Health Expert Cathy shares health management news and commentary at HealthCentral.com. HealthCentral.com is one of the top health destinations on the Web, with more than 35 condition-specific, wellness and general health Web properties. http://www.healthcentral.com/profiles/c/40203/index http://www.healthcentral.com/profiles/c/40203/rss self application/xml en-us 15 120 19 http://www.healthcentral.com/images/hc_logo_sm.gif http://www.healthcentral.com/profiles/c/40203/index http://www.healthcentral.com/multiple-sclerosis/c/40203/153367/summer Tue, 29 May 2012 08:03:00 -0400 Cathy All winter I wait until the blooms begin to bud and the warm weather arrives.  I love sitting outside enjoying the stillness of nature – flowers, birds, and my cats lazily sleeping on our deck in the sunshine.  I sometimes reminisce about the lazy summer days of my youth, when I bicycled around town, ran through our sprinkler with the neighborhood kids to cool off in hot weather or spent endless days with my friends at our town... http://www.healthcentral.com/multiple-sclerosis/c/40203/153367/summer http://www.healthcentral.com/multiple-sclerosis/c/40203/152952/manage Mon, 14 May 2012 12:06:00 -0400 Cathy Many people with MS suffer from some sort of pain; complaints vary about the type of pain they experience.  According to one study from the National Multiple Sclerosis Society website, “55 percent of people with MS had ‘clinically significant pain’ at some time. Almost half (48 percent) were troubled by chronic pain.” Since everyone experiences MS differently, everyone’s pain is different as well.  Some... http://www.healthcentral.com/multiple-sclerosis/c/40203/152952/manage http://www.healthcentral.com/multiple-sclerosis/c/40203/152809/stay Fri, 11 May 2012 08:36:00 -0400 Cathy I love this time of year because I know I’ll be able to go outside for some exercise instead of being trapped indoors due to inclement weather.  When I was first diagnosed 25 years ago, doctors told me to rest, rest, rest and that any exercise that raised my body’s temperature was to be avoided at all costs.  They told me raising my body temperature might induce an exacerbation.  We’ve come a long way,... http://www.healthcentral.com/multiple-sclerosis/c/40203/152809/stay http://www.healthcentral.com/multiple-sclerosis/c/40203/152603/stress Thu, 03 May 2012 08:48:00 -0400 Cathy Wake up.  Stretch.  Get your bearings and stretch again.  Walk to the kitchen and put up some coffee (thank goodness for Keurig!).   Walk to the bathroom and wash up for the day.  The beginning of each morning is the same every day.  The day begins the same and ends the same.  It’s what happens in between waking up and bedtime that defines who and what we are.  One line from The Mary Tyler Moore... http://www.healthcentral.com/multiple-sclerosis/c/40203/152603/stress http://www.healthcentral.com/multiple-sclerosis/c/40203/152392/body Wed, 25 Apr 2012 13:14:00 -0400 Cathy Does stress take a holiday?  This is a question I’ve often pondered, particularly while experiencing MS symptoms.  When you aren’t feeling well you think more about this than when you are feeling well.  I have relapsing-remitting MS and I have blocks of time when I experience various symptoms that plague me during an exacerbation.    At my worst (after a summer of kidney stones and gallstones at the same... http://www.healthcentral.com/multiple-sclerosis/c/40203/152392/body http://www.healthcentral.com/multiple-sclerosis/c/40203/152154/esteem Tue, 17 Apr 2012 07:54:00 -0400 Cathy I recently saw a photo posted on Facebook that has been haunting me since I first saw it.  It’s a picture of an elementary school class practicing for an upcoming chorale concert.  Everyone is sitting together on the bleachers of an auditorium, except for one student who is sitting all by himself, a few feet away from his peers.   He is not sitting in the bleachers because he is sitting in his wheelchair with his head... http://www.healthcentral.com/multiple-sclerosis/c/40203/152154/esteem http://www.healthcentral.com/multiple-sclerosis/c/40203/151942/image Tue, 10 Apr 2012 09:29:00 -0400 Cathy  “It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves.”  ~Edmund Hillary Spring is here and, depending on where you live, the flowers are blooming.  It feels to me as if the earth is re-awakening.  Our winter weather was warmer and less snowy than usual; in northern New Jersey we had a blizzard on Halloween – quite unusual, but the rest of the winter was tolerable.  Although it was not a difficult winter to... http://www.healthcentral.com/multiple-sclerosis/c/40203/151942/image http://www.healthcentral.com/multiple-sclerosis/c/40203/151454/funic Mon, 26 Mar 2012 12:04:00 -0400 Cathy This article is part of an idea Vicki had (thank you, Vicki!) about profiling famous people with MS during MS Awareness Month:   M-I-C (See you real soon!) K-E-Y (Why?  Because we like you!) M-O-U-S-E   That was the theme song from The Mickey Mouse Club, a children’s television variety show produced by Walt Disney Productions that ran from 1955 – 1959. By the time I began watching it, it was being aired as re-runs on... http://www.healthcentral.com/multiple-sclerosis/c/40203/151454/funic http://www.healthcentral.com/multiple-sclerosis/c/40203/151330/power Mon, 19 Mar 2012 12:07:00 -0400 Cathy “Life is what we make it, always has been, always will be.“ ~Grandma MosesAfter being diagnosed with MS I realized how blessed I was how I looked at life - through rose-colored glasses.  It may sound silly, but I credit a good deal of my positive outlook to (during my formative years) being part of the “TV generation” (Americans born between 1946 – 1964). Back then, there were six channels with three networks... http://www.healthcentral.com/multiple-sclerosis/c/40203/151330/power http://www.healthcentral.com/multiple-sclerosis/c/40203/151005/month Wed, 14 Mar 2012 10:50:00 -0400 Cathy About a month ago I was on the telephone speaking with a friend.  After I hung up I felt a strange pit in my stomach. I couldn’t figure out why I felt this way.  I tried to replay our conversation over and over again in my mind, sort of pressing the rewind button of a tape recorder in my head. Then it hit me.  We had discussed women we knew who’d worked full-time while raising their children.  We even went so far... http://www.healthcentral.com/multiple-sclerosis/c/40203/151005/month