quotes from Karma

*I CAN'T HELP MY BEAUTY OR MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS*

*HEY, KEEP STARING AT ME AND U MIGHT CURE MY MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS.THEN WE WORK ON UR SOCIAL SKILLS*

*WARNING:TAKE BACK FIVE STEPS BACK AWAY FROM THIS WOMAN OR MAN I HAVE MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS I HAVE CONSTANT NEED 2 STUMBLE AND TWITCH AND HAVE SLURRED SPEECH WITHOUT WARNING...UNTIL NOW*

*I GIVE THANKS 2 (GOD) EVERYDAY WAKING ME UP 2 SEE ANOTHER DAY AND I HAVE THE ACTIVITIES OF MY LIMBS EXCEPT MY LEFT HAND BUT IN DUE TIME I WILL SOME OF US COMPLAIN ABOUT THE SMALLEST THINGS BUT IT'S ALWAYS SOMEONE OUT THERE THAT IS WORST THAN URS BE GRATEFUL 4 WHAT WE HAVE JUST HAVE SAY THANK U (LORD) CAUSE U COULD BE ...BEDRIDDEN OR IN A WHEELCHAIR PERMANENTLY I KNOW (GOD) GOT ME*

*EVERYONE IS NOT MEANT 2 HANDLE A CHALLENGE BUT WHEN U HAVE (MS) WE CAN AND WE WILL*

*I DON'T KNOW ABOUT Y'ALL ME AND (MS) GOING 2 TAKE A RIDE 2 THE SHOOTING RANGE I'M GOING 2 PUT 3 BULLETS IN HIS HEAD LIKE A BOWLING BALL I'M NOT PLAYING WITH HIM *

A beautiful soul who inspires us all!

my story

I guess this is my story about my journey with m.s. So...

The summer of '07 I spent a week at a lake with my family! I rested through alot of it, but I basically baked. When we came home my hand was numb in three fingers. Weird, okay, so I told my doctor about it and we thought nerve entrapment. So a routine mri was scheduled.

I Took my Valium and tried to zen and yoga breathe through my first mri. Later that day, I was called back for another MRI NOW. They would not say why, but I went in at midnight. By then I had read my referral and was freaking out!

I got to a neurologist very quickly and well he said m.s. almost immediately. I have a large lesion at C2 that was suspect. So, I did another MRI in three months, repeat x 2. This continued until I went through what was personal hell of a lumbar puncture.

Again, he said he felt it was M.S., but most of my other tests were negative and I didn't really have any spots on the brain.

So, I started copaxone on a more than likely diagnosis. Long story short, I moved to Idaho and got a new neurologist. More MRI's and she questioned the M.S. diagnosis. So I stopped the copaxone and waited for an answer again.

I ended up at a M.S. specialist in Seattle. Another Mri and this time spots showed on my brain. As for my monster lesion at C2, she felt I have a brain, body disconnect and may change as I age. ( I personally say screw that, there will be the right medication or a cure first )

So I went home to grieve and then start what I consider the worst 4 months of my life, taking rebif. OMG It was pure hell. I have been offered tysabri which I declined, but I await the gilenya data after its been out a for a little bit longer.

I take a bucket of medication and right now I am doing well. I walk into walls and forget my words, loose concentration, coordination, and sometimes wake up in excruciating pain, but I am okay!

Overall, I am in love and happy to be alive. I am a woman who has m.s., m.s. does not have me!

poem by Tammy

If you don’t understand MS,
Could you just trust me?
If you don’t “get it”,
Can you just love me?
...
If you can’t see what I’m going through,
Can you just believe me?
If you can’t understand my pain,
Can you just comfort me?

If you can’t find a way to fix it,
Can you find an ear to lend?
If you don’t know why this happened,
Can you help my spirit mend?

I love you for trying,
Don’t ever forget.
The effort you’ve put forth,
Please don’t regret.

I have this disease
And I have confusion.
Just don’t ever think
MS is some illusion.

Can you love me anyway?
Can you be my friend?
You may never understand it,
But MS is a part of me in the end.

~By Tammy Malkowski, 7/26/10

the funny

Maribel Rosa These were actual hospital patient reports...enjoy!

