MS Definition and My Personal Symptoms

Multiple sclerosis (or MS) is a chronic, often disabling disease that attacks the central nervous system (CNS), which is made up of the brain, spinal cord, and optic nerves. Symptoms may be mild, such as numbness in the limbs, or severe, such as paralysis or loss of vision. The progress, severity, and specific symptoms of MS are unpredictable and vary from one person to another.
(MS Society website: http://www.nationalmssociety.org/)


My symptoms began in 1991 with dizziness and vertigo. Over the years I have struggled with severe muscle/joint pain, chronic insomnia, along with relentless and severe fatigue. From time to time I have also struggled with memory problems, numbness and tingling, loss of feeling in my fingers, toes and portions of my face. Sometimes, the symptoms would last only temporarily and other symptoms like numbness in my fingers, toes and face have not disappeared.




I have struggled with quality of life especially due to the vicious cycle of extreme exhaustion and fatigue. It never made things better for my energy level to have to take strong narcotic medication to deal with the tremendous pain. It is very depressing to never feel that you have enough energy to get up and live your life as others do so easily.



Another aspect of my MS that I've had to deal with, as anyone with MS does, are the exacerbations. In previous years, during an MS attack I would be admitted to the hospital for five days to receive Solu-Medrol by IV drip. But luckily, in the past three years I have been able to have a home nurse come and administer the IV drip for a few hours each night. This made it possible to stay home with limited disruptions in our daily life. During the exacerbations I would usually in bed for weeks at a time. Walking would be nearly impossible without assistance, I could not write without uncontrollable shaking, my vision would be blurred, my thoughts would be clouded. My exacerbations tend to happen two to three times per year and last usually about a month to month and a half. Again, as I have mentioned the vicious cycle of dealing with this disease is taxing not only on myself, but also my family.



All of these symptoms listed have been prior to taking MaxGXL. At the time of this posting I am approximately two weeks into my trial of the product.