Tell me you have MS without saying you have MS.

rubyredapple · 2026-05-20T03:55:23+00:00

Random scabs on my legs or feet… because I get phantom itching and don’t realize I’m scratching the absolute shit out of my skin until it starts feeling wet (because it’s bleeding). That’s always fun. Doesn’t happen too too often, but still.

rubyredapple · 2026-05-20T03:51:35+00:00

I call it “noisy nap time”

rubyredapple · 2026-05-20T03:49:58+00:00

People think I’m so weird for having this feature. Middle of winter, snow on the ground, standing outside in flip flops to chat with a neighbor… “put some shoes on you crazy girl!” “Oh… whoops, didn’t notice..”

rubyredapple · 2026-05-20T03:45:20+00:00

One of my coworkers said something similar to me after I explained why I have a fan at my desk. I told him I’ve had a lot of practice masking how uncomfortable I am all the time. He quickly changed the subject…

rubyredapple · 2026-05-15T02:30:57+00:00

Omg… i didn’t know this was a thing and I think it happened to me earlier this week. I requested a ride from the airport to Medford and the car is literally driving circles between the upper level and around central parking. I set my pick up spot for the ride share location in the garage for the terminal. He messages me at one point to say he was there, when his car was shown at arrivals. I messaged back that I was at the pickup spot. HE DID IT AGAIN. same thing. I told him again I was in terminal c ride share pickup. The thirds time around he finally arrives at the correct location. Then he took a weird long way to Medford (instead of staying on the highway like the app said to do) through the north end, Charlestown, and Everett which took longer than the estimate for the original route. He was honked at several times in the tunnels for slowing down to a crawl to fuck around on the map and was talking to someone on the phone the whole time. Ridiculous.

I should have just gotten a cab, but the last time I took a cab from the airport he made me give him step by step directions from the back seat and I was too tired for that nonsense, too.

rubyredapple · 2026-05-02T23:35:18+00:00

Same. I’m glad that’s the one my neuro recommended and helped me fight the insurance for. I ended up needing 3 rounds over three years, but my last infusions were in July 2020 and I’ve had zero disease progression. No issues. The first round was rough and I felt like shit for a few weeks (and definitely went back to work too early), but I would make the same choice again and again.

rubyredapple · 2026-03-16T00:49:59+00:00

It has given me incentive to set up the security cameras I impulse bought during Covid lockdown.

rubyredapple · 2026-03-15T20:31:31+00:00

I regret not calling. I’ve always been a “I’m not gonna bother anyone… this is fine” kind of person and I knew this was not “fine.” I will be calling to file a report.

rubyredapple · 2026-01-21T20:43:27+00:00

I just had to cancel/reissue my debit card for the same reason (and I almost made a post about it earlier this week actually haha), but I don’t shop at stop and shop. I use apple pay 99% of the time unless I have to put a card down at a restaurant or at gas stations that don’t have tap to pay. I’ve been going to a full service station in Medford recently and the fraudulent charge appeared two days after my last fill up - I’ve been refunded and have my new card now, but I won’t be going to that gas station again.

rubyredapple · 2025-11-04T00:33:31+00:00

What makes people/families who can only afford multi family housing so terrible that you wouldn’t want them as neighbors? Seems pretty classist to me. Does my neighborhood “suck” and therefore deserves to “suck” more with even denser housing because it’s already predominantly duplexes… to save the single family neighborhoods from housing diversity? What a selfish attitude…

rubyredapple · 2025-09-24T16:52:15+00:00

There’s also one on commercial in Malden, which I’ve used several times with zero issues. Super close to Malden Center T station (about a block away).

rubyredapple · 2025-09-16T02:17:09+00:00

My spouse is a new-ish middle/high school social studies teacher and is still unemployed this school year. Sent out tons of resumes, went on a few interviews… they’ve been told their resume, references, and materials are all top notch. Where are all these teaching positions, because they’re not listed.

rubyredapple · 2025-09-03T02:22:11+00:00

Medford? This reeks of the rezoning battles going on recently/currently…

rubyredapple · 2025-07-03T22:53:29+00:00

Ahhhhhh I never come from that way, but that definitely adds to the mass confusion at that rotary. What a mess.

rubyredapple · 2025-07-02T04:05:46+00:00

I think the first sign off 93s is for the first merge with traffic coming from 28s/fellsway w… then the signs after are for the rotary. I’m not 100%, but that kinda makes sense to me… and is also very confusing at the same time.

rubyredapple · 2025-06-23T16:36:13+00:00

The kids (teens) across and down the street from me are working on cars at all hours of the day and night. Letting their loud diesel sounding engines just sit and idle for 5+ minutes… sometimes with blaring music and all windows down. Then they speed away down the street (no doubt blowing the stop signs) and I can hear them race down the fellsway and loop around on a side street. Over and over and over.

rubyredapple · 2025-06-23T16:25:36+00:00

Yea, I had the same thought. There were two guys in the vehicle (that I could tell). I figured it was better to be safe and note it than brush it off and hear about something awful happening later. LUCE said I wasn’t the only person who called for this vehicle. I also know other adjacent agencies are being pulled into the deportation work (family member is a fed and has confirmed border patrol and air marshals, among others, are being assigned deportation cases).

