Multiple Sclerosis: MS Attack Zones

MS Wound Attack Zones

Think about it. You get the feeling something is not right. You deny the possibility the feeling is MS. It has been 24 hours since the feeling stated. Anxiety drives desperation to make a neurologist appointment. Once in the examining room, the medical assistant prompts answers to a litany of questions.  The assistant finishes, stands, then exiting the door, turns and announces, "The doctor will be with you shortly". The door closes and you are alone. Hundred times the same visit scenario happens a the doctor's offices. This time I am sitting stressed about the possibility of an MS attack. My heart knows the truth, but I pray the neurologist will offer an absolution rather than blessing my fear is true. As much as you want it to be, the examining room is not a sanctuary from the fear. The emptiness fills with worry. Am I having an MS attack? Where is that doctor? I do not want to be here. Should I just walk out? Where is the doctor?  I know the doctor’s examination routine. I fear to hear the words. I have been here before. I know what I will do. Again, I will put my grit to work.

The MS Wound Attack Zones illustrates trauma's dual events triggered in both the conscious mind and the brain's neurology. The lesion triggers an alert in the mind that notifies us something is wrong. The picture shows both the neurological and neuro-psych paths emanating from the same MS attack. The conscience mind presents its diagnostic report long before the doctor’s report. The MD makes the determination if the symptoms are MS symptomatic or not.

For an MS attack, neuropsychological (NPL) is a broad term that refers to the behavioral changes caused by the lesion's neurological trauma. NPL therapy includes many treatment domains. The neuropsychologist helps to quantify the trauma. The psychologist's focuses is life quality helps adapt behavioral change.. The physical therapist helps restore the quantity of movement. The personal trainer aid with one to one quantity of life.training. Other therapy professionals focus on other quantity or quality strategies  To thrive, the MSer owns the quantity and quality strategy.

The clinical MS language focuses on the neurological terms lesion, inflammation, and sclerosis. The neuro-psych path is not in the MS language. The NPL path si parallel to the clinical path but with different events. The lesion is the same, but in the NPL path, the trauma triggers the conscious mind into irritation behaviors, like "Get to the neurologist." Just as the lesion’s inflammation leaves scars, irritation leaves mental stigmas. These stigmas are the lasting mind impressions originated by the lesion.

The current MS dialog does not directly speak about the neuro-psych path and how it is a precursor to medical treatment. The doctor's pre valuation requirement instructs the MS a change must last 24 hours or more. The instruction is an NPL irritation but irritation and stigma is not in the neurologist language. Our mind expresses irritation for 24 hours.

The table relates the trauma to symptom treatment.

This paragraph I borrowed and edited from msbrainheath.org: "Brain health A guide for people with multiple sclerosis" as an example clinical narrative and how neuro-psych and neurology present in many explanations of MS.

The capacity of the brain to adapt (remodel) is known as neurological reserve, and the more neurological reserve a brain has the healthier (self) the brain. When someone is feeling well (asymptomatic) , science proved that MS can be active. Research has shown that only about one in 10 lesions leads to a relapse (symptomatic) and that other, less noticeable, damage can be ongoing. If an MSer does not experience new or worse symptoms (irritation), the brain may compensate (remodel) for the damage by using neurological reserves (remodel). When damage uses all the brain's neurological reserve, the brain the MS symptoms may progress (symptomatic).

Multiple Sclerosis: Neurologist and Brain Health

Neurologist and Brain Health

Neurologists are the enablers that make remodel possible. They help identify relapses, provide the means for remission (steroids) and prescribe DMTs to sustain modeling. They are the relapse-remission-remodel bookends in an MSer's story.

By necessity, neurologists are the outside-in viewer. When a doctor makes symptoms diagnosis, that is the art of clinical affinity modeling. My favorite  term I use to describe MS is a neurological complex trauma syndrome (CTS). By itself, trauma has four factors, injury, emotional challenges, social impact, and disability adapting.  A lesion is a wound that injures the complex interconnection of the body systems. Common speak from the outside-in view refers to MS as a disorder of the central nervous system. But as a CTS, the injury is one trauma's factors. While the lesion injuries the interconnected body systems, the wound multiples the complex trauma impact with emotional, social, and disability interconnections.

