Chart your MS symptoms:
Help your neurologist & yourself

Your MS symptoms are quite a few and all of them totally unpredictable. It is very hard to remember all the details of every symptom that you experienced a couple of days, weeks or months ago in preparation for your upcoming appointment with your neurologist.

One of the best strategies you can easily start implementing today concist of tracking your invisible symptoms with the use of a chart to document each of the MS symptoms, medication, changes in eating and living habits, etc. By doing this, every visit to your doctor’s office is going to be of greater benefit to both of you.

Using and keeping a chart or what I like to call a “progress chart”, will be very useful on your next visit to your neurologist. For example, on the progress chart you would write down all the information regarding any complementary or alternative medicine you might be starting. That way, you can tell (and show) your doctor the results of any particular change in your MS.

This could be really helpful when, for example, some new medication that would help you with your urinary contingency problems comes along and you decide to tell your doctor that you would like to try it.

As Andrew Copley, a freelance writer researching alternative ways to stave off the effects of Multiple Sclerosis describes in his article on the Toronto Multiple Sclerosis Examiner says in his article “Your doctor and you”, “In medicine if something seems to be working the doctor needs a good substantiated reason to change that procedure.

Another good reason for tracking the progress with your MS symptoms is that most of us, MSers, have to deal with all sort of memory problems and the chart would not allow you to forget and not bring up any past details with your neurologist.

HOW DO YOU SET UP A PROGRESS CHART?

Nowadays creating and keeping a progress chart for your MS symptoms is relatively easy. Using a spreadsheet program like Microsoft EXCEL, for example, is the simplest way I would recommend for doing so.

Andrew Copley recommends you set up your table by putting in fields such as:

1. Date,
2. Medications being taken
3. Food
4. Activities
5. General health problems
6. Comments

Every night after you take your last set of pills quickly fill in the fields for the day and you’re done. At the end of each month do a new sheet and continue on.

Although I received permission from Andrew to use his article and the EXCEL spreadsheet, I feel it would be best if I let you write Andrew a quick e-mail directly.

I believe he has some instructions and recommendations that go with it plus you’ll have established direct contact with him.

Click here to write Andrew an e-mail

The author requested I let you all know that: “You must be careful and go slow with everything you do. As an example if you have leg spasms and your charts start to show that on days when you are at the computer more than normal you spasm more than normal. It’s probably because of all the electrical wires at your feet. So move the wires as far away as possible and see if it makes a difference.

If it does. DO NOT stop your anti-spasmatic medicine. Those drugs change the way your muscles work. Mostly they weaken the muscles. It is at this point you need to very slowly start tapering down your anti-spasmatic medicine and watch very closely for any changes with you at all. It should take a month or two at the least to do this. If you get to a point where you start to notice a change in you then you stop that is your limit. Go no further.

If you stop the medication all at once you change the way your body works and a whole long list of things can happen. More importantly you need to show your charts to your doctor. Let them know what you are doing and show him/her the results. Blood work needs to be checked and monitored and so on. Using the chart you can slowly get yourself off most of your medications. Sadly most of those medications are harmful to the body and it’s only found out how harmful once you get off the medication."

You should also use your progress chart to jot down any and all instructions given by your neurologist related to your MS symptoms after each visit. This is a fantastic way of maintaining written proof of what was discussed and ordered by the doctor during your last visit.

This would not only “protect” you and him/herqa but it will help your doctor the next time you make an appointment to meet with him/her.

Click here to read more articles from Andrew Copley at the Examiner

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