1. The patient refused autopsy.

2. The patient has no previous history of suicides.
...
3. Patient has left white blood cells at another hospital.

4. She has no rigors or shaking chills, but her husband states she was very hot in bed last night.

5. Patient has chest pain if she lies on her left side for over a year.

6. On the second day the knee was better, and on the third day it disappeared.

7. The patient is tearful and crying constantly. She also appears to be depressed.

8. The patient has been depressed since she began seeing me in 1993.

9. Discharge status: Alive but without permission.

10. Healthy appearing decrepit 69-year old male, mentally alert but forgetful.

11. Patient had waffles for breakfast and anorexia for lunch.

12. She is numb from her toes down

poem by karma jones

*TRY 2 BE US BY:(KARMA JONES)

COVER UR EYES AND EARS VISION OUR DARKNESS

COULD U HANDLE BEING BOUND 2 A WHEELCHAIR OR WALKING ON A CANE EVERYDAY
...
DO U THINK HAVING (MS) IS EASY ?

TRY 2 BE US AND SURVIVE REAL LIFE.

IT'S HARDER THAN U THINK

SPEND SOME WEEKS OR MONTHS IN A IN A HOSPITAL OR PHYSICAL THERAPY REHAB

REMEMBER NOT 2 USE UR LEGS

TRY STANDING ON UT OWN WITHOUT FALLING

TRY 2 READ OR DRIVE BUT CAN'T

TRY 2 WRITE UR NAME BUT U CAN'T U HAVE NO FEELING IN UR HANDS OR DRAW A

STRAIGHT LINE

WE LEAN 2 ADAPT EVERYDAY

WE NEVER ASKED 4 (MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS)

EVERYTHING HAPPENS 4 A REASON

WE ASK OF U 2 TRY 2 BE US 4 AN EXTENDED LENGTH OF TIME

IF UR GOING LAUGH OR CALL US NAMES

COVER UR EYES AND EARS

PUSH URSELF AROUND IN A WHEELCHAIR BEFORE U SAY A NASTY COMMENT

TRY 2 PICTURE URSELF AS ONE OF UR 4 THE REST OF UR LIFE

My M.S. Story

I will begin with some basic information about myself.  I am currently 58 years old, soon to turn 59.  I am a wife, mother, grandmother, Retired Nurse. I have three grown children and 6 grandchildren.  I have a step granddaughter who has a little boy, so I guess that makes me a Great Grandmother (ah, way too young to be called that).  Anyway, it is what it is.

I was born in Arkansas but grew up in California.  Got married at 19 and soon after began to raise a family.  Life was good.  I was a Registered Nurse, made good income, had three wonderful children and a great husband.  As time went on, I began to have lots of back problems; from all the travel I did as a Nurse Consultant and years of lifting and caring for patients.  So, I ended up with 5 back surgeries which ended my nursing career. 

We decided to move to Georgia where our daughter and her family lived.  Wouldn’t it be grand to see our grandchildren growing up and be involved in their lives?  The rest of our children, parents, sisters and brothers all were in or around California.  This was a great, giant step for us.  Moving across the country.  A culture shock for sure.  We moved to Georgia in 2006 and after a year of crying every day, we began to make it “home”.  Now, I can say that we do love living here, the people with their Southern charm, the year round gardening and lifestyle.  So many great reasons to enjoy being here.  In the beginning, all I saw was a “foreign” country.  Seems like people did not even use the same language here in the deep south.  I had to learn English all over again. What does it mean;  “I am fixin’ to do something?”  Or, “I am carrying Jim to the store?”  I had no idea.  I had not even heard the word “ain’t” but began to hear it on a daily basis.  Needless to say, it seemed like a far, far, far away place from my California upbringing.

Back up a piece.  We love to camp.  We spent lots of weekends, and weeks, after I was disabled camping in the luxury of our Camp trailer.  One summer day in or around the year 2000, we were camping and I had laid down for a nap in the trailer.  I remember waking up and trying to sit up.  I immediately fell back down on the bed.  I tried again.  But, again, I fell back onto the bed.  I laid there a moment, not quite sure why the place seemed to be swarming in circles around me.  I could not tell up from down.  So, I just lay there. 

A few moments later my husband came in and he helped me outside in the fresh air.  I remember walking, or rather, him carrying me outside.  I had never been drunk, as I do not drink, but felt that I looked rather silly; staggering, as he tried to keep me upright out to my chair.  Our friends who were camping with us thought this a strange sight, for sure.  I sat there around the campfire ring and slowly my head began to clear.  I had been feeling a little nauseous at the time and just could not figure out what was going on.

