MS Awareness month 2018 in Prince George

Whola cow, what a year this year.  Our Facebook Group page has grown fast, with 31 members as I type so far and gathering MS'ers around the city.  Tomorrow, the MS Walk will happen in Prince George on May 27th, 2018, you still have time to register!  Several members of the Prince George community were involved in the planning and event preparation.  It was very cool to see the energy a group of MS Affected individuals can do collectively that will be displayed on May 27th, 2018.  To cap off that evening, Mr. PG which is located at the crossroads of British Columbia Canada, will be lit in Red starting that evening till the 31st.  This will be for a couple of reasons.  One, it will be symbolic to the world that passes and the contacts who will see the pictures they post.  They will know the unique relationship that exists in Northern BC Life with MS.  We have a "partnership" of sorts between the medical support at Northern Health's MS Clinic at UHNBC (toll free number 1-888-967-6774), through the individual communities where MS lives in Northern BC and the Yukon.  They are connected to the MS Society of Canada's Northern Regional Chapter which is connected to the same communities.  Those two sides are symbiotic with the collective community of affected persons in those communities connected through this connection, which includes staff and volunteers of the society and the clinic in those respective Northern communities where they live and work.  It can be represented as a triangle of support.  We all know our places in the Global community and that is one aim of Mr. PG's color display as May 30th is World MS day! Another aim of the lightup is to commemorate the end of Canadain MS Awareness month 2018 in Prince George.

It has been a long time since I wrote on this blog.  In the last 7 years, I have now my own business, just going to start a new course to help that, I manage 2 WordPress Blogs (Volunteer Prince George hired me last year to manage theirs at volunteerpg.com and I built a website for the Carefree transportation society with an attached Word Press blog~ carefeesociety.org).  I am known as a Professional Volunteer, still remain the Facilitator of the Prince George Multiple Sclerosis Self Help Support Group among other volunteer positions I hold.  I am also employed pert time by the Handy Circle Resources Society. In just a week or so I will return for another course with Make-A-Change Canada. The local hospital, PGRH or Prince George Regional Hospital,  was renamed since the last posting, it is now known as the University Hospital of Northern British Columbia or UHNBC

The Prince George Multiple Sclerosis Self Help group will be reforming again this year, in the fall of 2017.  Our role in our city has become very important with the closure of our local MS Society of Canada office closing (in early 2016) to be reborn (mid 2017) as a new, larger region covering all of Northern BC, a few southern BC communities and up to Whitehorse in the Yukon territory.  It is now known as the "Northern Regional Chapter of the MS Society of Canada, BC and YT Division"  with its staff scattered around in major centres like Prince George and other lager communities in the region.  Our local MS SH group, not unlike and other MS SH groups in the province, includes members of the MS Society board that reside in our communities as they are as affected, with some afflicted individuals helping the community we cover locally.  They do fit the criteria of membership that includes people with MS and anyone who has interests or awareness of our community.  To that end, we do have a board member to act as lesion between the SH Group and the Society, to assist us in the reformation and sustainable existence of the group.  Looking forward to the near future!  O and Cannabis at this point is set to be legalized in the very near future, but at present time, it's still risky to be involved in the trade either as a purchaser or as a distributor and "legal weed" has all sorts of restrictions subject to government recalls...  it is  becoming well known to be an effective safe treatment for the effects of Multiple Sclerosis.  Stay tuned for another report hopefully sooner than another 7 years.  Safe travels!
Ken (aka-BCBud024)

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.