MS Basics Overview

Here’s the transcript from my first video for MS Awareness Month and a link to the video:

https://youtu.be/uRO5akgXlrQ

Happy MS Awareness month y’all! It’s our time to shine like the legions on our MRI scans 😂 no but seriously you guys this month is about sharing knowledge on the disease, helping where we can (like donating to the National MS Society fundraiser I’ve been promoting 😂) but also about sharing love and kindness. If there’s anything I learned since dealing with my MS for THREE YEARS it’s that love and kindness goes a long way no matter how big or small it is. This video will be mostly informational with statistics on MS to date, naming some common symptoms treatment and more so sit back, get comfy and I hope you enjoy this video 😊

Hey everybody what up doe it’s ya homie the one and the only and before we begin I gotta do my little YouTube thing where I ask you to give this video a thumbs up and subscribe 😂 I’m not being thirsty or chasing clout but I just really would like for this channel to get big in hopes that it’ll help spread knowledge about MS to everyone (and also so I can get these YouTube checks to pay some of these medical expenses 😂 okurrrr but no really let’s get back on subject.

Now where do I begin? I guess let’s start off with the basics like WHAT IS MS? MS is an autoimmune disease. NO NOT AIDS. AIDS is acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. Keyword ACQUIRED. We didn’t do anything to get MS. It’s not something that’s contagious. It’s just something that happens to a select few people. That’s why I say we’re the chosen ones 😂But MS in its entirety is a disease where the immune system, you know that part of your body that’s fights viruses? Yeah that one. It’s when it eats away at the protective surrounding around nerves but more specifically your most important nerve, the brain. It doesn’t stop there though because not only will it attack your brain but also your spinal cord, which is part of your main messenger system to the brain. So to make it simple, basically your whole central nervous system is under attack by it’s own crew. Your antibodies that are supposed to attack foreign viruses are just eating away at it. Kinda like how folks stormed the capital last year. I’m not getting political but that was the best metaphor I could think of 😂

Now where does MS come from? I already did a video on this recently. Click this video up here ↖️ to check it out in full detail but for this video I’ll do a quick summary. In recent studies it’s been found that MS is a result of EBV or the Epstein Barr virus. EBV is very very common like globally common. It’s noted as being the most common human virus. It starts in childhood with little to no symptoms and basically lives in everyone dormantly their whole lives with no symptoms unless the immune system is weak then it will go from like inactive to active usually 20 years after initial infection. EBV will produce an excessive number of lymphocytes or white blood cells while weakening the immune system making it hard to fight off infections. With this mixture of extra white blood cells and a weak immune system, boom you see what I’m getting at.

Now although EBV is super common across the globe, MS is still a rare condition. According to National ms society, there are now 2.8 million millION MILLION 🥴people world wide who have ms. Means every 5 minutes there’s somebody getting diagnosed with MS. With almost half of them, about 1 million being in the United state alone. Now let’s look at the demographics. I said in one of my earlier videos that MS is prevalent in regions with colder temperatures and I think Canada is proof for that. On this chart, it says that Canada tops the list at 291,000 cases of MS. So yeah that’s your proof and your reason to make that move to Florida or Texas that you’ve been thinking about. 😂 but as you see here San Marino isn’t too far behind sitting at 250,000 cases and Denmark close behind with 227,000 cases and the list goes on sadly. But this is only half of the story. Side note I’ve met plenty of fellow MS Warriors (mainly on twitter and Instagram. Thank god for social media) but a lot of my ms twitter and Instagram fam is from the UK, Germany and the Netherlands altogether. Shoutout to y’all hey friends if you watch this video 😂

But let’s talk about some common symptoms and starting off with common initial symptoms. Now starting off symptoms may be mild or they might hit you like a semi truck depending on when you start noticing them. One first symptom might be vision problems. Like how I told you guys that I woke up one day and there was that random black line blocking my vision in one eye. That was me experiencing neuromylitis optica. Your vision problems may not be as bad as that but everybody is different don’t forget. Another symptom may be random tingling and numbness in your limbs or body parts that you can’t just shake off. 👀 No I just said you can’t shake it off! What are you doing? Get outta here 😂 but fr I’ve been through that too and it lasted a few weeks. I think little over a month. But even with the tingling and whatnot you might start experiencing other muscle problems like spasms and pain or a tightening feeling too. Some really over looked or at least over looked in my opinion symptoms are weakness, fatigue, balance problems, bladder issues or sexual dysfunction. I think they’re over looked because to a normal person it just seems like symptoms from a bad day but when it’s lasting more than a day, a few days, a week or even a month, it’s definitely not just from a case of the mondays. And the last but most definitely not least that I want to talk about is cognitive issues. It may start off simple like not remembering the name of somebody from your high school or grade school to forgetting appointments to forgetting about and how to do simple tasks. Especially tasks you’re used to doing.

Now at this point in the video let’s take a break because I know a lot of people who don’t have diagnosed MS will get through that last part and start thinking to themselves if they have MS and whatnot so let’s take a breath, relax and just know that if you feel like any of those initial ms symptoms relate to you on a severe level I highly suggest talking to your doctor about it. They’ll be able to check you out and give you a clear yes or no on if you have MS. It’ll take a lot of testing that’s not too comfortable in my opinion like a lumbar puncture or maybe a MRI so please be aware of what all will come with it. As far as treatment goes though for those newly diagnosed you have options for sure. There are things like physical therapies, medicines and diets to help aid with it. It’s mainly all about what you’re most comfortable with doing. If you decide to go the medicine route there’s chemotherapy, anti inflammatory, steroid or immunosuppressive drugs you can take. You guys see I’ve tried the pills, hey Gilenya and rn I’m on kesimpta injections. No you don’t HAVE TO bounce from one treatment to another. I just had certain circumstances as to why I switched. But even more so if you’re not into the medicines, and I don’t blame you for sure but you can also do physical therapy and acupunctures to relieve your body. I wouldn’t do acupuncture myself but that’s because I hate needles. #Trypanophobia 😂 but that’s just me. My loyal viewers and friends watching know this for a FACT. 😂

But you guys I think that’s enough for the day. I don’t want to overload you with too much information but I feel like the message is delivered at this point. But wait where you going? The bell hasn’t ring yet. My class is not over until I say it is 😂 I used to hate teachers like that let me stop 😂 but no fr you guys it’s NS Awareness month like I’ve said plenty of times already and so I’m really really pushing for these donations to the MS society’s fundraiser so please stand with me and stand up for the cause. 👀 girl bye get outta here 🥴😂🤦🏾‍♀️ I’ll leave my donation link down below for you to check out. It’s a direct link to the national site so you can get more info on ms there as well. Don’t forget I’m giving out incentives for my donors made and packaged with love. But I think I need to wrap up this video now so if you enjoyed this video please don’t forget to like and subscribe for me down below↙️ I’d appreciate it for sure and as always my friends please stay safe, stay clean and remember that brionn loves you. Gotta Just keep S’Myelin 😊 byeeee see you next episode!