When we arrived home from camping, I decided that I needed to see my doctor.  I made an appointment and was told I had “vertigo”.  OK.  No problem.   I was given a prescription of Meclizine (Antivert) and went on my way, feeling that this was the end.  Fast forward, years later to the hot summer of Georgia.  My husband and I were mowing the lawn (Georgians would say, “we were cutting the grass”) for some friends.  I again had the same experience as years earlier where the world around me was spinning and I had to fall to the ground and stay there.  This began to happen once or twice a month and then weekly.  I also began to see double.  I would see an image on top of another image.  If I shut one eye, it would clear.  But the nausea became a problem.  About the same time I began to have trouble with my right leg; numbness, tingling and pain.  I just pushed it aside feeling that it was a result of all the back injuries and surgeries I had in the past.  I would begin to trip over my leg just catching myself before I would fall.  Never actually hitting the ground.

I really just felt that I would just live with it and not get it checked out since I had been told it was vertigo and had medicine that I could take to relieve this symptom.  But, in the meantime, I had begun a ministry of visiting shut ins, the chronically ill; folks in our neighborhood that needed a visit.  One of the times I was visiting a woman who was recovering from a stroke.  As she asked about me, she was concerned, because the symptoms I had, were the same as she had, prior to her stroke.  I got the message and began the search for a real diagnosis of what was going on with me.

I was first sent to a Neurologist who took his time in asking questions and began the tests that would confirm or deny an accurate diagnosis.  I had my first MRI of the brain and the findings were indicative of a small vessel disease or demyelinating disease.  Nothing firm.  We waited a few months and repeated the MRI with the same findings.  Lots of white matter.  Many lab tests were done to rule out other diseases that mimicked one another.  I had an elevated sedimentation rate of 22 (showing an immune response to an inflammatory process outside the Central Nervous System) – ANA of 299, which is extremely high, so was diagnosed with Lupus – myelin protein 1.4 which was elevated – anti scleroderma 278 with a normal below 99 , so was also told I had Scleroderma. 

More tests followed; MUSK, negative;  Sjogrens, negative.  I was referred to a Rheumatologist, a Neuro Opthomologist, and it seems the list became endless.  The eye doctor said my Optic Nerve was good, which was a good thing.  She also, jokingly said, that since I was diagnosed at such an advanced age, 57, that I would probably not get any of the bad symptoms of Multiple Sclerosis.  I think that was a good thing!!! 

The Rheumatologist visit, was OH SO EMBARRASING.  I mean really, a doctor, in todays world that does not have hospital gowns.  Expects you to undress and then just sit on the table and wait for him, then answer a thousand and one questions.  NEVER again.  I told his nurse so and told him also.  I was then sent to XRay where I insisted on a gown.  Was given the XRay and then sent back to his waiting room.  I visited him every 3 months with no real outcome.  Finally, last Christmas, I was visiting him and could not see any point in going there.  He said I had Scleroderma.  He said I had Lupus.  His job was to check on how I was doing with these two diagnoses.  My neurologist felt that I did not have any signs of either one.  When I began complaining about the real things that were going on with me, he said “What do you think I am here to do for you?”  I replied, “I haven’t a clue”.  I could tell he was mad at me and also fed up.  His nurse came in and I was crying.  She said, “You’re not coming back are you?”  I said, “NEVER!!!”  She was the only sympathetic person in that place.  I do miss seeing her.  But I fired that doctor due to irreconcilable differences.

Well, my neurologist wasn’t too happy about that, but I have survived just fine since then.  I have since seen another neuro in Reno, Nevada, who ordered another series of tests; Evoked Potential Test,  Nerve Conduction Test, and a 3T MRI.  All of the above, plus, my second Lumbar Puncture.    The interesting thing about the spinal tap; my doctor called me to inform me that the lab had not handled the specimen correctly and therefore the important test he needed to confirm this diagnosis, was not done.  He hated to tell me, but that, I needed to repeat the spinal tap. He was so apologetic.  He was very unhappy with the lab.

I proceeded to have my third spinal tap which came back with OG bands.  Finally, the diagnosis was clear; Multiple Sclerosis.    Think of the relief, the fear, the future, and it all passed thru my mind in one instant.  Would I end up in a wheel chair having to rely on someone else to care for me?  Would I need a catheter because I would not be able to manage getting to the bathroom? All the things I knew about this disease came storming down on top of my brain.  I had finally been given a reason as to why my body was misbehaving.  It wasn’t exactly a death sentence.  I could go on!  Couldn’t I?  I was then given a treatment plan which included a once weekly injection.  ICK.  I thought.  I am a nurse.  Shots are no big thing.  But, to have to give myself one? NO WAY.  I just could not do it.