Everybody is an affinity modeler. For doctors, their clinical art is the craft of separating the cause from the effect and the determination of remedy. For an MSer, affinity models frame personal remedy.  Neuroplasticity remodels brain circuits. Affinity remodels the mind. Treatment and training merge to form the affinity models for remodeling MS's trauma.

I believe brain health is essential to being able to remodel. The next step is brain wellness, where the lessons from brain health become asset resources for remodeling. Brain health presents the tools and options for the biological life and safety of brain cells. Brain wellness implants thrive, and health models into the mind.

I think brian-mind a collection of different engines that operate thoughts. The discrimination engine sorts object thoughts,  the memory engine stores, and preserves thoughts, the threat engine escalates survival thoughts, the cognition engine synthesizes calculation thoughts, the activity engine stimulates movement thoughts. These engines and others provide the ability to thrive. The affinity engine receives thoughts, determines similarity, and forwards to other engines. Human affinity models are cognitive constructions of the mind for a similar purpose. For MS remodeling, the affinity models provide the mind, brain, body scripts to adapt trauma and install change.

MS changes the MSer's concept of self.  Fatigue and numbness are two MS symptoms that block environment connection.  The block is like a radiant gradient mesh filtering our kinesthetic sense limiting our ability to accurately know our positions and movements in the environment. Neurological treatments, therapy, and training provide the means to remodel the block. Brain health is a natural resource that sustains remodeling. 

The mind is constantly collecting affinity thoughts into empathy ideas for action. MS neurology trauma affects sense signals and mind interpreters.  Affinity is the reasoning to determine likeness. Our brain collects sense signals that the mind interpreters to thoughts.

MS is a complex trauma syndrome. Replacing the organic term brain-mind to be a more perceptual term, affinity space, enables a better means to understand MS's impact.   The MS lesion damages the affinity space by creating black holes that are the source of the trauma syndrome. The black hole ripple effect generates complex trauma starting the affinity space that radiates out into social and emotional space. to eventually become disability space. Once in the disability space, the will to thrive remodels affinity space to create new universes around the black hole.

Brain health is the gravity of the affinity space.

Multiple Scleroses: Inside-Out Introduction

Inside-Out Introduction

The theme for my study on multiple sclerosis is "MS From the Inside Out."   The work started out as a way to look at MS from a different perspective. The basic theme is the trauma of MS. A few years ago, I visited a hospital and noted a sign that read "Trauma Center." Intuitively I knew the reference, but for some reason, the name nagged at me.The word trauma provokes visions of a TV ER with gurneys, blood, and madness. I decided to find a better explanation. At last, I found that the classical use of trauma means not only the injury but it also includes social and emotional impacts. For a person with a long-term injury, I added disability as an impact area. These 4 impact areas, injury, social, emotional and disability frame my MS study.

Over time , my career in engineering and computers developed my skill over for information modeling. In my early 30’s I was a manager for a group of engineers and programmers. I was having a devil of a time communicating with staff about job assignments and work activity. A friend suggested I see a psychologist. Skeptical, I made an appointment. I explained the situation to the therapist. After about 20 minutes, the psychologist said you are fine, you just need some more tools. She handed me a book called “Frogs into Princes” saying “Read the first 100 pages. Come back if you have more questions.” I never went back. The book was about neural linguistic programming (NLP).  For me, those 100 pages opened the door to information modeling and enabled many career advancements.

As humans, our brains store unique abstract information models of reality. These models are complex integrations of learned experiences biased by physical constraints, social norms, environmental limits and subjective discrimination.   From the "inside-out" is a statement specific to my information models.  When doing information modeling, sometimes new and unexpected perspectives emerge. The Blog has a few topics I find interesting.  My study includes impact models for injury, social and emotional areas.  A common theme in many of the models relates to the injury model.

Because MS affects the central nervous system resulting from loss of myelin around the nerve fiber's axons, the effect is loss of quality-of-life. Over time the intervals of immune system attacks remove axon myelin. When the attack occurs, the biological wound results in inflammation then eventually scarring and disability. The clinical name for the process is a relapse, an attack, and remitting, interval between relapses.  However, as a person living with MS, the clinical explanation omits an important consideration of living with neurological damage. When an MSer experiences an attack, we go to the neurologist to confirm the relapse. If the experience is an attack, the treatment is an infusion of then steroids to promote remission. My model changes the clinical model from the relapse/remittance to an event model relapse/remission/remodel where remodel is the period between relapses. This definition of remodeling became a common thread in my MS study.

