TeamCharliesAngels

Well, tommorrow is Valentine’s Day. I don’t do anything for it anymore, myself. It seems that I have been married and divorced, and my daughters are grown up now. I will say Happy Valentine’s Day to them and my grandchildren, but that is the extent of it. I am thankful to see another day come around now. By the way, Happy Valentine’s Day, Dr. Lindholm! Wish I could say how great a doctor you are, but I don’t want you to get a big head.

For those of you that don’t know it, Dr Karin Lindholm is my neurologist in Boise. She is the best neurologist for me, but she may not be for everybody. I think she is one of the best there is, and every time I tell her what is happening to me, she has answers for me. If I chose to follow her advise, I seem to be happy with the results. This time it had to do with my lower legs cramping really bad. Dr. Lindholm said do some stair stepping, and do some light weights for my arms. It works! Sure wish I would learn to listen better, though. Thanks, Doc!, for your infinite patience with me.

Now for the next thing. I hear there are other people in the Chester, Ashton, St Anthony area of Idaho like me. That is, they have multiple sclerosis and don’t get out too much, and might even want to talk to other ms people? Wish I knew how to contact them! If anybody out there knows them, give them my email address, please… it’s charlie AT teamcharliesangels DOT com. I will send them my phone number to call me, and maybe we can get together sometime. I do some computer work on the side, and I even talk when I get over my fear of meeting them.

As most who read these blogs know, I like to think I am free as an eagle now. Unfortunately, I haven’t seen my eagles in a few weeks. Maybe with the weather changes we have, they have moved to another are to feed? It appears to be so, anyway. The weather here warmed up, and the ice and snow melted away rather quickly. My Grandson and I built a snowman in the yard one day. The dog got so mad at us, he went and took the carrot nose out and spit it on the ground! When my older grandson put it back in the snowman, the dog then knocked the head off the snowman and either ate it or rolled on it. Either way, the head disappeared that day, and the dog was much happier than he was while we were building the snowman!

I guess that’s enough for now. Hoping to hear from some local area ms people soon.

Charlie Kravetz
charlie AT TeamCharliesAngels DOT com

I’m Charlie. I built and designed this website. I have multiple sclerosis, and TeamCharliesAngels is the name of my support team (they really are angels). The angels logo was designed by my niece, Stephanie. It is the logo of this website and is displayed on the team shirts we wear during the annual National Multiple Sclerosis Society MS Walk fund raiser.

My email address is charlie AT teamcharliesangels DOT com… (please replace capital letters with the correct characters). Feel free to drop me a line or two if you want. I will respond if I don’t get swamped.

I may wander off topic sometimes, and I may brag sometimes, but that is the advantage of owning my website. Please feel free to email me with comments or contructive ideas. There will be a contact form for that, when I figure out how to put it together.

As an avid reader, after being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, I went to the library to find books about this disease. What a surprise! The library had 3 books in the card catalog about ms, and the latest copyright was 1989. Next I hit the bookstores (in Las Vegas, Nevada) to buy a current book about ms. The best I could do there was a book written in 1998, if I wanted to order it. That’s when I found out how little was know about multiple sclerosis. I now have all the books I can find in print, all 11. Thanks to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society and the internet, I am able to keep informed about my disease. I have learned over time that the most correct and knowledgeable source of information is the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. Perhaps that is why I tell people to get in touch with them so often.

I have often referred to multiple sclerosis as a disease of a very elite group. Since there is still so little known about ms, I did a great deal of research to learn about it. At various times, the symptoms are frustrating, frightening, aggravating, depressing, worrisome, ridiculous, unknown for both the victim and those around the victim. It is still a disease that falls into that group that most people prefer to ignore. If it makes you seem drunk, it is better for all around you to pretend you are drunk or that nothing happened than to accept that you are having serious medical problems that can’t be helped. Instead of trying to be helpful, people will often avoid you or treat you like a small child. No person with a health problem needs whispers and looks between you, we need you to accept what is wrong and try to help us when we ask. Since we may be unable to do much at various times, allow us to do what we can when we are able. As our muscles, vision, abilities fade, accept it and help us as individuals to accept it. When we say “I can’t do that today”, believe it. When we say “I can do that”, let us at least try, if you can. I didn’t say it would be easy. If this disease is difficult for family and friends to accept, it is much harder for the person with it. One of the most difficult words in the English language is H-E-L-P! It just doesn’t roll off the tongue when it is really needed by an otherwise or formerly independent adult!

I spend a lot of my time at home, just because I get so fatigued from my multiple sclerosis(ms). I was diagnosed in July of 2000. When they were running medical tests on me to determine what ailed me, they asked all kinds of questions. The more I answered, the more head shaking went on. When the doctor finally told me it was ms, it was a relief for me. Then I found out, all the questions and head shaking were because the symptoms were traceable back to high school! Even so, I found the best thing I could do was keep fighting. I had already spent 20 years in the U.S. Air Force, and I had completed my plumbing apprenticeship since I got out. Now I was a Journeyman Plumber, even if the pipe wrenches had become too heavy to lift.

I don’t know what other people do, but after finding out everything I could about this disease, I decided to fight as long as I could. I still do what I can, but the strength is not there anymore. I found out in 2003 that I could no longer work 8 hours a day and still maintain a life. If I work, I can put a TV dinner in the microwave for 3.5 minutes, eat, sleep, get up, and do it again. The hours take a heavy toll on me now. I take medication every day to help fight the effects of ms, fatigue, nausea caused by medication and disease, dizziness, motion sickness, pain inside my head and outside from nerves. What can I say?

Life is good! If you don’t do what you can while you can, you won’t get to later. Hang in there! Your life is what you make it become. Do a good deed today, even it is just a smile for someone that needs it. Say “hello” to the person that is down today, even it they can’t look up at you. Keep smiling! It’ll make you feel good, and help others feel good too.