Monday 21 July 2014

No.37. The tiredness of MND.

MND can make you very tired. I can only speak from our experience so far, but I can`t imagine that it gets any better. This is caused by the muscle wasting that is continuing slowly all the time. The less muscle mass you have the harder the muscle that is left has to work. This doesn`t just affect things like walking and standing, but also the voice and the swallow.

We have also been told that the muscle twitching, (festiculations) can do that too. All of Chris`s muscles twitch 24/7, constantly working and burning energy. The person with MND can find it hard to keep weight on, partly due to the muscle loss and partly due to the extra exertion it takes just to move around. Chris`s little jaunt on Saturday with his TR 7 left him so tired and he was still really tired yesterday, even though he was fighting it. It showed in his speech and when he fell asleep constantly during his Sunday roast, well that was a pretty good sign too.

The hardest thing for him to do is to do less and rest more. He wants to help on the farm, but recognising when enough is enough, that is the hard part for him. I can nag, but the reality is he will keep going for as long as he can, while I just wait and worry. I become over  protective and Chris does what he always does, he just smiles and says he`s OK. The mind is more than willing, but the body just isn`t having any of it. Stop sucking the life out of him MND!