MS Blogging Community

Lisa the creator of Brass and Ivory and founder of Carnvial of MS Bloggers is doing a tireless, fantastic job of building a stronger MS community by locating people with MS who blog. She deserves the hardest working MS blogger award if such an award exists.


Lisa, here is a token of my appreciation of what you do...THANK YOU!




Whew…Better late than never, I finally completed the first list she put together, but come to find out she already updated that list. Click HERE for updated list. Below is the original post she encouraged MS bloggers to post on their website.





FRIDAY, MARCH 7, 2008

MS Awareness, Blogging Friends, and a little Link Love
There are at least 137 MS Bloggers out there actively discussing whatever suits their fancy. Below you will find many of these suspects....wait... I mean lovely blogger friends who happen to have multiple sclerosis.

Remember how I mentioned a group project was in the works? Well here it is. As the founder of the Carnival of MS Bloggers, I'd like your help in spreading the word, and in doing so we will strengthen the bonds of our own little Multiple Sclerosis Blogging Web (and share some linkie love with each other). If you are not an MS Blogger, but are a regular reader here, please feel free to help spread the word too.

Here's what you do:

1. Copy the entirety of this post
2. Create a new post and paste this content
3. Visit 3 of the blogs listed below which you were unfamiliar
4. Leave a comment on their blog encouraging them to participate


Names of the Blogs - Name of Blogger (if known)
and # of posts in 2008 (as of 3/5)

9 Brand New MS Bloggers joined the blogosphere in 2008!!

New! Carole's MS Blog (Carole) 49
New! Great Mastications (Orla) 37
New! Movin' On with MS (Sammie) 26
New! Me, Myself and MS (Emma) 10
New! Being Ammey 8
New! Blogbuster (Daniel) 6
New! Etsy Crest (Shelby) 6
New! Serina's Blog 5
New! I'm Beating MS (Michael) 2

Most Prolific MS Blogger - so far in 2008!!

Jim's Deep Thoughts (Jim) 231

Top 10 Rather Prolific MS Bloggers - so far in 2008!!

A Stellarlife (Diane) 109
Multiple Synchronicities & Sclerosis (Merelyme) 90
Friday's Child 70
My Journey - Living Well with MS (Diana) 69
Sunshine and Moonlight (Kim) 65
The MonSter Ate My Branes! (Natalie) 65
Queen Mediocretia of Suburbia 60
Brass and Ivory (Lisa) 56
Brain Cheese (Linda) 52
Maybe I'm Just Lazy (Julie) 51

28 Moderately Prolific MS Bloggers - so far in 2008!!

Maggsbunny (Maggie) 48
Living with Multiple Sclerosis (TC) 47
MS My Way 43
Bugs, Bikes, Brains (Shauna) 39
Dancing with MS (Lazscott) 37
Trying to Catch My Breath 37
A Florida Journal (SwampAngel) 35
Now We Are Six (Tish) 33
Reality Check (Michael) 32
Access Denied (Herrad) 31
Multiple Sclerosis Blog (Charles of MSBpodcast.com) 30
MS Activist (NMSS) 29
Self-injecting Chinese Hamsters since 2007 27
Shirl's the Girl (Shirley) 27
Disabled Not Dead (Anne) 26
Life with MS (Trevis) 26
Living with MS (Blinders Off) 25
White Lightning Axiom - Redux (mdm) 25
Stevers! 23
Word Salads (Have Myelin?) 23
Danieldoo (Vivian) 22
Caregivingly Yours (Patrick) 20
Deo Volente (Lisa N) 20
Down the MS Path (Vicki) 19
Do You Have That in My Size? (Denise) 17
Jenn's Nook (Jenn) 17
Fingolimod and Me (Jeri) 16