My church has a lot of nurses that belong.  So, I found one who was willing to give me my first injection and to teach my husband to give it to me weekly.  Of course, I was not instructed in the need to premedicate or increase fluids, or really any knowledge ahead of time.  Yes, I was given a book.  Yes, I was given a DVD.  But, when you are given such a diagnosis, you cannot retain much information on the topic.  I was one of those who read everything given to me, researched the internet, looked in my medical literature, but, when it came down to the actual time of getting the injection, all that knowledge went out the window.  I must say that my husband gave me the injections from February to June.  I then went on a trip to visit my daughter and had a friend give me two of the injections.  She was not available for my final shot before I flew back  home.  SO, I DID IT.  HAD NO CHOICE.  JUST WENT AHEAD AND DID IT.  I have been doing it ever since.  No biggy.

My first injection was February 11, 2010 (one day after my 57^th birthday).  I had been told by my brother, whose wife has MS, to take the shot at night so I could sleep thru the effects.  I had the injection at 6pm.  Went to bed as normal around 9 or 10pm.  What a horrible night.  All night, cold, shivering, burning up, couldn‘t get warm, literally shaking the bed, not enough covers to keep me warm.  I felt like I had the worst case of the flu, ever.  Every muscle in my body was screaming out in pain.  My jaws hurt so badly from all the shaking.  The following day, I could barely move.  It took all the energy I had to just get up and move to the couch, where I spent the day. 

The next day, I seemed to be all better.  But, I did not forget what that shot had done to me.  I began researching again, on how to overcome the side effects of the medicine.  My nurse friend told me to take Benadryl 50mg and Tylenol 1000mg about 1 hour before the injection and then again afterwards.  I began that regiment.  Only I figured out that if I take it 2 hours before and 2 hours after and again 4 hours into the night, I could go without any of the side effects.  At about the 6 month period of this treatment, I was able to sleep thru the night and wake up totally without any ill effects.  I could have a normal day “after”. 

I have some strange aches and pains.  My left arm on the inside goes numb and painful at the same time.  Now, how can that be.  If it is numb, you aren’t supposed to feel it???  Well, I feel it.  I also have my left little finger that burns like fire most of the time.  Don’t know what that is all about, but it does.  Almost feels like it is broken in the joint.  Oh well, it will not be the death of me, this little finger.  So, I carry on.  I type.  I blog.  I play games on the computer.  I bake and cook.  I love to bake.  I love to write stories of Gods goodness to me and my family.  It helps to focus on others and the goodness that I have received, then to dwell on what is happening to my body which is not of my choosing.

Many funny and interesting things have happened along this journey.  I teach a Sunday School class of ladies who are all over 80.  We call them the Fidelis Class, which means Faithful.  I always taught children in the church so I  continued on using Object Lessons with this new class of wonderful Seniors.  One Sunday I had taken all kinds of objects into the room to teach them their lesson.  I was doing just fine, until I held up a fire extinguisher.  I could not think of the name for it whatsoever.  I stammered along, stuttering, trying to come up with the name, when one of the deal ladies said, “it is called a fire extinguisher!”  I was so relieved that the name had somehow come up.  I surely could not have found it.  This seemed to happen pretty regularly when I would be talking to folks.  My grandchildren just laugh at me now.  We will be baking and I would keep telling them that something was in the dryer, meaning the oven.  I guess, I got the HOT part of it right, just the wrong appliance.  I just cannot seem to find the right words at times but I always get in the general area.  If it is something in the kitchen I am trying to recall, I might say freezer and mean ice.  OR, possibly knife when I meant shot.  Oh well, who knew this was to come after me.  But, I can do it.

My mother In law, who is 83, lives with us.  She is as sharp as a tack.  She is constantly correcting my words and putting in the right ones.  The ones I cannot think of.  Between her and my husband, I do not stand a chance, of coming up with the right words.  They  both know exactly what I mean even if I cannot get the words out.  That is one of the most frustrating symptoms I have of this disease.  Not being able to recall words.  Familiar words.  Words I always knew and could spell and now am at a loss to bring them to remembrance. 

