The year in review and New Year's plans

[Lulu54]

We had two great responses from doublevision and dagun on the weekly review about their plans for New Year's eve and a bit about this past year.  It made me think it would be interesting to hear from more of you about your 2011 in brief review and how you plan to great 2012.  DV and Dagun should copy their answers over to here so everyone will see them.  So please join in the chat here and give us your thoughts.  

Here's to 2012!
Lulu

[Lulu54]

I continue to say that through shared experiences - good and bad - we all are better able to get through this day and the next.  I'm not quite sure what happened in 2011 for me and I'm trying to figure out what I would say about this past year that I can share.

2011 really feels almost uneventful - no major illnesses or hospitalizaitons for me or my family, from my parents at 90 down to the one year old granddaughter.  No new grands this year - the three girls are enough for them (and us!).  I continue to work with little stress there.

We did a few small vacation trips and enjoyed the time away but also enjoyed being at home.    

My connections within the MS community continue to expand and that has been a positive. I now have the business cards of every pharmaceutical rep in the area who deals with MS drugs, if only I could figure out a program to do with all of them.  LOL

The whole year has been pretty darn positive.  So I guess I have nothing noteworthy to report for 2011.  I would love 2012 to be the same.

Happy new year to us all!

be well,
L

[debgen]

It has been so nice reading everyone's stories! 2011 was. A truly awful year for me :( After living with my dx of ADEM for 27 years, my symptoms began to decline. I was officially dx with RRMS. I began taking Copaxone, Baclefen and Ampyra. I took early retirement from my teaching job of 23 years and placed on disability. It has been a lot to wrap my head around. The sudden death of my brother in September through me into a relapse which I am not sure I ever fully recovered from. I am havin much difficulty walking.

Now that I sound like such a downer, I would like to praise all of my many, many blessings :) My wonderful hubby of 32 years has been so supportive. My 2 sons are both healthy and doing well. I see the ALL the time, which I love! I am also blessed to have many, many friends who totally stand by me, who make me laugh and continue to go out with.

I also feel blessed to have found this forum. You are my support group and as I have mentioned before I have become addicted to this forum. You are all in my thoughts and payers.

I am looking forward to a happier, healthier year for all of us!
Hugs,
Deb

[sllowe]

Great idea!

Was a good year for me, and my family. All are stable, moving forward in their lives, and becoming young adults. What a blessing. I have the love of and support of family and friends, and with that feel I can get through anything even the tough stuff.

Wishing you all a good New Year, filled with all that keeps you as well as you can be :)

Thank you all for everything :)
-Shell

[Starryeyes2]

2011 was ok to me. My daughter moved back up to Washington and shortly after she arrived she had a bad accident on a skateboard and broke every bone in her ankle. She has really gone thru a hard time which in turn, was so stressful on me.
She got a full time job and plans to move out in May.

I feel very blessed that I really didn't have any relapses. My latest MRI showed no changes from the previous year, and I was relieved.

I recently returned to my hometown in MT for Christmas, where my parents, aunts and uncles live. I hadn't been home in almost 8 yrs. It was so great to see people I hadn't seen for so long. It was hard to say goodbye...

2012 holds many changes. My husband will get reassigned for the Army in June. We got a list of places to choose and we had to number in order of preference where we would like to go.

We would like to go overseas for his last 3 yrs. Italy, Germany, Norway and Great Britain are the top choices. My neuro says it would be fine as long as I can see a neurologist in the Army. I have to admit, I am very nervous but I feel like I can't be afraid of the "what it's".

Thanks to everyone here for all the wisdom and support!

Ps- my husband and I will celebrate our 16 yr anniversary on Jan 1st. We plan on a dinner and movie New Years Eve.

Hugs to everyone!!!
Happy New Year!

Kristi

[Sumanadevii]

Our New Year will be quite.  We leave that celebration to our sons.  There will be traditional calls of good wishes to us after midnight.  Our neighbors also shoot guns on the hour.  We live in a nice neighborhood with few homes.  I never worried about it as they shoot into the air.

This year has been good for our family.  All sons are employed in the fields they wanted and studied for in college.  My husband has been cleared at six months for renal cancer.  My grandchildren are happy healthy little ones with wonderful parents.

My struggle this year was worth every day.  Tysabri has done her work.  I no longer feel as if a relapse is lurking and waiting for me.  I no longer am suffering from those monthly steroids.  I feel stronger physically.  I hope to post after the sixth infusion with good news.