Remodeling occurs constantly in life's events. I consider reframing and reshaping as two general categories of remodeling. Reframing usually refers to modifying the psychological impact and reshaping usually refers to adapting to the physical impact.  Generally reframing and reshaping are codependent changes acting as twisted wires bonding the new model.  

Consider a common life event of getting up from a chair, walk across the room and out the door.  A microscopic analysis could demonstrate millions of coordinated model events occurring in the event's processes. Fortunately, remodeling can be effectively recruited by common practice.

Bicycle: The MS Bike

Joseph’s MS Bike

Joseph’s MS Bike explains Multiple Sclerosis.

While at a yard sale, laying on the lawn was a dirty old steel bike for $10.  Something about it attracted my attention. The rusted chain hung off the crank gears. The shredded cabling rubber dangled out of the shifter.  The bent wheels would never roll.  The seat rotted away a long time ago, leaving only the metal frame. The logos and markings were long gone. For an offer of $5, I took it home and stashed it in the corner of the garage, and I forgot about it. As an ambassador for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, I give talks about MS and my life with MS. One morning, a dream memory remained. In the memory vision was that yard sale bike but rebuilt, bright with new colors that explained MS.  For ambassador talks, I am always looking for a better way to communicate MS topics and issues.

In a dream vision, I could see a new design perfectly. On the top, down and seat tubes are the words Live, Ride, Believe. The neuron painted on the head tube and forks represents the dark mystery of MS hiding its cause and cure. The lighter spots on the tubes show where MS attacks the myelin on the axons leaving its scars (sclerosis). The orange is for all MS heroes who help MSers and support efforts to find a cure. The white is the belief that MS will be cured. On the chain stay tubes are the words “Stop MS”

As we all know, seeing something in a dream and making it come true are two quite different stories. The yard sale bike was a steel frame fitted with 27-inch wheels, 10-speed gears, and downtube lever gear shifters. The off the drop handlebar hung what were once the brake levers. The bike vintage was in the early 1970s. In the dream, the new components replaced the original components. The frame and the fork remained 

The MS Bike took weeks to build. All the components had to be acquired.  After sandblasting the paint and rust off the frame, a new powder-coated paint made the frame look new just off an assembly line. Wheels and gears, cables, brakes and shifters, handlebars and a seat, and MS Bike was ready to ride.

The dream became true. The Multiple Sclerosis bike story begins at the head tube where the neuron and axon image shows the dark mystery of MS,  The yellow spots on the neurons are the scars from the MS lesion. The orange is for all the people who have MS, the support partners, and all the people helping to solve the MS mystery.  The white is the belief MS will be cured.

On the top tube is the word "Live", the down tube says "Ride" and the seat tube is "Believe". "We live with MS, ride through MS's challenges, and believe there will be a cure."

The MS Bike is Ready

Parade Ready 

Multiple Sclerosis: MS From the Inside-Out ~ Evolution

MS From the Inside-Out ~ Evolution

In 1989, at 40 years old, I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Then in 1993 was the lottery for the first MS disease-modifying treatment drug, Betaseron. By 1996, disability forced the end of my professional career. For the next few years, I continued to follow the traditional MS clinical explanations and recommendations. In 2008, MS started gaining too much power over me. I needed a new approach; I wanted to change myself and change my MS.

After years of physical therapy, treatment at different offices was the same, I found therapists did not know about neurological therapy and treatment for multiple sclerosis clients.  Unsatisfied with physical therapy, l decided to hire personal trainers so the trainer would work for me and not for a medical office.  I had years of physical therapy, I knew my MS, and I decided I needed help with training, not with physical therapy. At first, the idea seemed attainable, but I soon found for treatment I needed both physical therapy and personal training. However, in a little over a year of personal training, I went from occasionally walking with two canes, weighting 300 lbs to riding my fist Colorado Bike MS 150.

