20 Hours

20 hours is how long my wife slept over the weekend. The insomnia, stress and our crazy life finally caught up with her. After falling on our trip to Thanksgiving and breaking a bone in her hand, we have both been very aware of the toll our current life is taking on her body and MS. On our trip back to Texas we were walking across a parking lot when a speed bump got the better of her. She thought she lifted her foot high enough, but it caught her foot and she wasn't able to react fast enough and hit the pavement. She hit the side of her face, bruised her shoulder, side and hip, and felt like she might have broken her hand.

After having her hand x-rayed, she found out she had a broken bone in her hand. Her body is still sore even this long after Thanksgiving, but it finally seems to be going away. In addition to her hand, we have been swamped with trying to take care of things at the children's home. This time of year is great for donors to think about us and support the Home, but that also means that we all have to work overtime to keep up with the groups that want to come to the Home. My wife has been the contact point for all of these groups and that has put a lot of extra stress on her. Since our Home is 100% privately supported by individuals that want to help kids, this time of year is vitally important and my wife is not one to hold back. She has been giving 110% and working everyday and most evenings.

Since Thanksgiving, we have only had a few days off so it has really stressed both of us. Her body began to show the stress through insomnia, fatigue, mood swings, brain fog and other issues. She kept the numbness away with regular massage and chiropractic, but the other symptoms weren't going away. So, over the weekend she laid down and slept for hours and hours. We know how important this is and are willing to shut down things when they need to so that she can let her body recover. She is doing much better today, and this week will be much less stressful. We are even planning on taking the whole last week of the month off to recover and take a break. This time of year is tough, and we are trying to be vigilant about resting, watching the stress and making sure we take care of our health.

ADD, ADHD or just MS

My wife has thought for a long time that she was ADD or ADHD. She has always had a hard time focusing on things and quieting her mind. Last night was no different. I woke up in the middle of the night to find that I was the only one in bed. My wife had tried to come to bed but couldn't get her mind to quit so that she could go to sleep. She has always complained about an over active mind that just won't quiet down and stop thinking. She finally came to bed and fell asleep about three this morning.

She is exhausted this morning so she just stayed in bed. We are very fortunate that she doesn't have to work so she will be able to sleep until she has to go and pick up our daughter. This is a fairly regular routine for us when she is having insomnia issues. We have spoken with other MS sufferers that have the same over active mind issue. I know that we have tried all sorts of things like sleeping pills, relaxing bath and massage, but when the insomnia hits, there is very little we have found to help.

She will usually end up watching a lot of TV and trying to take her mind off of things. Sometimes she will lay in bed and watch TV for hours and still not be able to go to sleep. I have noticed that she does better when she goes and lays down the instant she becomes sleepy. Otherwise, it is a battle for her to quiet her mind and drift off to sleep. If she has been overwhelmed that particular day, it is even worse. She will not be able to stop thinking about all of the things she has to get done and it drives her insane.

The ADD affects more than just her sleep. She has a very hard time focusing on certain types of tasks. She very rarily will read a book because she finds herself re-reading the same words over and over so that she actually processes them. I guess the odd thing about her lack of focus is that she has worked in an accounting office in most of her past jobs. She is very smart and capable, but she still finds it hard sometimes to stay on task because of her wandering mind. We have a good friend that tests for ADD in schools, and we asked him a few years ago about my wife's habits. He immediately commented that she has an adult form of ADD. I guess it came as no surprise to us, but we would like to know if it is connected in some way to the MS. Maybe one day we will know if it is ADD, ADHD or just MS.

Sleepless Nights of Multiple Sclerosis

I think that sometimes what goes "bump in the night" is Multiple Sclerosis. My wife has had bouts of insomnia off and on over the course of this disease. When we first were married, she would take sleeping pills during those sleepless nights or maybe take an extremely small amount of valium to settle her down. After Dr. Swank retired, she was committed to getting off of any sleeping pills or valium because we knew that few doctors would take the same approach as he did. So, she struggled with calming herself during stressful situations, and settling in at night to fight for sleep. Those were some very hard times in our lives because it was so much easier to just take a pill and everything melt away. I will never forget some of those nights when she would have nightmares where she would act out in her sleep. One night she thought she had fire ants all over her body and was slapping them to kill them. She woke herself up when she slapped herself in the face, and of course she looked at me shocked and trying to figure out what just happened. She vividly remembered the fire ants and she was still looking on her skin to see if there were bites or more ants. Those were some crazy nights, but insomnia is definately a symptom of MS. Her bouts of insomnia seem to be further apart than they used to be, but when they do hit, it makes our lives very interesting for those days or weeks. It's a chain reaction because she doesn't sleep well, which makes her more fatigued, which causes more insomnia, which causes her body to start having problems which almost always leads to some kind of exacerbation. When she has problems now, we will try Bowen, stress vitamins, chiropractic, or whatever else is working at the time. If we let it go too long, she will have to literally sleep for days to catch back up, which I know just frustrates her more. Last night is a great example of what happens at this point in her disease. We have recently been blessed with miniature dachsund puppies and they cry and make noise almost all night. The laundry room we keep them in is right next to our bedroom, so we can hear every little sound. My wife hasn't slept well since they were born a couple of nights ago, and I can see it catching up with her. The dark circles around her eyes are getting worse, and her patience is going, and the only thing that will help is sleep. So, she will try to sleep during the day which will lead her to having more issues sleeping at night and the cycle will just repeat itself until she sleeps for an extended period of time. It is not out of the norm for her to sleep a 24 hr period to catch up after the cycle starts. So, I will keep my eye on her the next few days and will probably have to make her rest so she can catch up. We already have a full weekend planned and if we don't watch it, she will be exhausted and her body will begin to shut down. If you or a loved one has Multiple Sclerosis, take the time to rest. Dr. Swank always recommended a minimum of 1 hour a day of rest where you laid down without distractions and closed your eyes and just let your body heal. Oh, if you want to see the adorable puppies, stop by my myspace account and check out the pics - myspace.com/yroc1234.