I thank all those on the board for the kindness shown over this past year to me.  At times I was angry, sad and just plum afraid.  I know at times I feel like I have a different MS as I sure ain't mobile and moving.  I definately am "handicapped".  I have been blessed by the support here...and I do let it all hang out here.  I am also blessed by the biggest gift of all...my husband of 40 years.  

I wish each of you a wonderful New Year.  May our karma be kind.

Thank you also to those that post daily or nearly so.  You are each dear to this board and your work to keep the MH MS board one of the best!

Hugs,
Sumana

[Lulu54]

Alex, I just looked up Hoppin John - I had never heard of it, but then again I don't live in the south.  I am a big fan of beans and rice so I might have to try a recipe of this.  I hope you eat enough of it to bring you luck in 2012- you are definitely overdue in that category.

JB - 2011 has been quite the year for you.  I will continue to hope your son improves with his therapy treatments and you will also heal and get on with treating your MS.

[johnniebear]

Looking back at 2011,


This New Years Eve will quite,  not going anywhere, Its just the wife and I, on New Years day I will watch all the NFL games that I can watch.

My dog Kouper has learned  to go backwards and then sit-
I use a hand signals,  he loves going for a ride with with the sun roof open.

I had right ankle surgery and had anchor installed,  I've had matching surgery on both ankles,  left ankle was in 2006.

I'm still on a 2,500 calorie diet that seems to be working from.

My youngest son was DX with lymphoblastic lymphoma just before Thanksgiving,   because of his age and no other health problems his has a 90% chance of beating this. Two years of treatment ahead of him.



What will 2012 look like for me?  

Renewed our membership at the YMCA.

I'm sure I'll be a littler thinner, I kept 80% weight off that  I lost.
Building contracting work  is very slow,  I'll try to pick up a couple of houses to flip,  I don't think anyone would hire a man in 50's that can't lift over 30lbs,  can't walk very far-  forget ladders.  Has memory problems, and  I
need disk fusion surgery in my neck. So I'll remain s elf-employed

We are planning on another three week  visit with my youngest  this summer when  he feels like he tolerate the visit.

I'm planning on doing all the yard work this spring and summer, I look forward to going back to walking paths with my wife this spring if the balance stays stable.

I have a sleep study scheduled in 03/12
I don't see the MSlogist until 09/12..  

Otherwise I expect a good year..

Thanks Everyone
JB


  

[anon07072023]

I remember eating ham, cornbread, and black-eyed peas with my parents on New Years for good luck. And my mom also had us banging on pots & pans out the window at midnight on New Year's Eve.  

I'm glad they're frowning on shooting guns in the air - where the heck do you live???? LOL!!!!  

[HVAC]

New Years Day I go to open houses and catch up with old friends. Several of my friends have them.

We will have our Hoppin John, collards and cornbread here to ring in the New Year. The neighbors bang pans at midnight. The police are discouraging up in the air this year with guns. There are billboards designed by school children.

Alex

[Lulu54]

Thanks, DV, for sharing that again.  I know you have had one year FULL of changes and not necessarily good ones.  You should have that cleaner come regularly and help - sounds goodto me!

Who else wants to look back and look forward?

[doublevision1]

per Lulu, her's mine copied from the previous thread:

2011 has been a blur here too.  It started out great with our trip to France and then to L.A. for the Race to Erase MS gala; then I was promptly smacked with a relapse that knocked me off my feet.  First relapse in 2.5 years and emotionally I handled this one better than previous ones where I've sort of freaked out.  I continue to deal with ongoing neuropathy in my left hand and some days I feel it will literally drive me clinically crazy.  I tried several diff meds this year to try to improve it without success, and I'm back where I started with gabapentin and amitriptyline.  Fatigue is manageable some days but many days it prevents me from doing much at all.  I've recently had to apply for LTD as my TD runs out in Feb.  I'm still hoping it won't come to that and that I'll be able to return to work in some capacity before then.  The problem is how to be reliable when my symptoms fluctuate unpredictably.  I cancel more than half of the plans I make for this reason, and am becoming quite the unreliable friend....I can tell a couple of friends are getting tired of this though they say nothing.  I said goodbye to my wonderful GP of 5 years and am okay with my new guy.  I hear he has new office staff and I hope that will eliminate some of the glitches I've run into so far with them.  I see my neuro in March for my annual follow up.