When I started training,  I could not find a personal training program that focused on MS.  Before my first personal training session, I knew I would need some techniques to use as the models for the program. Within a few sessions, the idea for the model revealed itself, "rebuild the connections that MS took from me." That idea of rebuilding connections grew into a program I named " Connection Toning." During the early training years, I training by intuition, following the mantra "tell the brain what going to be trained, train the brain, tell the brain what was trained."  Meanwhile, I still had the neurologist visits, the pills, and the disease-modifying treatment injections. And eventually, physical therapy, psychological therapy, occupational therapy, neuropsychology evaluations, nutrition counseling, support groups, and home exercise programs all again became part of my MS life. The mantra evolved, and then, resolved to be "remodel the connections."

MS is only part of an MSer's life. My wife of 20 years is not an MSer, but she lives with my MS too. Our daughter, now living on her own, used to go to MS meetings and sit with coloring books. For every MSer, MS affects at least four or more other people. The clinical replase-remitting disease explanation of MS  does not explain the MSer living with MS, and the impact on others. Species evolution describes the phenomenon of species changes over time. The phenomenon of an MS attack is similar but the change occurs in lifespan. Every MS relapse-remitting cycle causes a persistent lifestyle evolution change. The change affects the MSer and support partners. 

Initial drawings of "Multiple Sclerosis Trauma Evolution" began in 2008 while trying to understand how remodel training fits with the clinical models of MS symptoms.  As the person who experiences MS symptoms, my perspective was from the inside-out view. And the clinical perspective is from the outside-in view. Since both views are for the same symptoms, the same perspective should allow for both views.  The clinical model used the terms relapse-remitting to describe the cycles of symptoms where remitting is the time between attacks. 

The neurologist's outside-in MS explanations describe the three types of MS progression.  As an MS person, MS affects me from the inside-out. The clinical MS progressing types are variations of release-remitting cycles. My MS life with MS knew that between the relapses, something else happens. I experience MS as a series of events. A relapse event triggers treatment for a remission event. After remission is a pause until the next relapse. During the pause, I trained to adapt to the damage caused by the relapse. I realized the pause is another event, and the pauses' training's purpose was to remodel the damage, not just to adapt. The inside-out view is three events, relapse, remission and remodel.

As part of my sessions with the trainers, the term adapting did not reflect the essential purpose of what I needed from training, which is to identify and rewire the MS damage. The name remodel, as a term, describes the three challenges,  identity the trauma, impact assessment, and remedy.  Remodel is a process that begins with identifying the lesion damage, determine the lifestyle impact, and work to remedy a lifestyle.  (Over time I developed my technique for remodeling; provoked fatigue to identify the damage, therapy experts for impact assessments, and training methods for remedy, I hope others can develop better techniques.) 

In other posts, I describe my methods for remodeling. This post explains how both the outside-in and the inside-out description of MS trauma is relapse-remission-remodel. I retired as an Ambassador for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. When I attended meetings with other MSers, many people told me their MS story. We know the statement, "No two people with MS have the same MS symptoms." Truthfully, those words is the same for most things, "No two people live the same life." "Everybody is different. "Everything in nature is different." In life, the human mind creates models of similarity that makes things appear the same. For training, I needed a better way to explain that remodeling is life long and not just an event between relapses. Another statement we hear about MS is, "No two relapses are the same." The Multiple Sclerosis Trauma Evolution drawing illustrates the relapse-remission-remodel definition; it does not illustrate the lesion's trauma. The drawing recognizes MS's trauma life consequences where disability increases and the ability to thrive decreases.

The human voice produces sound waves where no two utterances are the same. Yet, we can hear and recognize the words. The ocean waves rise and fall where each wake-wave are not the same. Yet, we can see and hear the pattern. The term 'eccentric' means instances in a unique pattern, it also means groups of instances in an observable framework. Each sound wave is an eccentric pattern, yet the accumulation of patterns permits recognitions. MS's trauma leaves disability markers as MS evolves with the repeated eccentric occurrences of relapse-remission-remodel. This is MS from the inside-out. 

