The Multiple Sclerosis Companion

The book provides competent assistance to all those affected by Multiple Sclerosis to better understand the disease and educates them about current diagnostic methods and treatment approaches. With independent information, the guidebook provides the key to a self-determined life with the disease. Complex medical facts such as the malfunctioning immune system or MRI findings are explained in understandable words and accompanying drawings. This companion also raises awareness beyond conventional medicine to take into account important influencing environmental factors. The author provides answers to the many questions that are asked again and again in the doctors’ practices and cannot always be answered to this extent and with this clarity due to time restrictions. For this reason, it is a highly helpful tool to both MS practitioner and patient. The book is structured as follows: What is MS? - How the central nervous system is structured - What happens when the nervous system is misdirected - MS relapse and typical symptoms - The path to diagnosis - An excursion into our immune system - The MRI findings - Why lumbar puncture - What to do during an MS relapse - I'm fine, why therapy? - MS and the desire to have children - What can I do myself: Nutrition, Vitamin D, intestine and microbiome.

Because most people who are diagnosed with MS are between the ages of 15-55 years, the disease has a significant impact, not only on the individual with the disease, but also on the family members and loved ones whose lives are interwoven with them. Families experiencing multiple sclerosis often find themselves in uncharted territory. Prior patterns of interacting with each other may no longer work; roles often shift with dramatic emotional impact; guilt, anger, sadness, and a sense of burden may create a barrier to intimacy, joy, growth, and family unity. There are ways out of this debilitating situation, and many families have restored their balance, humor, productivity and family solidarity. Multiple Sclerosis: A Guide for Families can lead the way for your family to strengthen its coping skills and to receive targeted information about the disease and its ramifications. This complete yet highly readable guide for families living with multiple sclerosis addresses these issues and more. Families must learn how to strike a reasonable balance between the interests and needs of its members, and to accommodate the limitations imposed by MS without allowing them to impact every aspect of family life. This is easier said than done, and extensive discussions consider how the basic goals of living with this chronic disease can be met.

[This title] is filled with dozens of revealing, inspiring and informative true stories by people with MS, their family members, caregivers and friends. -- p.[4] of cover.

This case study is about a 29-year-old professional oboe player who was first diagnosed for optic neuritis and then for multiple sclerosis (MS). MS is an example of a T-cell mediated autoimmune disease, wherein there is an autoimmune attack on the integrity of the central nervous system.

The author shares her experiences and struggles with Multiple Sclerosis.

The nurse plays a vital role as an educator, care provider, and advocate for patients and families affected by multiple sclerosis (MS). The companion book to an earlier work, Comprehensive Nursing Care in Multiple Sclerosis, Advanced Concepts in Multiple Sclerosis Nursing Care, 2nd Edition examines complex issues in MS management and reflects a new philosophy of MS care: one of empowerment. The focus is on the numerous settings in which MS nurses practice, as well as their many roles and responsibilities in managing this highly variable disease. It will provide the reader with an updated view of MS along with a greater understanding of its lifelong impact. Special features of the second edition include: A new chapter on sustaining hope in MS patients A new chapter on treatment of acute exacerbations A new chapter on emerging intravenous therapies Expanded sections on pain, depression, and skin care with frequent injections The book is divided into sections dealing with the disease itself, advanced practice requirements for nurses, and advanced symptom management. Contributors to Advanced Concepts in Multiple Sclerosis Nursing Care, 2nd Edition are nurse clinicians and researchers who work in geographically diverse practice settings throughout North America and Europe. The book will provide nurses with tools and strategies to improve the lives affected by multiple sclerosis and to reinforce the role of the nurse in managing it.

This book has been written for those newly diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. It is a guide to learning about the disease, its potential impact on your life, and the medical treatments now available for managing it successfully. This is a time of great excitement in research and advances in clinical management, such that most people who have multiple sclerosis can lead full and productive lives. This fourth edition is current and updated throughout, and includes a review of the controversy surrounding CCVSI and multiple sclerosis, discussion of the new pill Gelenya and other drugs in development for multiple sclerosis, new information on the drug Tysabri, and discussion of treatments and complementary and alternative medicine in MS. This the place to begin your education about MS.

This book is not just for people with MS and their families, friends, and colleagues. It is for everyone. With one in 750 people living with MS, each of us knows, knows of, or will know someone with MS. We all have questions about MS that we need answered. This book asks questions and gives answers. The simplicity of the "Q and A" approach serves many purposes. The questions are set out from the rest of the text in their own font and bolded typeface; they make it easy to flip through a chapter to find exactly what one is looking for. There is solid factual information. See, for example, the chapters on the disease and its epidemiology and on the ADA, FMLA, SSDI, and PASS. It offers advice on communication, planning for the future, and sexuality as wells as on parenting, family dynamics, and how to bank and budget energy. -- Provided by publisher.