We had a quiet Christmas eve and Christmas morning.  It's our 15th together and always just the two of us and we prefer it that way.  East coast and west coast family would like us with them but we really like the alone time.  Dinner on the 25th was spent with friends who whipped up steak and lobster as a nice change to the traditional dinner, and it was so good!  This Fri evening will be dinner with other friends and Sat night is New Year's Eve at our place with a few other couples.  I have a cleaner coming this week, and friends are bringing the snacks for New Year's; I'm accepting offers of help and appreciating them, instead of half killing myself  trying to be Martha Stewart which I never really had a hope in he11 of being even before MS. :)

Hope you all enjoy the rest of this holiday season and hope 2012 brings more good MS research and better treatments that will benefit us all.

[Lulu54]

DAgun, that type of New Year's eve celebration sounds wonderful.  I love fireworks and can never see enough of them.  

Jacksmom, you are most welcome.  I couldn't agree more with your thoughts about the group here and support we all receive.

Kelly, you have had one busy year and that is not necessarily good. Here's to a new start in 2012 and an understandable medical record.

[anon07072023]

2011 started out with a neuro – psychological evaluation in Jan, where they found some good & some bad.
  
In March/April I spoke to my old neuro about perhaps going on disability for cognitive difficulties & fatigue.  He sent me to the attorney for the MS Center.  Their attorney told me that it’s very difficult to get disability & you can’t be able to do ANY job whatsoever.  So, basically, I had to tough it out, since I can’t afford to not bring in any money if I wasn’t approved in the end for disability.  In Mar, I went to the ER after 4 days of painful chest squeezing, esp each time that I tried to breathe in air.  They decided that it was an MS hug (even though my old neuro’s nurse said that she’s never heard of an MS hug being painful).
  
After having to correct my medical records for the 3rd time with my old neuro (because he was constantly putting the wrong info in my records, like symptoms only on the right side, instead of primarily left side & to a lesser degree on my right side, he stated that he did certain neuro exams on me when he didn’t, he wrote that my neuro-psychological eval was good, when I had moderate to severe deficits in several key areas, & he used wrong dates, etc), he called me on my cell phone in June and told me he was too busy with clinics and suggested that I find another neuro.  Not surprisingly, when I called their office, he was still taking new patients…hmmmmm…..

In July, I started with my new neuro.  She kept my MS Dx & ordered a round of IVSM, even though I tried to tell her that I was not having a relapse, that this is how I always am – that I’ve just been slowly declining since my symptoms started 2 ½ yrs ago.  She also ordered MRIs of my brain, c-spine, & t-spine.

I had a hysterectomy in Oct.  My first physical therapy session was in Oct and I started my other type of physical therapy in Nov.  And I began taking Ampyra in early Dec.

I plan on greeting 2012 by sending my MRI CDs to Johns Hopkins for a 2nd opinion from their director of neuroradiology.  I keep getting different reports from my neuros and the different radiologists reading my MRIs.
Here's to a better NEW YEAR!

[Dagun]

No problemo Lulu, here it is again ;).
On the Dec 31 I will have our older son and his family for dinner with us (me, hubby, younger son and our daughter) and my mother in law will also be here. Then there is a special TV show here in Iceland that 95% of the peoble here watches this evening, because it is made for this evening, with jokes about what happened in Iceland for this year. They have actors playing the role of the president, and many other "famous" peoble from here. It is often very funny. Then at 23,30 peoble start doing fireworks all around, and at 24,00 the air is filled with beautiful fireworks all over.

We will all go over to my parents at 23,30 to do this (my brothers and families will be there also), but they have a wonderful wiew over the city and it is beautiful to watch.

This year I got a new grandchild called Nikulas Breki, what a JOY... just like his sister :). Year ago I just thought I had a disc problem and a narrowing spine, but little did I know. A lot has changed, but I am still happy and a lucky lady with all my family around me. I should not complain. Just hope that 2012 brings me knowledge (diagnozes) so I can do a plan and work on myself.

Well I hope you all are happy and feeling good.
My best,
Dagun  

[Jacksmom516]

Well 2011 was definitely one for the books!  I worked most of the year, think I can count the days I did not work on my hands and feet! I spent the better part of the last half of the year at Dr appts.  2011 ended with my dx and I look to 2012 with hope that now I have that dx I can get control of my symptoms and move forward to fighting this thing that has taken over my life.  I plan on celebrating the new year with friends and hope that 2012 brings happiness to all that have touched my life.  There are some positives to this disease and that is that it has brought me all of you - people I have never met but consider my friends, confidants and support system as I navigate my way through the muddy waters know as MS.  Again I thank you all because without you I do not know how I would have gotten through the past few months and especially these past two weeks since by dx.

Happy New Years to all!