The drawing shows relapse-remission-remodel as definable events. MS has two dimensions of disease activity.  On-the-surface is the measurable recognition of lesion damage. Below-the-surface is a disease activity that is not clinically diagnosed.  Remodel is effective for both dimensions of disease activity. Brain health is a major tenet of remodeling. My favorite expression in Connection Toning is "Healthy Lungs, Healthy Brain."  The brain requires 20 percent of the air supply. If the MS activity is above or below the surface,  brain health defuses trauma impact and enables remodeling. 

Inside-Out and Outside-In Views

Everybody responds to disability as their own to manage. The clinical model of MS uses the term loss of the quality-of-life to describe the effects caused by increases in disability.  When I asked myself, what does MS steal from me, the list was long. Unsatisfied with the list, I recalled the doctor's diagnosis of my father's death. On the certificate, the doctor wrote the words "Failure to thrive." Looking at my list again, I realized failure to thrive also meant able to thrive. While quality-of-life is a true statement, it is incomplete. My inside-out perspective accuses MS of stealing my ability-to-thrive.

MS not only stole some of my quality-of-life; MS stole some of my quantity of life. Ability-to-thrive means quality-of-life and quantity-of-life. The ability-to-thrive reveals an intrinsic survival power model for will-to-thrive. Remodeling and will-to-thrive have a direct relationship. Each provides a self-supporting resource for the other, and grit is the result. Grit is the will-to-thrive remedy that dampens the long-term eccentric effects of MS trauma. Grit is the seed that feeds remodel.

From storm to calm, From relapse to remission, From remission to remodel, From wave to wake, From day to night, From earth to the moon, From birth to death, From neither the same, From alive to thrive, From change we know, From remodel to thrive, From storm to calm.

Contonx: Everyday Connections

Everyday Connections

Connection toning training begins with learning to be aware of the body's connections to produce activity for movement.

Suppose you are in a room sitting in a chair, and you look out a door and see a bright day inviting you outdoors. You stand up, walk across the room to the door, and all of sudden the wind slams the door shut. 

The normal body movement requires three movement elements for action.  

• Begin with physical prowess to stand. 

• Neurological coordination to walk 

• Cognitive planning orchestrates navigation to the door. 

• Startle reflex combines the movements into a simultaneous action. The door slamming causes a startle reflex that slams the thee elements into a near-simultaneous event.

Connections in MS

In MS, the immune system attacks the insulating tissue myelin around the axons causing 3 possible electrical conditions.

•  A circuit open happens when the axon is cut causing axon loss

•  Resistance increases due to insulation loss 

•  Shorts, crosstalk, happen due to the demyelinated axons touching. 

All three exhibit fatigue conditions sometimes called nerve fiber fatigue.

In a way, the MS fatigue experience is like fainting, but unlike a faint where the person fainting has no conscious awareness, the MS fatigue attack is more like watching from being stuck in a bowl of clear gelatin unable to move.

In my youth, I had mononucleosis. While mono has several symptoms, the main symptom I remember is the extreme fatigue. I was so weak my mother had to spoon-feed me.  In my adult life, I can recall 4 times when the MS fatigue reminded me of being in bed with mono.  The other symptom I remember learning to walk again because my legs had no strength. Some say mono and MS may be related biologically. But, I do know fatigue symptoms are comparable.

Remodel Connections

All body positions require tone.  Muscles, nerves, bones, blood, and mind work together to maintain tone. The most restful posture requires tone. Movement requires millions of changes in tone. Each change requires connections to transfer from tone to tone. The connection itself is a tone.

Trauma disrupts connection tones. Connection tone training is a process for remodeling the damage in body systems to rebuild or remake or construct new connection tones. 

                

Contonx: Contonix Exertion Scales

The Contonix Exertion Scales is a self-assessment grading method on the effectiveness of Mind-It Training (MIT) exercises. Tone is an active event that occurs when forces act together to maintain balance. If a person extends an arm and holds is stead, all biological systems act together to hold tone. As soon as the moves, the biological systems continue to act together to sustain continue change in tone. The means to change from one tone state to another is connection toning.

