MS Conference

I wasn’t all that enthused about going, because it was foggy, it was early on a Saturday morning, and I had partied hard on Friday night. But my indifference quickly vanished, because the conference was quite informative. I had heard some of the stuff before, but as I pointed out to one of the company reps, you hear different things at different points in your illness, so some repetition can be good. I took some good notes and brought home some research updates to read later.

An MS advocate also spoke, and she talked about her ritual before taking her shots. Apparently, her crush on Chuck Norris is big enough to dull the pain of the shot, so she watches “Walker, Texas Ranger” before her shot. I immediately knew who I would substitute for Chuck Norris and decided that I need to start taping “Alias” to watch before my shot, since I’m a big Michael Vartan fan. We rented a movie on Saturday night, One Hour Photo. Robin Williams stars in it, but guess who else is in it? Yup. So I got to see if my variation of her ritual would work. I have to say, the shot didn’t hurt that night.

Get With the Program

I mentioned in my last entry that I’m reading this book and following the plan. I successfully completed a week at Phase 1, drinking at least 6 glasses of water every day, completing my written exercises, and doing the exercises at least 3 days (I did 4 days). The book suggests staying in Phase 1 for 1-3 weeks before proceeding to the second phase. In Phase 2, I add one more glass of water per day, and I do the functional exercises 4 days a week. I also start to add cardio exercise and limit my alcohol consumption.

I guess I consider myself in Phase 1 1/2 right now. I’m going to start integrating the next phase stuff this week, but I’ll consider it a successful week if I complete the Phase 1 requirements again. Anything on top of that will just be gravy. I’ve had a tendency in the past to try and do too much too fast, so I don’t want to set myself up for failure.