Yeah, time to be less fun and fluffy for a little bit.
***
A lot of you people know my mom. I'd guess that at least half my friends page (if not more) has friended her as well, and all the rest of you should have at least heard of her in passing. The point is that a lot of you know her, and a lot of you know how awesome she is.
The problem is that there are some bits of mom that are decidedly not awesome. One of those decidedly not awesome bits is the fact that mom has
Multiple Sclerosis. The quick explanation is that, with MS, the myelin sheaths that surround neurons are scarred and destroyed, which screws up the brains signals to the rest of the body. If the brain signals get interrupted, all kinds of different bad things can happen to the body.
In mom, a bunch of different bad things manifest. She gets really tired really easily, and falls asleep without warning sometimes. When she gets overheated, or does too much physical work, her symptoms flare up and she has to walk with her cane. Her eyes are a big problem --she gets double vision when she gets tired, which is especially bad if she's driving at that point --she has to drive with an eye-patch on, or close one eye.
All these things really really suck. It sucks for me to have to watch her limp or squint her eyes and not really be able to help. It sucks to have her conk out on the sofa at a moments notice, and not always be able to spend time with me and the kids, or to do the traditional "mom" things one expects, like making dinner. It sucks to have her be tired and irritable and to take it out on me, especially since I know she doesn't mean it. And it really sucks to know that, as much as it sucks to watch, it must suck a hundred times more to be living it.
MS currently does not have a cure. There are ways to treat it, but even with the treatments, a person with MS can still have an unexpected flare up. As near as I understand, the goal of the treatment is to just make the flare ups more manageable and less likely to happen.
The treatment mom is on is called Copaxone. It comes in the form of 20mg hypodermic needles, to be administered daily. That's right: In order to keep the MS in check, mom has to give herself a shot
every single day. Let me stress that again: One shot. Every day. In the five years since she's been diagnosed, I believe mom has missed one shot. So, by rough estimate, she's had to stab herself with a needle more then 1800 times. And yes, it's a small needle, and she rotates where she gives herself the shot, but that doesn't necessarily help. My mom's got tracks like a two dollar hooker.
And the worst of it, is that Copaxone doesn't always help. Last May, around graduation, she had another flare up. She eventually wound up taking several doses of steroids, which made her sleep even more then usual and pretty much sabotaged her weight-watcher achievement. (She lost 70 lbs in a year. My mom is awesome!)
So yeah. Like I said, MS really really really really sucks. And it's really tough to stand by the sidelines and just watch.
Luckily for me (and all of you) I don't have to.
See, every year, the DC MS society runs this really really big challenge walk. Anyone who joins gets to walk fifty miles in three days. To join, every participant has to raise at least 1500 dollars for the National MS Society. That's right --pay one and a half thousand dollars, and you will get the fun privilege of walking fifty miles in only three days.
Five years ago, Team Greykell was formed, to do this walk in honour of mom. This year will be mom's fourth year walking --at the end of this year, Mom will have walked 200 miles in order to help cure MS.
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j_luc_pitard will have walked 250.
The problem is that $1500 is a lot of money. Most people don't have that lying around their houses. And with seven people on Team Greykell, they have to raise a combined 10,500$ if they all want to be able to walk.
Maybe you have a spare dollar lying around. Maybe you've got a jam jar full of change. Maybe you just won the lottery. Whatever your case may be, you have some money that you're not using, and you want to help out my mom. If you go to
this page, it will provide you with lovely instructions as to how to give Team Greykell money. We're big fans of the "every little bit helps" theory around here.
So yeah. Summary? My mom is awesome, but she has to give herself a shot every day. Going to
http://events.msandyou.org/site/TR/Events/ChallengeWalk?team_id=1871&pg=team&fr_id=1070 and giving her money is a good way to help her keep being awesome, and not have to give herself a shot every day.
Thanks for your time, and have a lovely day.
~Katarina
MOOP!
P.S: If you want to help out in non-monetary ways instead, I know that Team Greykell is always looking for volunteers to run our fabulous Pirate-themed rest stops at the walk.
Join Team Greykell as a volunteer, and show up in full pirate regalia at the rest stop on Saturday, September 29th. Time and location are still pending, so e-mail mom at greykell at greykell dot org and tell her you want information on how to volunteer.
OR
If you live in the Maryland area, you should go to Carvel Icecream in New Carrollton on Monday, September 17th, from 5-9 pm. Carvel has agreed to give Team Greykell part of their funds, so you should totally go and eat ice cream to help Team Greykell raise money.
P.P.S: This was totally not solicited in any way. I'm just really sick of mom having MS. Mom's pretty much who I want to be when I grow up, and I want her to be practically perfect in every way.
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