Bicycle: Letter to Jimmie Heuga

Happy Birthday Jimmie

Sept 22, 2012

Dear Jimmie,

This is a letter I wrote to Jimmie Heuga, ski racer, MS champion, my pedal partner on my first 150 Bike MS ride. His was the inspiration for Can    Do MS in Vail. September 22 was Jimmie’s birthday and he died February 2010.  Two years later, on his birthday, I did a bike ride that was a challenge for me. This is a letter I wrote to him about the ride.    

Dear Jimmie,

This is a letter I wrote to Jimmie Heuga, ski racer, MS champion, my pedal partner on my first 150 Bike MS ride. His was the inspiration for Can    Do MS in Vail. September 22 was Jimmie’s birthday and he died February 2010.  Two years later, on his birthday, I did a bike ride that was a challenge for me. This is a letter I wrote to him about the ride.  

  

On Saturday the 22nd, 4 friends and I rode a bicycle ride I tagged as the CanDo 50.  The ride heads west from Loveland. At the base of the foothills, the route turns north to Mansoville, which begins the climbs over the Horsetooth Reservoir Hills. Just before Bellvue is Bringham Hill Road that heads back east to Fort Collins.  At Overland Trail, we head south on streets and trails to Loveland.

At the start, the weather was slightly hazy and cool. I admit I was worried about doing this ride because I did not know if I could climb the six Horsetooth hills in the same ride. While the hills are not much by Colorado climbs, to me each represents overcoming MS challenges.  When I started riding to improve my overall health and put my MS on notice that I was in charge, I remember each of those hills because many times I had to get off the bike and walk up them.

By mid-morning, the haze is lifting and the two of the west Horsetooth hills are finished. Because I trained on those hills, claiming them was still work, but not difficult.

A turn north and across the dam, the forth ill is a short steep climb above the reservoir. Silly, how sometimes just the thought of a thing will block success. Months before today, I walked that hill at least five times or more. At the base, looking up I said to myself, “That’s not much of a hill, what are you worried about?” Sure enough Jimme, it was not much of a hill today. Next was hill 5, it is long and steep, and provokes heavy breathing, but the MS never fatigued. The downhill is great  Hill six is a bump but it marks the turn back to Loveland.

I am sure you remember, that climbing hills with MS takes special conditioning, the descent takes even more conditioning. Because downhill is faster, it requires faster reaction times and coordination. It’s the same for all riders, but for MS’ers, fatigue is riding out in front looking for a way to cause trouble.   You get to the top, legs are burning, lungs gasping, heart-pounding, arms and hands weak from gripping the handlebar, and you see that downhill. In quick order, not only does the ride focus change, but you must shift from low gears to high gears, test brakes, relax tense muscles, change line-of-sight focus, switch mental fears, watch for obstacles, plan a safe path, adjust riding positions, anticipate curves, heighten the  back sense, and then look for that downhill freedom path to make the ride. 

 For me as an MS rider, both the climb and the descent have MS challenges. MS  has no place is during the downhill ride. The MS cannot catch me there. I let go of the struggles, trust my bike, tuck down, smile and laugh at the fatigue. 

By noon, my friends peeled off, each heading home. That left three miles to finish the ride by myself. This was a great day because those last minutes gave me time to reflect on the ride and remember the one time I met you, the day you signed my helmet as my first pedal partner. As an MS Ambassador, I told that story many times and the importance of fighting MS in many ways.

At the end, the CanDo ride was 47 miles. I rode the 6 hills without walking a single one.  After getting back to the start, I still had a couple of miles to get home. No problem.  We had a great ride pedal partner.

Happy Birthday, Jimmie!

MS Inside-Out: History of MS

MS Inside-Out: History of MS

• 1399, 1st diagnosed case of MS

           Saint Lidwina of Holland

           1380-1434 

           Diagnosed with MS at 19 

           MSer for 34 years!  

• May 1, 1945 

          a New York Times classified advertisement read:

        “Multiple Sclerosis. Will anyone recovered from it 

          please communicate with the patient." 

             Placed by Miss Sylvia Lawry, Founder NMSS

•      March 11, 1946   

           The National Multiple Sclerosis Society founded. 

•     1993 - first disease-modifying therapy
   
•     2020 Still no cause, no cure.

