New to site

Hi I am new to this site. I see everyone is very willing to help each other and provide answers or a point in the right direction. The world needs a site like this actually. Anyways I was diagnosed on April 17th, 2001 shortly after 3pm. I call it "D" day. I retired 2 years ago due to an attack. I was  Pit Boss for 12 1/2 years at a local casino. I have so far been pretty fortunate I think because from what I have heard many people get 3 to 4 attacks a year. I have had 4 in 5 years. Granted there was a bad one last summer-I lost feeling in the entire left side of my body. It all came back except for my 4th and 5th fingers in my left hand they still are tingly-but if that is all I lost who cares-I can deal with that. I am 50 years old soon to be 51; I take Copaxone almost daily. I skip a few shots here and there. But I have something which appeared during my last MS attack and has not gone away. I have what feels like a softball inside the left lower side of my rib cage. Has anyone ever had that? It doesn't hurt fortunatley; but it is there and is uncomfortable. I am having a cat scan done on Friday to see what it is but I got to thinking (which can be dangerous) that maybe it was an MS thing since it appeared during an attack but it has not gone away. So I don't know maybe perhaps someone has had something similar???

Thank you in advance for your answers and willingness to help!

 

Hey Willow!!

Welcome to the board! I'm glad u found us and hope u'll feel comfortable asking questions or posting from u'r own experience as well. We all have much to learn and those who've gone before us are invaluable! I'm sorry u've had to retire, but maybe it'll be a good chance to do some things u've wanted to do.

The place inside u'r rib cage does sound alarming! I've not heard of anything like that with ms before, but as u prob already know, with ms anything is possible. I think it's a good move to have it scanned and take a good look at it. It could be anything or nothing, but better to look! Please let us know what u find and how u'r doing. We're all here to help and will be here with u as much as u need us. I'll add that we have live chat each week on Monday's at 6:00pm (cst) and we'd love to see u there! It's a great way to get to know everyone better and get some real time answers to u'r questions. If u look at the top of the page and locate the thin blue line u'll see several options and on the right side u'll see 'chat'. Just click that and log into the ms room with the same log on u used to sign in here. Hope to see u there!

Hi John:

The casino was in Turtle Lake, Wisconsin. It is a Native American casino. I really liked all of the people I met. It was a fun job. boring sometimes but talking to the guest and dealers and floor people was fun. The pay for up here was excellent. It was around 17.00 to 19.00 an hour. Insurance was excellent. Most insurance companies won't pay for the lasik surgery and ours did. Prescriptions were 10.00 each and no questions asked; you got what you wanted and did not have to take the generic meds. Boy I sure miss that. Most casinos are actually boring jobs but you get paid very well to be bored. Standing around watching blackjack, roulette or craps  sounds like fun but day after day; year after year; it does get boring. But it was worth it I am retired now and my Social Security is better than some of my relatives who worked for a lot longer than I did. Casinos take very good care of their employees. So if you are able to work still it is a good place to make good money and have good benefits and be able to move up the ladder fairly quickly-if you keep your nose clean. We had over 800 employees at our casino; we had slot machines, blackjack, craps, poker, paigow, 4 card poker, let it ride, roulette, etc.... 

Hi Uppitycats:

You are one of the smart ones. Vegas was not built on winners. I'm actually from St. Paul, Minnesota but moved up here in 1992 and will only go back to visit the cities. I love it up here, peaceful, quiet, beautiful counrty, in fact I think they call it God's country and I can see why. 

Thursday evening

 

...you know...the whole Indian casino thing kinda baffles me...everyone I have been in, people look like they are betting NEXT weeks paycheck.....

 

But those Casino benefits sound awfully sweet....pay for Lasik surgery...nice.

 

John

 

You know, I saw this statistic on CNN a few years ago......how 25 years ago, if you wanted to go tom a casino, you had to go to Las Vegas or Atlantic City....

 

Now, there are casinos in 45 states.

 

God Bless America.  John

Thank you all for your support! It is much appreciated. The test is at 8:00am but I am not sure how long it takes to get the results; its a cat scan. but I will post them as soon as I know.

Thanks again,

Debbie

Hey Debbie!!

GOOD NEWS!!!! YIPPEEEEE!!!! :)) No fun knowing it's the ms again, but MUCH better than 'other' stuff! I had no idea ms spasms could do that! Glad i'm here...i'm learning sooo much. I know what u mean about the speg legs... i lovingly refer to them as jello legs...just as long as they don't become jigglers! Hang in there...the phsy therapy should help a lot. Of course, i've never been either, but many here have and proclaim it's value. Let us know how that goes...i hope great!

Hi Debbie,

 

   That is great news!  I'm glad nothing was found and hopefully it is just a spasticity issue and the increased baclophen will help.  Most people that have gone through physical therapy say its tremendously helpful!  Keep us updated and continue with your positive attitude

Ouch Uppitycats-when you do something at least you do it good! One way to look at it. In three places OMG ouch that had to have hurt. And then to have to get it rebroke-your close to sainthood - I don't think I could of done that. Ouch Ouch Ouch is all I can say.

I went back to my regualr level of baclofen-I tried to up it to by 10 measly milligrams and got those spaghetti legs and tired;tired;tired. Not worth it-I will wait maybe physical therapy will help-I know that baclfen didn't even phase it but I did figure out cement legs are better than spaghetti legs-hee hee. So something good came out of it all.

Debbie

Thank you ~Savvy~   I think we have to be positive for if we are not then the MonSter wins. Plus we are on this side of dirt so all is not lost. :)