51 Mildly Prolific MS Bloggers - so far in 2008!!

A Life of Learning with MS 15
Behind Blue Eyes (Zee) 15
Katy and Mike's Adventure (Katy) 15
Living Life as a Snowflake (Sharon) 15
Mandatory Rest Period (Kim) 15
MS Maze (Mandy) 15
My Journey with MS (Christina) 15
The Multiple Sclerosis Companion (Pat) 15
'Tis Herself (Kell) 15
A Short in the Cord (Joan) 14
Blindbeard's MS Blog 14
Bubbie's Blog (Cathy) 14
One Crazy Chick (Chris) 14
Pat's Pond (Pat) 14
Rants and Musings (Cutter) 14
G and K's Mom 13
MS Toolkit 13
Newly Diagnosed with MS (Andrea) 13
One Life (Stephen) 13
MS Not Just a Diary (Doug) 12
Rayne's World (Jayme) 12
Chaos Personified 11
My MS Journal (Jaime) 11
Purely Patsy (14 yr old Patsy) 11
Victoria Plum - Technician! (Victoria) 11

26 Less Prolific MS Bloggers - so far in 2008!!

Broken Clay (Katja) 10
Mark Pickup (Mark) 10
My Chain Driven Ride through Life in Alaska (Michelle) 10
Deborah Does Navel-Gazing (Deb) 9
Funky Mango's Musings 9
Inside the Mind of a Squirrel 9
Living Well with MS (Michon) 9
No Time for MS (Courtney) 9
Sorting It All Out (Michael) 9
Travels With Lucy (Virginia) 9
MS Caregivers (Prudence) 8
Can You Hear Me Now? (Donna) 7
Irreverence is Justified 7
Multiple Sclerosis Notes 7
My Tysabri Diary (Lauren) 7
Chris Has MS (Chris) 6
Diary of MS X (7 Divas) 5
Electrical Disturbance (Stephan) 5
Know Multiple Sclerosis 5
MS in the OC (Frank) 5
MS News and Notes (Deb) 5
MS Recovery Diet Blog (Ann) 5
The Endomorph (Ruth) 5
The Jaws of My Life (Jaws) 5
Time to Deal with MS (Homer) 5
YodaMamma MS & More 5

38 Barely Prolific MS Bloggers - so far in 2008!!

Carolyne's MS Odyssey (Carolyne) 4
Defeating Illness (Chris) 4
Intent, Context, Perception (Chris) 4
Libbi's MS Journey (Libbi) 4
MS Recovery Diet Blog (Judi) 4
My Autoimmune Life 4
The Life & Times of Sancho Knotwise (JM) 4
The Zen Pretzel Trick (Zen Angel) 4
When it's Raining... (Keeley) 4
Kebenaran - The Truth 3
Montana Homecoming (Sister Jane) 3
Ms Quill 3
Reality Chick (Keli) 3
Catch My Disease (Lisle) 2
Clods and Pebbles 2
Dissonance 2
Georgia MS Advocates 2
Lazy Dog Public House 2
Looking Forward with MS (Pamela) 2
Surviving MS in Alaska (Michelle) 2
These Pretzels Are Making Me Thirsty (Trrish) 2
Troy's Multiple Sclerosis Experience 2
You Me and MS (Judi) 2
Camille's MSadventures 1
Comment Column (Virginia) 1
Erik's MS & Lyme Blog 1
Hop Bloody Hop (Philip) 1
Jenn's Journey with MS (Jenn) 1
Living with MS (Cyndee) 1
Mismorphic's World of MS 1
MS Musings 1
MS Real Life Stories & Issues (Kristin) 1
Postcards of My Life (Sherry) 1
Rebooting Times 1
Shoester (Doug) 1
The BS of My MS (Heather) 1
The Perseverant Pincushion (Trish) 1
Tysabri Help (Deej) 1

Having too many items from various posters to count:

LJ Users with Multiple Sclerosis

And finally - 26 MS Bloggers who have been silent in 2008!!

