Sunday, August 27, 2006

 

Trigger For Multiple Sclerosis Found!

One possible cause of multiple sclerosis is the idea that there may be a "Trigger" of some sort. The idea here is that the person would not have MS normally, but since he or she contracts this bacteria or virus at a critical point during his or her physical development of the immune system while growing up, the trigger virus or bacteria skews the immune system so that the immune system begins to attack the person instead of pathogens.

I, however, am fortunate that I have SEEN the trigger virus. Behold a Christmas Picture of the Evil Villian--I took a drop of my blood out in early December, and here is what I found in my handy-dandy petri dish.



Astonishing, eh? I propose we call the new, evil entity the "Cthulhu virus" in honor of H.P., who also had to struggle against a disease that compromised his physical abilities.

(***Picture was ripped off from a wonderful blog on Lovecraft on MySpace. Please forgive me!)

Comments:
Did you visit Cincinnati as a small child?... because we *know* Cthulhu hangs out there! :^) And how can I get that image on a card?

Seriously... I hope your health isn't playing you too badly now that you're back in school. How goes it?
 
Health has been a bit shaky, but I've managed to function all right, which is a total relief. I'm even beginning to believe this whole Ph.d. process may even be possible now, as I'm managing to deal with issues caused by MS (brain damage, spinal damage, etc) and am learning effective ways to get around annoying aspects of my disease (brain farts, etc.). Plus, as it turns out, you can grow brain cells back, so guess who is now working like a maniac trying to get her ability to interpret graphs back? Guess who took pictures of her students and spends every day looking at the pictures trying to remember their names?

Thanks for asking--I've been pleasantly surprised by how decent and supportive everyone has been thus far. I'm also becoming SUPER organized, which is a switch for me, but is necessary to compensate for previous difficulties.

Oh, I even have an odd BENEFIT from having MS in a classroom setting. While I'm not going to admit the brain scans I've made overhead scans happen to be mine, I can now supply super cool pictures of a brain with demylinization and holes caused by MS from an MRI for students to play with during our "brain and physiology" session of Psych lab. I'm not hiding the MS, but am afraid the students will feel insecure and not cared for if I disclose my MS right away. Hell, a couple of other grad students in neuroscience think the scans I'm supplying are neat and want to use them for their classes:).
 
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