I often will play bowling with them on our WII.  Only after I bowl a couple of times, and I am good, I begin to fall into the walls or the couch or them.  They just laugh and think it is funny.  Cannot walk down the halls at church without having to lean on the walls to get to where I am heading.  All of the church people have figured me out by now, but still are concerned that I am going to get hurt.  No falls as of this point.  No injuries.  I drop things.  Cannot seem to hang on to anything that I put in my hands, but have learned that it is going to happen and have adjusted how I do things now.  I have learned to slow down.  Take my time.  Not be in a rush.  I do not plan things in the morning or evening hours if I do not have to.  Afternoons are my best time.  I schedule myself rest times.  I am learning to take care of me.

It has now been almost 1 year since I have begun treatment.  I have only had one relapse which was corrected with a 6 day course of Prednisone.  Do I have pain?  Yes.  Do I have daily symptoms?  Yes.  Can I do anything about that?  Yes.  I believe that as I educate myself, reduce the amount of stress in my life, keep myself hydrated (I later learned to drink lots of fluids the day of and the day after my treatment) exercise and eat right, that I will have a better day.  This is a day to day disease.  Sometimes it is moment to moment.  Right now, I am having a good week.  But, I do not know about tomorrow.  I have learned to live today because tomorrow I might not be able to move, and make decisions, and go places.  I am learning to love in greater depths.  To do things I would never have thought I would want to try.  To spend more time with my family and my loved ones.

Multiple Sclerosis has no cure.  It is sometimes an “unseen” disease as we often look “normal”.  It does its work underneath, in hiding, behind the brain matter.  It is sneaky and sly.  Comes and goes where it wishes.  Robs you of motion, and the freedom to live without pain, and yes, robs you of life itself.  Many have lost their battle with this disease.  Many more have become crippled, wheel chair bound or even bed bound.  Some cannot feed themselves, or dress themselves or even go to the bathroom on their own.  They are the heroes in this story.  They have suffered the most and yet, the ones I hear about, have fabulous stories to share.  They have not given in.  They have not given up.  There is still hope. They are still praying, seeking a cure.

What can you do?  How can you help?  First of all by listening.  Not having a ready answer.  Not giving a tongue in cheek response.  But really listening.  Listen to what is said and what is not said.  Offer to do small acts of servanthood.  Bring a meal.  Stop by and mop a floor.  Offer to sit with the afflicted one so that a caregiver can have a much deserved break.  Send an encouraging card or scripture.  Offer up a prayer.  Call them on the phone or drop by for a “cup of tea”.  There are so many small things that are huge to those who are in the midst of the storm.  Take yourself out to the waters with them for a time, and allow them to begin to heal.

Submitted by words2bless (Leola Stotts)

Poem by Karma

Just The Way I Am

Doing time for no known crime
Has been difficult for me
It's hard to live with chronic pain
That others cannot see

The thief that robbed my body
Stole my strength and left me pain
I do my very best to cope
I struggle to stay sane

I miss our get-togethers
I miss shopping at the mall
It hurts me to be left behind
It's not my choice at all

I long for how it used to be
When I could join right in
To do the fun and simple things
With family and friends

You seldom call or visit
You're tired of it, I guess
Of always asking, "Come along"
And never hearing, "Yes"

I ache to be with all of you
I wish I could explain
How doing 'normal' things in life
Can cause me so much pain

I'm trapped inside this body
With pain that has no end
I grieve for all the things I've lost
I'd like them back again

When I decline to join you
Please try to understand
It's not that I don't want to
It's just the way I am

quotes from Karma Jones

*HELLO,U HAVE REACHED A NERVE ENDING THAT HAS BEEN TEMPORARILY DISCONNECTED OR IS NO LONGER IN SERVICE, IF YOU FEEL YOU HAVE REACHED THIS NERVE IN ERROR PLEASE TRY YOUR CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM AGAIN THIS IS MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS*

Tammy's poem

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

A Mom with MS ( A Poem)
A Mom with MS (A Poem)
A Mom with MS,
This is me, that is true.
But I will prove I am more.
In all that I do.

I refuse to be negative,
to dwell on the past.
The journey of MS
is one that will last

I am more than MS,
I am more than a label.
I can get my kids to school
And get dinner on the table.

The kids may see me nap,
More than their friend’s moms do.
But they will know my strength
And the effort I put forth in all I do.

I want them to be proud & learn from me;
That even when you face a challenge
Your life can be yours.
We are all still free.