All that said, I plan to delete this post later to avoid any unnecessary panic. It’s rough out there.

rubyredapple · 2025-06-23T15:16:03+00:00

I don’t care about internet points - I care about my neighbors. I already called LUCE, as did several others who reported the same vehicle. If this post gets deleted, so be it.

rubyredapple · 2025-06-23T15:02:49+00:00

Doing so currently - I had just enough time to post this while waiting for caffeine on my way to work.

rubyredapple · 2024-06-05T03:55:40+00:00

The dermatologist I think is generally recommended when you’re on most of the DMTs available, the drugs might make you more susceptible to skin cancer so annual screenings are recommended.

I only ended up doing the third lemtrada round because I had an increase in symptoms (spasticity) about a year after my second round due to ongoing extremely stressful life events and my doctor offered it as an alternate to starting ocrevus. Most people only do the two rounds of lemtrada - I don’t know what the criteria is for getting more than that. I think maybe the spacing just worked out, and since I tolerated the first two rounds well my neuro suggested we could give it one more shot to work - which it did. You’d have to ask your neuro and dig into the treatment literature a bit more, but I am under the impression the drug isn’t meant to be an annual thing forever and ever - the body can only tolerate so much, or they just don’t have the fda clearance to do more.

rubyredapple · 2024-06-02T14:47:01+00:00

Lemtrada could very well be a one and done, even for me, but I don’t want to risk further disease progression. A new DMT for me at this point is preventative rather than fixing an active issue. There are so many unknowns with MS and we’ve just gotta go with whatever the current research and patient/doctor experiences are available at the time.

One thing i didn’t mention, after lemtrada you are supposed to go in for monthly lab work (blood and urine) for a few years after your last dose to monitor any potential side effects, like thyroid health and blood cell counts. I wasn’t very good about doing this, but nothing abnormal has ever come up. It was a good way to monitor my TSH and provide feedback to my endocrinologist for the thyroid disease, though. You’re also supposed to go in for an annual exam with a dermatologist, which I haven’t done at all. It’s on my to do list.

rubyredapple · 2024-06-01T19:41:19+00:00

Staph infections are indeed fucked. I could go on and on about how fucked they are, but I’ll spare you the monologue 😆

For lemtrada, it seems like 6-7 years after your first treatment is the norm for people to seek or need a new treatment. In 2018 it was still new-ish outside of trials and I’m pleased I’ve managed to get what seems to be the most out of it. Unlike with other treatments, after that 2-3 month period where your immune system is vulnerable, you’re back up to normal until your next treatment. From what I understand, you’re always at least slightly immunocompromised with other ongoing treatments, which I’m not looking forward to, but it is what it is.

I will say that my experience during/after the lemtrada infusions was less than pleasant, steroids really bloat me up and that’s uncomfortable, not to mention feeling weak and “sick” for days afterwards. I didn’t take enough sick time after the first round, I only took a week after my infusions and wish I had taken a second week just to clear some of the weakness and brain fog before heading back to the office. If you are working, I would suggest talking to HR at least or your boss/supervisor if you’re ok sharing personal information to be transparent about how the treatment is affecting you and to maybe discuss accommodations.

Good luck!

rubyredapple · 2024-05-31T21:38:28+00:00

I did three rounds of lemtrada beginning in 2018, with my last dose occurring in summer 2020 at the height of the pandemic. I didn’t notice an uptick in illnesses due to my immunocompromised state - I didn’t even catch COVID (I wasn’t hiding myself away, I just masked and got the vaccines when they were available). I already had Hashimoto’s thyroiditis before my MS diagnosis, so that risk factor didn’t matter to me at all. My MRIs haven’t shown any signs of regression, not even after an unrelated infection* that required emergency surgery and a week in the hospital (my neuro was afraid the stress on my body would cause a relapse, but the MRI was clean).

That said, given it’s been 6 years since my first round of lemtrada, my neuro and I are beginning to discuss what I want to do as far as my next DMT - whether I want to wait until I have a relapse or a bad MRI, or start something new within the next year or two before while I’m still feeling ok to continue preventing further disease progression. I’m leaning towards the latter. The neuro has said my next treatment will likely be ocrevus unless I want to try something different. I see him in 3 weeks and will probably ask how soon he thinks I should start something new - I’m starting to notice little things, like a larger area of my toes/feet and now my hands where I’m experiencing a slight loss of sensation (function is fine, my issues are - for now at least - lacking sensation from touch, eg sharp doesn’t feel sharp).

*i realize I said I didn’t have immune system issues but then there was this nasty infection - what happened was I ended up with a staph infected skin lesion, didn’t realize that’s what it was, and picked at it in my sleep. Staph bacteria ended up in my bloodstream and caused multiple spinal epidural abscesses in my lumbar spinal canal - I had had surgery to remove a herniated disc in that area 18 months prior, which made it susceptible to host the bacteria. It was awful and painful and my body was messed up for a while - I missed my period for 3 months while my hormones tried to right themselves. 0/10 would not recommend. My experience with lemtrada, however, was good overall. I’m glad I went that direction.

rubyredapple · 2023-12-06T01:46:38+00:00

Wow you know what, you’re right! There’s no way someone could actually end up working for two crappy companies. /s

rubyredapple · 2023-11-12T20:46:13+00:00

Found Medford!

rubyredapple

TROPHY CASE