Multiple Autoimmune Syndrome

Have you heard of Multiple Autoimmune Syndrome?  If you're like me:  a #spoonie who sometimes employs a healthy dose of denial to get through the day, the notion of one more thing to have to worry about may bring you down, but ultimately knowledge is power.

What are the chances I'd be diagnosed with MS? 1.5% to be precise.  And yet I've got it.  It'd be nice to think I'd have a pass on anything else, but, alas, we're all fair game for anything.  To add salt to our wounds, it turns out that some of us are more than fair game, shouldering a higher burden of chance for additional illnesses.

Hence -- Multiple Autoimmune Syndrome.  Having one autoimmune disease predisposes us to more of them.  Having three or more qualifies us for Multiple Autoimmune status.  In my case, I also have Raynaud's disease -- a circulatory response to cold or stress that affects extremities with blanching and uncomfortable numbness.  It can possibly be dangerous if it lasts too long.  It rarely happens to me, and when it does, I just have to rub my fingers for an hour or two to keep the blood flowing until it passes.  The photo above, taken today, is unfiltered, and it wasn't very cold, so I'm not sure why it happened.  My hands are fine now and back to normal.  Raynaud's comes and goes.  I also have Hyperkeratosis which comes and goes, and manifests in itchy skin rashes, inflammation and thinning of the skin in patches.  This also causes chronic dry eye for me which makes my eyes feel like they are full of sand.  When it hits, my eyes are bloodshot and teary.

One might expect the notion of Multiple Autoimmune Syndrome to be devastating, but I've actually been relieved to learn what is going on.  My random, transitive symptoms throughout the years have never been adequately labelled or treated on their own. I always thought they were irritations I had to address above and beyond my MS.  Now I know they are related to what is going on with MS. Now that I know they are simply signs that the beast is grumbling again, I tend to the beast:  my immune system.  After a few days of bone broth, clean eating and rest, my outward indicators of disease activity recede.  Who needs an MRI?  I've got my trusty MAS symptoms.