the right testing so that the Neurologist was able to give me a certain diagnosis, with only one more scary test in the hospital, a spinal tap was my final step to my new life with MS.I was told that my immune system was eating the myelin sheath the coating on the nerves in my brain,like I knew what that meant. However the waiting can be so long that you end up with anxiety, and depression running you life along with the symptoms of MS. Symptoms can be vision changes to total loss of vision, numbness that feels like you foot is asleep but it never wakes up and can be quite painful,problems walking properly, another words you can eat a lot of carpet, and kiss a lot of walls trying to walk.The ugliness of MS can also cause bladder and bowl problems. Changes in personality which friends and family don't understand that we do not have control of these changes.Overall learning to live with MS is like starting your life over, learning how to adjust your life to compensate for your new friend MS. How does one learn to cope with all the changes MS brings into your life?

Hello everyone its unit 5 and I am having a rough time writing this paper. I seem to shut down when I don't feel as though I am doing a good job on something. Writing seems to be the hardest thing in the world for me. I think that if I could not focus so much on whether I am doing it right or not I would be better off, so if any one knows a way to do that please please please tell me!!!!!!

week five for me is trying to start writing my paper

By the title of this blog you can see that I am very unsure of how to do this properly. I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in April 2003. This was after several months of symptoms making me crazy since I had no clue what was wrong with me. Trying to find out what was wrong was hard it was blood tests that all came back incunclusive. Then I was told that I needed an MRI which at the time I had no idea what it was. The doctor was astonished how my symptoms kept getting worse my entire left side was now numb with vision in my left eye getting worse, with now my right foot feeling like it weighed 20 pounds when I walked,these symptoms were starting to run my life. I went to work every morning but it was getting harder to do so. One day while I was at work dealing with my symptoms when out of no where my left eye went totally black. I could not see, this was the final straw I got up and left work called my doctor and my husband and told them both I was checking myself into the hospital to find out what the "hell" is wrong with me.
Well this is my first attempt at pre writing and I would appreciate any and all feed back and don't worry you won't hurt my feelings if you are critical.

Pulling Articles from Kaplan's Library

I spent all day yesterday retrieving articles that might work for my paper. This is really hard to do because reading is something that is effected by my MS. I also think that this paper is so personal it makes it hard to use other peoples papers on MS. I am trying very hard to accomplish this paper. I forgot about seminar last night which is the second time and I really need seminar so now I will go listen to seminar and do option 2 again. I hope I can do this right.

Learning as we go

Hi everyone, I just found out that I can post on the main page of my blog instead of putting everything under comments. So to those of you who have visited my site and saw no new posts, I am sorry they are all under comments. Please view comments when you visit because that is where I have been posting. SORRY!!

Second unit of College Composition II

Well we have made it into week two and I don't know about anyone else but I really found our reading "Set the Right Tone" to be a really good article, it may have been small but it was mighty with what it said.
Also to anyone that can help me I just change my Degree Plan from Medical Transcription to Medical Office Management and I am having a really tough time with topics, any suggesstions would be greatly appreciated as the Degree Plan is really new to me and I am just getting into learning about it so if anyone has any readings, web sites, books, articles that maybe helpful please post them to my blog.
Thanks to the four of you who have become followers Leanne Nevers, Dustin Rascon,Lisa Martinez, DianWalker, I will enjoy getting to know you.
Hope