Angst on a Shoestring (Gina)
Dandelion Wine (Lynx)
Doug's MS Journal (Doug)
It's Not All in My Head (Optimist)
Just Above the Abyss (Heidi)
Life with MS , seeking a cure (Karyl)
Managing MS with Tai Chi (Joel)
Managing Multiple Sclerosis (Vince)
Marciarita
Michele's Blog
Mike's Place
MS - My Scene (Virginia)
My Complications (Amanda)
My Demyelination (Tina)
My MS Experience
Object of My Injection (Michelle)
Say It Isn't So (Mouse)
Talk Story with Kimberly
The Great NetXperiment
To Be Continued... (Jaime)
Truth and Beauty (Baraka)
Tryin' to Imagine Bliss (Suzy)
What is MS to Me (Dave)
Willy's MS Rants
Wind Among the Reeds

Hard to categorize:

I Have MS (Tim)
Huggins' MS Pages (James)
MS - A Personal Account
MS Protocols (Jeff)
MSB's Podcast
MSing Around
Multiple Sclerosis Blog and News
Multiple Sclerosis Sucks
OUCH! It's a Disability Thing
Squiffy's House of Fun

Thank you for helping to build a stronger MS Community.

My Life Living With MS

A fascinating MS blogger asked me the following, “what pain are you having with your MS”. Instead of answering her question in the comment section, I decided to answer it as a blog post.

I would not wish the kind of Pain I live with everyday on my worse enemy. My pain affects me from the top of my head to the bottom of my feet. Having Multiple Sclerosis definitely sucks, if I had a choice I rather live with all the other symptoms of MS than to live with the PAIN everyday. Unfortunately, for me PAIN is the symptom from MS that classified me disable.

Each day is different when it comes to my PAIN I never know which pain will rear its head. I suffer with neurological, severe muscle, and joint pain. For the past 7 months, I have been wearing a morphine patch 24 hours a day 7 days a week and I still feel pain. The difference is my pain is on a scale of five out ten wearing my patch. Yes, that is bad enough for me to take my Lortab daily, but I choose not because I cannot function on Lortab.

When my pain is neurological, every nerve in my body is affected and I literally cannot move. When my pain is my muscles, it feels like a Charlie horse magnified by 100. When it is in my joints, I feel like the Tin Man in major need of oil. I feel it all...aching, burning sensations, stabbing, pins and needles. Regardless, of the three different pains that will visit me daily and no telling which body part, I will not take Lortab to help the morphine. When I first start taking morphine I felt no pain, I was given Lortab for breakthrough pain, I had no idea my pain would start breaking through a month of being on the patch. I have no choice but to take Lortab when my neurological, muscle and joint pain visit together affecting me from my head to my toes...which is a living hell when it happens. My only hope is they do not visit me together more than three days. I thought it was depression that wanted me to do this, come to find out from my doctor after seeking help for my lapse in judgement, living with the kind of PAIN I have is what causes my depression (although MS causes depression) PAIN can and will push a person over the edge.

I was given the option to increase the dosage of my morphine patch, but the morphine patch has already elevated a heart enzymes, huh I go see a cardiologist about that this coming Tuesday. No matter what the outcome, I cannot stop taking something for my PAIN because if I did I would try to do what I did in July of last year. I am in a catch 22 the medication is slowing killing me, but without the medication to control my PAIN somewhat I would kill myself to make it stop. Just typing that last sentence is the last thing I would want to do. I know my death is going to be from medication because there have been many days my heart felt as if it was going to stop.


Please do not let what I am saying stop you from taking whatever medication that are out there to help you with your symptoms because I am grateful for the medication. I am grateful that medication is giving me the opportunity to live somewhat of a life, to be here as long as I can with my family, and to make a difference to others with what I do and how I live my life.

Not Worth A Damn On Lortab 10mg

I only take a Lortab when I have breakthrough pain from wearing my morphine patch. Yesterday was one of those days my pain was wearing me down. I tried like the little red engine that could, but I finally gave up and took a Lortab for relief.







It is ironic how I can function on morphine, but I cannot function on Lortab. When I take a Lortab, I am in another world until I drift off to sleep. I blame what happened on my loving husband. Here I am thinking we retired for the night until he said, “A boudain sure sounds good right about now”. Of course, I tried to ignore his comment, then he says, “It taste sooo much better when you fix it”. Finally, my reply was, “You know how to do it because I showed you how”. Which is putting a rack in the electric skillet, fill it with water to the rim of the rack, wrap the boudain in foil, place it on top of the rack, turn on and place the top on the skillet.

