My MS treatment.

When I was first diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in June of 2000 I was introduced to the MS Clinic of the (formerly known as) Prince George Regional Hospital and the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada, Prince George Chapter.

I have never really felt OK around any medical professionals so my contact with the clinic was limited. At first, I also avoided the MS Society as I was not comfortable with them or the disease I now had. The clinic advised me that Interferon's were needed at the early stage of the disease to prevent slipping into Secondary Progressive MS. She explained the "ABCR's" of MS Medication (Avonex, Betaseron, Copaxone and Rebif) which will be explained in a later blog. All are administered sub-dermal via injection (Daily, weekly or 3 times a week). She wanted me on Avonex.

The Nurse gave me an exam to measure my depression level. This was in the late winter or early spring of 2001. That is a standard operating procedure with those MS treatments, patients are often given anti depression medication for a few months prior to being prescribed that form of treatment to counterattack the "rare" side effect of depression that can occur with Interferon. My mental levels were very low and she suggested the Adult Mental health center attached to PGRH as well as the Antidepressant medication would be required before I could consider that treatment.

I began with Avonex in July of 2001. Even with the Anti Depression medication and the therapy of the Adult Mental Health clinic I was a mental wreck by the time my birthday came around in October. I became "needle phobic" and I refused to "stick myself" anymore. The MS Nurse at the time suggested that I try Copaxone instead of Avonex. I saw the needle, panicked and refused that treatment as well. It has an auto inject option but that did no good once I saw the needle. This kind of ended the pharmaceutical treatment for my MS and broke my limited connection to the MS Clinic for a few years.

I began self medicating with Marijuana in 2002 which helped with a lot of everything that MS was tossing my way, including the depression. I had used Marijuana extensively in my youth but had left it well over 15 years behind my present life. It helped ease the depression and the stiffness. Vertigo was practically eliminated and I could sleep. It was illegal and for some reason I wanted to feel like an outlaw, in my mailbox I found that the MS Clinic of the day did not support this move. It made the disease tolerable for me. I will post anther on "Medical Marihuana" which I began with the doctors & clinic's blessing in 2010.

MS the early days

Persons diagnosed with any chronic illness go through various stages of mental anguish. The first part (pre-diagnoses or "limbo")after the first noticeable attack of the condition brings feelings of being anxious about what it could be. When the Diagnoses is finally presented to the patient, the person goes through feelings of relief at being able to put a name to the effects of the body. A short time later, depression can set in as the realization that this condition exists in you and the future is cloudy. If support venues exist (Self Help groups, Family, Friends,etc) the transition is short and depression turns to acceptance fairly quickly and patients learn to "adapt and survive".

1999 was a very strange year for me. I think it was a force stronger then me that kept me alive, I was on a path of self destruction. The hours at my place of employment were cut back, my boss and I were constantly discussing my health and mental state. Thanks to the Internet I was finding out the MS would not kill me and that was upsetting. I did not know anyone locally with MS and I felt very alone. In 2002 I left the high stress environment I was employed by and became addicted to the Internet while I had a home to live in.

I found a website at "webmd.com". It has an MS support group there that was totally what I needed at the time. I found persons there who understood everything I was talking about, even if I did not know anything about what I was asking... They were from all over the world, mostly from the United States. It struck me hard with the realization that MS Must live elsewhere in Prince George, I just had to find it. Those people I met at WebMD are still my friends and personal contacts albeit we have never met face to face.

My Employer and I agreed to disagree and after several months of 2 to 3 days a week employment (during which I did the leg work towards Disability) I left work in April of 2002. In August of the same year I became homeless with a disability. During all of this (from around January of 2002) I began consultation at the Adult Mental Health Center here in Prince George for severe long term depression. I was living on the living room floor of an old friend of mine and my life was unsettled. We moved to a larger house and I lived in the basement. The therapy went on for about 2 years, my depression was long term and amplified by recent events.

It was over a year later when my disability pay kicked in from the Canada Pension Plan (CPP). In February of 2003 I had moved out of the basement bedroom my friend had let me crash in over the winter and started to reside in the homeless shelter downtown run by Active Support Against Poverty. They have permanent accessible housing above the shelter and I took a place up there for awhile. I survived by communicating with my peers online and discovering the others in Prince George with MS.

Prelude to MS/Depression awareness

How does one live with Multiple Sclerosis? I did not always have this condition. Once I was an aspiring forester doing everything from 3 meter knockdown, slashing, thinning, road, cut block layout, Bug Kill (Mountain Pine Beetle "crash and burn" project) and Forest Firefighting. This was all done in the Ft st James Forest district (BCFS-FD5) in the 1980's. At the same time I was part of the Canadian Armed Force (Reserves- Cadet Instructor Cadre). I temporary moved to Lac La Biche, Alberta in 1987-88 where I attended Forestry school in the Alberta Vocational Center there.

I could feel myself growing older and decided to take life a bit slower starting in the early 90's. I took a job in a gas station in Vanderhoof BC in the mid 90's and held it for a few years. I also became common law married while employed there.

I moved to Prince George BC in 1995 and began working in London Drugs as a computer technician in 1997. In 1998, my common law wife decided the grass was greener without me and put most of my belongings on the curb. It was raining and vertigo (*extreme bouts of dizziness)was running my life. I quickly found another place to live, rain and me did not get along. Sleep took care of the vertigo. About a week later my I woke up and walked into a wall. I discovered that I could not see out of one of my eyes.

In a Panic I raced down to the eye doctor just down the block. He could find nothing wrong so he sent me to a specialist. After Hmmming and Humming for about 20 minutes she informed me I had no medical insurance. She also told me about the ramifications of being without medical insurance in the province of British Columbia while she handed me a bill for $189.98 for her 20 minute exam. The exam was "inconclusive".

I do not remember if she called it Optic Neuritis (ON) which would not have meant anything to me if she had. I know know that ON is a symptom of Multiple Sclerosis. In fact, up to 50% of patients with MS will develop an episode of optic neuritis, and 20-30% of the time, optic neuritis is the presenting sign of MS.

After obtaining BC Medical Services Plan coverage, I consulted a few specialists and my GP who all shrugged their shoulders and "blamed the other guy". I finally connected with a Neurologist who scheduled me into an MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging). In Prince George prior to 2005 we were served MRI's in a mobile unit which traveled Northern Health's vast area to get everyone who needed one tested. A person normally waited 9 months for the exam. I was 5 minutes late for it and had to reschedule.

In February of 2000 my father took ill and was constantly transported to the Prince George Regional Hospital from Fort St James. He did not have long to live. In June of 2000 I managed to see the Neurologist again who disclosed that I had all the markers for Multiple Sclerosis and that would be a label I would wear for (*Possibly) the rest of my life. I thanked him and walked out. In July my dad passed away and I felt alone and helpless. I still had a job to do, a life to live, an Ex wife to hide from as depression filled my world.