Scaredy Cat

I wrote a blog a while back on startles syndrome.  I wish I could say that I have gotten over it, but that is not the case.  I still jump at noises even when I know what they are and where they are coming from.

There is a baby monitor in my mother’s bedroom that goes to our bedroom.  We have it so that if she needs us in the night, we will be able to hear her upstairs in our room.  Unfortunately, when she happens to sneeze or cough in the night, I nearly jump out of my skin.  I know who it is and what it is, but the "startling" sensation still makes me shake and quiver.

We have a grandfather clock in the living room.  I love the look of it and the chiming of the hours.  It is another thing that often startles me.  I hear it every day, but some days it really makes me jump as it chimes.

Besides my own problems with being startled easily, I really hate that Buffy is so scared of things.  When we rescued her, she was about seven months old.  We fell in love with her immediately and welcomed her into our home with open arms.

I do not know the extent of her mistreatment, but it has left lasting effects. No matter how much love and attention we give her, if she sees someone walking down the street, a strange car going down the road or anything she is not used to seeing, she starts shaking.  No amount of loving and talking to her seems to help and she shakes uncontrollably. Her body almost gets damp as she sweats and panics. It is such a sad thing to watch.

I sympathize with her totally.  When I am startled, nothing calms me down.  I can rationalize what the noise is immediately, but it does not stop me from jumping, having a rapid heartbeat, sweating and panicking. I take nerve medication, but it does not seem to help.  From what I read that others go through with this condition, there does not seem to be any medication that helps with these attacks.  Not only that, many doctors do not recognize this as a valid condition of MS and just brush it off. 

I have been reading a lot of blogs and articles that other MS patients have written.  A trend is beginning to form in my mind.  Many of us have problems that the neuros do not consider part of MS and not even part of something real.  I find it incredible that so many of us have the same problems but they are not recognized AS problems.  There must be a way that we can put some of these things before the neurological community and get them looked into as legitimate conditions of MS.  It seems reasonable to me that if a majority of MS patients have something, it should be recognized as a symptom of MS and treated as such. Even if it is not a majority amount, if a good percentage have something, it is a symptom that should be recognized and considered valid.

OK……….off of my soapbox I come…….I guess I have things that do not fit “in the box” and would like them to be addressed by my doctor and not just brushed off……..not only for me, but for many others also.

Until they are, I guess one of the things I will have to deal with is being a scaredy cat and learn to live with it!