Thinking he would take care of it himself, I thought no more of it he dosed off and I was in my world of narcotics feeling no pain. Until he popped his head up as if he never dosed off around 11:00pm with the same request. Being the woman I am and because he take good care of me and because I love this man with all my heart. I went downstairs and took a frozen boudain out the freezer to steam to perfection for my man. I knew the boudain had to steam for about 30 minutes to be just right, so I retreated upstairs to our bedroom until it was time remove the boudain from the electric skillet that was on high.







By the grace of God, I woke up at 3:48am, I was in a fog state and I smelled something cooking. I did not remember cooking anything so I did not rush downstairs to see if I had anything on the stove. I sat up in my bed wondering why I am smelling food after about 5 minutes I realized I freaking forgot I put a boudain in the electric skillet to steam a few minutes after 11:00 last night.

Not knowing what to expect when I went downstairs to the kitchen in a panic I grab the fire extinguisher (I keep a fire extinguisher upstairs) and rushed down the stairs. Whew, no flames, no kitchen full of smoke, and most importantly the electric skillet looked fine from first observation. I slowly opened the lid to view the inside and because I thought, the boudain was going to explode once I lift the lid. All I could do was thank God all was well.

Unfortunately, for my husband I woke him up and told him, “I will not honor anymore late night hunger cravings if I had taken a Lortab and it was his fault the house could have burned down”. I relaxed by going to the Fields and following up on my comment to post Reverend Wrights entire sermons.

The Truth Will Set You FREE

Many of you are probably wondering why I am blogging a lot about politics lately, well here is why I am...

From what I can tell (correct me if I am wrong) I am the only black person blogging in the multiple sclerosis community I refer to as my virtual friends. I have not been around lately because of school and my posts have been about politics. I chose Blinders Off as my name when I start blogging in 2005 because of politics in America and struggling with myself about my loyalty to the Democrat Party. I kept the name because I became a blog junkie and I decided to blog about my life living with multiple sclerosis.

Through the blogosphere I met some wonderful progressive white liberal bloggers in my home state (too many to name) and one from Nashville (NewsComa). Christian Progressive Liberal was the first black person I start reading and through her I found some wonderful African American Blogs (too many to name also), but there is one I must name and that is Field Negro (do not let the name scare you off). His blog is one of the most honest hard-hitting African American blog in the blogosphere. The people that comments there are also honest and hard hitting (with a few exceptions here and there) that is why today I confess I am a Fieldoholic.

Robster post in one of his comments today links the entire Reverend Jeremiah Wright sermons; The five-second sound bite that is being spinned to scare and continue the racial divide in America by Fox(Fake) News and MSM should be seen in it's entirety before judgment is passed on Barack Obama and his former pastor Rev. Wright.

I know many people are lurking because one of the best MS bloggers (BrainCheese) shared how we can tell who is lurking around our blogs.

Back to the Why the Truth Will Set You Free. Please look at the following two videos of Obama's former pastor Rev. Wright in its entirety and then make your judgment do not base your judgment solely on the manipulation of Fake News and others who do not want America to move forward...

God Damn America
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Chickens Coming Home To Roost
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The Reality On Racial Divide

A person is lying if they say they do not personally know a person who talked with anger about a race other than their own. Did you stop your association with your mother, father, sister, brother, uncle, grandfather, grandmother, etc...?

No, I do not think so...Obama delivers a power and truthful speech on the racial divide in America.
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Also, listen to Roland Martin on Obama's speech.

Thank You Keith

At the risk of loosing his job, Keith Olbermann said what should have been said a long time ago. His speical comment is shared by many Americans. It is time for more Senior Democrats and Super Delegates to call Senator Clinton OUT.



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She Need A Mental Evaluation

What was this woman thinking!