There are low-hanging fruits out there, and there are those for which I’ve had to stretch, but we usually tie them together in the end.
A Recent Fall Gets Me Thinking
After a recent fall, I’ve come up with another I’ll share. This one has less to do with the disease and more to do with how we choose to cope with it. I was only out for a walk when I took my spill, so I wasn’t draped in protective gear. Had I been riding a skateboard or something (yeah, we’ll just let that image slip away without much thought, shall we?) I would have been bedecked in helmet, knee pads, elbow protection, and likely those padded “Artful Dodger” type fingerless gloves you see the kids at the skate park putting to use. As I wasn’t padded up like a linebacker for my simple walk down the lane — or for my fall — I was left to patch the damage with betadine and bandages, and therein lies the comparison.
Prevent MS Relapses and Progression, or Treat the Effects of Them?
When deciding where to focus our energies and monies in treating our multiple sclerosis, we either tend toward padding, in the form of disease-modifying medications that we hope will reduce the relapses and arrest the progression, or bandages — literal or metaphorical — to help cope with symptoms and relapses after the fact. I’d not assume to offer suggestions or solutions to anyone when it comes to making the choice for their life. For my life, I have studied both research and my personal disease course. I have discussed the options with my medical team and my wife. We’ve weighed all the options we care to consider at this point (because there are always going to be changes in options as well as situation), and we’ve come up with our plan. Everyone must come to their own conclusions. An important aspect of the process is understanding the decision in the context of the whole.
Pros and Cons of Padding and Bandages
The padding approach can be very good at protecting but, like that school kid whose pads weigh more than he does as he stumbles onto the field, they have their downsides: Cost, side effects, relative efficacy, and convenience, to name a few. Bandages, on the other hand, are only useful after the damage is done, but some will protect you from further injury — a bit. Bandages are usually less expensive than padding, but if you keep banging your knee and throwing a plaster on the cuts, there will eventually be more substantial damage that a bandage can’t help. Even with the padding route of DMTs, breakthrough disease can occur. With the help of our doctors and family, we treat the symptoms and decide if our choice of padding is still right for us or whether we should rethink our protection plan.
How Do You Know What Approach Is Right for You?
If you’ve read this far hoping for an answer as to which is better — knee pads or bandages — I’m afraid the answer is “yes.” A well-thought-out decision, based on medical advice, personal research, family discussion, financial planning, and not a small bit of soul searching to come to the conclusion with which you are most comfortable, is always going to be the right decision. It’s just not as easy as throwing on pads and stocking up the first-aid kit. Wishing you and your family the best of health. Cheers, Trevis
