ELLIE'S BLOG on Living Well with MS

Well not really, but as I was in a small MS relapse I guess the similarity struck me.  What similarity ?  Basically it was a conduction problem.

We had had a lot of problems getting our HD channel's and finely we couldn't get them at all. This happened after we changed our yearly subscription with our cable co. Time Warner.  We had had a special deal for a year when we added the telephone to our Time Warner package. That special deal was over so to save money we attached their box that would give us our HD channels.  But then we started having problems. 

So we called the cable co. and they sent a technician. He took out his diagnostic tools and found that our signal to the TV was much too low. Yet he could see that I was having no problems with the computer. So he figured it must be something in the dividing area that split the TV and the computer.  After going down to our basement checking out the cable connections several times he finally discovered the problem.The problem was a conduction problem due to a short circuit.

Coaxial Cable (the type that transmits TV signals), works via two separate conduction paths, the central copper wire, and a conductive mesh surrounding it.  However both conductive paths have to be kept separate or else electricity will leak from one to the other creating a short circuit.  In this case one strand from the mesh was accidentally pulled into contact with the copper wire. As a result, the two conduction paths came together causing the signal to leak.   Hence the signal looked like it had traveled down 600 yards of cable and was too weak to reliably produce an HD picture.

Sound familiar to us with MS. We who have our own shorts circuits in the  conduction of the nerve impulses of electricity coming from and to specific centers in our brain. Those nerves traveling down our spinal cord conducting the nerve impulses from our brain when affected will cause us to be clumsy, be slowed in our  walking. unable to walk only very short distances or not at all.  And that was exactly what was happening to me at that time.  It's interesting because when I asked the technician what was wrong and he explained it to me I understood immediately.

I understood because it was conduction.  And all he had to do was find that one part and  replace it and it would be perfect. I jealously thought how easy that was. Now for me in my small relapse I would have to wait until my body healed itself. The attack on the myelin sheath surrounding the nerve would have to stop. Then the inflammation decrease and my body remyelinate the areas. And the word (areas is key) because MS attacks more than one place on the nerve and in the body during the attack.  See my previous blog MS AWARENESS  from 3/11/10 which explains this in more but understandable detail.   click here for the information

My son who wrote the part about the coaxial cable and I started to think of ways how we could maybe use technology to replace this damaged myelin and speed up the process of healing. And laughingly we suddenly  thought of nanotechnology. We could take some nanobots with codes to locate and mark demyelinated nerves and inject them into my body. Then follow up with more nanobots with codes to stimulate the nearest oligodentrites (the cells that produce the myelin) to the marked sites.  They would be programmed to speed up production and get to work remyelinating those nerves.

When I was in bed that night half asleep I started thinking about it. And my imagination took off. I was lying on a treatment bed and they were injecting Nanobots into me that would locate my demyelinated or poorly myelinated nerves. The room had an old MRI machine and the latest new MRI machine with a wall computer and monitors like on NCIS . And I was in a balloon shaped helmet from my head  down my chest to the end of my spinal column . This was the latest MRI feature. They were turning it on and off but it didn't feel as strong with it's bang-bang-bang as on previous MRI's I'd had.  I also didn't feel as encased as my eyes were not covered and I could watch them tracking everything . I was able to watch them moving information all over the board.

Then they announced that it was time a to do the new round of Nanobots. Up popped a life-size 3D nervous system replica of me which they extended even larger. This was similar to what one would see on the TV show Bones. With this they were tracking the stimulation of the Oligodendrocytes which of course they could magnify to infinite levels. It was mind blowing! At that point I fell asleep. So I don't know what happened after that.

However I woke up feeling great!!

It might have been just the positive energy that I felt from letting go feeling down.  Or perhaps it was the creative act of imagining outlandish possibilities. Whatever, my burden was lighter and I was ready to move on. To begin again within the limits that this crazy disease MS imposes on me.

Wishing you a lighter burden too!                                 Ellie