It's a Beautiful Day!!!

Sunny, warm...perfect day today! I love Fall!!

I've continued on with my research on the Epstein Barr/MS connection, along with Tammy on MS Moms, and the results have been overwhelming. In article after article after article that we've found, every study seems to suggest that virtually EVERY person with MS also has elevated EBV levels. This is just an amazing finding to me! I would have NEVER thought that my EBV diagnosis could even *possibly* play into what's going on with me now.

A bit of background of my Chronic EBV diagnosis:

As a child, I had Strep Throat about every other month on average for about a year's time (maybe a little longer). I remember missing a lot of school and always having to go the Pediatrician's office and have that crummy long Q-Tip-like thing stuck down my throat to get a culture. Sure enough, every single time, it would come back positive for Strep.

Fast forward to age 23...just married...feeling OH so tired and just plain EXHAUSTED all of the time. I went to see Dr. Hutchinson, and at that time I actually wondered if I had Mono because of the symptoms I was having. He did blood work, and it all came back fine except for elevated EBV levels. He said that I did not have Mono because my blood work showed that I had ALREADY had Mono previously. I told him that I had never been diagnosed with it, and he said that my blood work showed otherwise.

He also looked at my tonsils and told me that I did not have any. I have NEVER had my tonsils removed. Well, this is pretty gross, but apparently what happened was that I had Strep throat so many times that my tonsils were just kind of ate away each time to where I don't even have any anymore!

Fast forward one more year...still feeling the exact same way. I went back to Dr. Hutchinson, he did more blood work, and got the EXACT same results. Clear blood work except for elevated EBV levels. He said that since my levels did not change any over time, that it is considered that I have EBV chronically, and thus my "illness" had a name and a medical reason.

Still, though, after having received this diagnosis, I always felt that he was just trying to give me something to call it just to satisfy me or something. I would have never dreamed in a million years that it could actually cause the problems that it *appears* that it has caused!

Details developing....

Anyway, Maddie had a REALLY bad day at dance class yesterday. She's been going to dance now for, what, 2-3 months, and she's always done wonderfully. Last night, we get to the studio, and she was fine except that she asked me to walk her into her class, which she doesn't normally do. So I took her in, and when I turned to leave, she went NUTS!!!! She started screaming and crying and pulling my sweater. I took her outside to try to calm her down, and then Mrs. Jane even let me sit in there with her for a bit, and she would never get out there with the other girls. She just kept screaming and throwing a fit. I told her that we could leave but that she would have to stay on the couch for the rest of the evening, and she said OK...so on the couch, she sat. Still don't know what all of that was about...she loves dance class!

I'll leave this post with a new Maddie-ism...she's been having chapped lips, so I've been putting Vaseline on them to make them feel better. Well, this morning, she gets up and the first thing she says to me is, "Mommy, I need some of that make-up. My lips are chomping me again."

Heeheeheeheee!!!!