It’s how you handle the storm
That makes you who you are.
By weathering the storm of MS,
My attitude will take me far.

I stand here stronger than MS
I won’t let you break me.
Because I am who I am
The best of me is all you’ll see!

~Tammy Caramagno Malkowski

Discovering unity

From my personal blog dated Dec 2,

I will not quote statistics to you, but there are a lot of people suffering from M.S., guesstimate 400,000. in the USA alone. I have befriended quite a few on face book and one thing I am noticing is that there is a special kin ship.

I can guarantee not one of us wants the dreaded disease, but the sufferers tend to rally around one another. I suppose I should be ashamed, but as an O.T. practitioner I hated working with M.S. patients. In the acute settings they were happy folk, but I always seemed to think that "they were gonna beat this thing!, Why are they so positive?" This was over 15 years ago and the options then were nil' to nothing.

I know find myself saying things like, " I"m not going down without a fight!" Or even better... " I have this disease, but it does not have me!" This is not uncommon in chronic illness, but it seems especially so with this particular disease. I can only hypothesise that its because of the unpredictable nature of this disease. What else can we do? Sit around and mope or try to make the best of what we have.

I know personally, I am physically an enigma. The size and location of my lesions generally result in some major gross motor problems. The neurologist looks at my mri's, meet me then repeats the process. My balance sometimes really sucks and I have assorted issues that pester, but for a monster C2 lesion.... I am a walking miracle. I have decided I am just not going down like that! Mind over body is my tune and I am not changing it!

I am watching the boards of the people taking the brand new oral med (all others are shots or infusions) and waiting now 4 more months while my doctor awaits the data. The downside to the drug would be that it is an immunosuppressant, up side little to no side effects. It also is showing up to be 3-4 more times effective than the present older medications. Will I rock the Michael Jackson Mask.... hells yeah! Will I stock up on Clorox sanitizing wipes, absolutely! Will I bathe in pure-ll, if I need to!

I normally don't fuss too much about my dis-ease, but I am finding a group of people who share one hell of a common bond. We all got this crap disease that we did nothing to catch and it affects our lives, like it or not!

I can say with all the new developments such as a surgery to detox the brain, the brain stem project I am dying to get into and now a new med.... things are looking up. I have been told to be diagnosed now may well be the best time if you have to be.

You will not find a more supportive group of people, so I just want to give props to my fellow M.S.ers and a thank you to my kind and sweet blog peeps! Life always seems to give you what you need and kind people must have been on my list! You guys rock!

Angela's Song

An exceptional kind soul fighting PML!A song made for our dear friend Angela, by the MS Community of Facebook and YouTube. Angela has PML Progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy and is fighting this horrible disease. She has her own foundation to raise money and awarness for MS. She also has been a huge advocate for CCSVI and has helped so many, it only seems right that we show her how much she means to all of us. Many of the clips are from her own videos, I wanted the world to see her through our eyes!

Nerve cell facts by plush microbes...

Facts: there are a lot of different kinds of nerve cells. Motor neurons shock our muscles into action. Motor neurons shock our muscles into action; sensory neurons in our eyes and ears are stimulated by light and sound, on our nose and tongue by chemicals for small and taste and on our skin by touch; and an untold number of other intereurons transmit impulses within the central nervous system and the brain. But they all work in a similar way.

When the dendrites on the dendric tree of the body of a nerve cell receive a a sufficiently strong signal, it irresistibly triggers an electrical impulse inside the cell that travels down the long thing axon ( which is protected by a fatty myelin sheath). When the impulse reaches the axon terminal at the base of the nerve, special signaling chemicals are released that float across the gap (or synapse) between one nerve cell and the next and process continues.

Most nerve cells are tiny. But some are as long as your leg, literally. They extend al the way from the base of the spine to the tips of your toes.But unlike most cells, nerve cells cannot reproduce- or if they get injured, loss of feeling and even paralysis can occur. (Abnormalities in the neurotransmitters or in the nerve cell itself can also lead to conditions such as Alzheimers disease, Parkinson's disease or MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS ).

But don't get nervous; nerve cells are shockingly reliable. And if you are feeling jittery, it's probably the neurotransmitters that are to blame anyway. So wipe off your sweaty palms, take a deep breath , close your eyes and listen to some music, smell something sweet.... and relax. Your nerves will help you do it!

Recently someone asked why m.s. affected the nerves and caused pain. This is one of the best explanations and a great toy!