Living With MS

Rick on June 1st, 2014

My youngest daughter recently graduated from high school and celebrated her 18th birthday. While I know this means she will soon enter college, spread her strong wings and fly into her own future, I am neither sad nor melancholy about childhood’s end in our family. I am excited for her and the potential for good […]

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Rick on August 11th, 2011

MS costs a lot. If you’re an MS caregiver, you know this to be true. If you’re a casual reader, continue and learn about the predicament that faces Multiple Sclerosis patients and their families. Health care is expensive. Health care is especially expensive in the United States. I don’t know all the reasons why this […]

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Rick on April 15th, 2010

Springtime in the South. I call it “Sneezin’ Season” because the pollen drives my allergies into hyperactive overdrive. I take one sinus pill at 5:30 in the morning and a different medicine before I go to bed. These are the only medicines I take and they are different colors, different shapes, are in different packages […]

Continue reading about Medication Administration Records (MAR)s

Rick on March 28th, 2010

Hello Cancer, Goodbye Marriage: A new study shows that men are more likely to ditch their sick spouses, should really be titled, “Hello Illness, Hello Marital Stress”. The authors, Barbara Kantrowitz and Pat Wingert, are reporting on an article in the November 2009 issue of Cancer, titled, “Gender disparity in the rate of partner abandonment […]

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Rick on December 13th, 2009

MultipleSclerosisSucks.com, subtitled, “How to Suffer from a Chronic and Incurable Disease without Appearing to be a Total Loser”, is a site MS caregivers should revisit from time to time. You should probably go no more than a year between readings of “The MS Perspective Kit“. It offers a unique way to help one understand what […]

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Spend time on the Family Caregiver Alliance website at: http://www.caregiver.org Of particular interest to Multiple Sclerosis caregivers will be the Family Caregiver Alliance Fact Sheet on Multiple Sclerosis. In addition to common information about MS, the fact sheet includes important information about cognitive problems caused by MS and their impact on caregivers. For example, “About […]

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Rick on April 10th, 2009

During the last weeks my wife’s legs have troubled her. She quit driving a few days ago. Walking is difficult. I watched her in the kitchen from my chair in the living room as she literally had to think to slowly put one foot in front of the other to walk across the kitchen. (I […]

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Rick on December 7th, 2008

My wife fell this past week.  When she fell, I was in an airplane between Phoenix and Dallas headed for a connecting flight on my way home from the last session of the Faith-based Leadership Institute.  She’s strong and independent, but a part of me imagines she wouldn’t have fallen had I been home. She […]

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Rick on July 27th, 2008

We’ve enjoyed a fair amount of family travel this Summer.  Most trips were by plane, but the best was a road trip across the South.  Now that this Summer of travel is nearly over, I’ll share some tips I’ve picked up along the way about traveling and Multiple Sclerosis. 1.  Take your medications and pack […]

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Rick on June 8th, 2008

My wife made a comment last week that I’ve thought about a lot since she said it. It was said in passing in the middle of a conversation that I cannot remember (apparently, my wife’s not the only person in our family with poor memory). In this case, though, I think I fail to remember […]

Continue reading about Multiple Sclerosis, Wheelchairs and Lifespan