MS Inside-Out: Your are my HERO

YOU ARE MY HERO

When I give MS Ambassador talks, I always thank those listening with this recognition:

When I rode my first Bike MS 150, wearing my first “I ride with MS” jersey, riders passing would call out “You're my hero.”  After about 100 miles, I realized, I am not the hero, but those out here riding to support the cure for MS are my heroes. 

After thinking about heroes, I realized “hero” is an 

acronym for Help Everyone, Respect Others.

When you give time, talent, treasure and tenacity, you show respect. For me, tenacity is the most important. 

Never give up.

Each of you is my hero.

Thank you

MS Inside-Out: Concurrent Complex Syndrome

Concurrent Complex Syndrome

Inside-Out:

For years I looked for a term that groups all the different interconnected complications with MS. In my "MS from the Inside-Out" study, an MS attack is a type of trauma. The factors of trauma are injury, emotional, social and disability. The term "Complex Trauma Syndrome" acknowledges the complicated interdependent trauma factors. An MS attack inherits some characteristics from complex trauma syndrome plus adds the labyrinth effects from "Complex Fatigue Syndrome” caused by the physical, neurological and neuropsychological MS wounds. By thinking of the "MS syndrome"   as a layered complex group of symptoms whose characteristics are distinguished by inherited or innate. For example, the MS emotional symptom of an outcast is inherited but denial is innate. However, both outcast and denial are each complex syndromes within the group.

The origin of a complex syndrome happens as the trigger from some event. Power engineering uses the term dark start to describe the process uses to restart the main power generation turbines following a grid backout.  To start the big turbine requires a motor strong enough to initiate turbine movement. Then another motor is used to start the turbine starter motor. And another motor starts the motor that start the motor that starts the turbine starter motor. When some flips a switch to turn on a room’s light bulb, the light’s glow happens as the result of a dark start switch. A simple power on switch has many dependencies on science, physics, chemistry, engineering, craftsmanship, architecture and more including the biomechanics of the hand, human physical prowess, neurological coordination and the neuropsychological wherewithal that creates a plan to turn on the switch.  Sometimes, all that is necessary to intuitively attribute a dark start as a common event. From the room’s perspective, the dark start trigger occurred at the flipping of the switch.

Every injury does not exist until a black start trigger event happens. In MS, the explanation “no known cause” means science has not found the true dark start source for MS symptoms. However, science does know the MS injury begins with a wound from the immune system removing myelin. This injury is the clinical dark start source that in turn causes wounds.  

Concurrent Dissonance Disorder – In wellness, concurrent dissonance disorder is multi-factor physical, mental or social disorders occurring near-simultaneously caused by a trauma event. A disorder is an injury where the injury provokes a wound that disrupts or creates an injury that affects other orders.

Imagine playing the guitar. Each string's normal order rests in the air quiesced and stretched in tune. As the pick strikes the string, the sting becomes disordered producing harmonic vibrations. The string's disorder provokes dissonance in the air causing the air to be disordered to be heard as sound. When the pick strikes several strings, the near-simultaneous disorder from each string produces a complex syndrome of sounds called music.

Multiple Sclerosis: The Social Impact Matrix

MS: Social Impact

The Society Box

Inside the Box

Multiple Sclerosis: Trauma Evolution

MS's Trauma Evolution

The clinical diagnostic terms replace-remitting and progressive are eccentric progressions but with different impacts and consequences. Speach is an eccentric event. Every sound utterance is a different energy wave event. Every utterance heard filters into collective modals eventually to be words. Each ocean wave and wake is a unique eccentric event yet we recognize the rising and the falling.

MS is a multi-dimensional eccentric disease. Every event is a new event.

The experience dimensions from a trauma attack event are:

• wound - the MS injury relapse and remission attack, broken connections
• emotional - the psychological experiences
• social - the change in relationships
• disability - the connections remodeling 

The thrive dimensions consequences from the trauma event are:

• Ability to thrive - the merge of resources enabling life to prosper
• Quality of life - the perception of the value of resources
• Quantity of life - the capacity of resources to sustain life
• Will to thrive - the desire to thrive

Some of the life dimensions effects from the trauma event impact are:

• denial
• fear
• grief
• ability
• proprioception
• pain
• money
• family
• work
• insurance
• therapy
• training
• medical
• support
• journey