You explained it all right here. You can explain your situation with 8x10 color glossy photos with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one, but you can't change her personality. You might try blaming your heart condition more than the MS but I doubt that will change anything.

Try giving her the job of watching out for you. Maybe if she feels needed for something important, to concentrate her attention on your symptoms, she'll quit dismissing them.

Good luck! How frustrating it must be to have such a good friend who is so irritating.

This is a great idea = "Not doing so well, could sure use your
help today, my friend"

It was wondering why you would be friends with someone like you described until you added that she has lent you money and is helping you move.

Maybe you owe it to her to be a bit more tolerant of her short comings?

It is partly the inability for people to "see" what we're experiencing. It's also partly ignorance and an inability to walk in another's shoes

I'm trying to learn to listen and empathize when others I know are dealing with symptoms from some other disease. I am also not going through the effort to explain to people what I experience and what is dangerous for me. Unfortunately the result when heat or stress comes make everything very obvious

I'm trying to learn to listen and empathize when others I know are dealing with symptoms from some other disease. I am also not going through the effort to explain to people what I experience and what is dangerous for me. Unfortunately the result when heat or stress comes make everything very obvious[/QUOTE]

I believe I am an extremely empathatic person and care much about others. My last part-time position, most rewarding position, and last time I could work was at a Homeless Shelter. Prior to this I had worked 26 years at a very large company. I had finally found my calling, but illness stopped me from working.

I don't know if you or anyone want to address this question. Does MS cause extreme warmth, sweating, and fevers, normally from 99-4 to 99.9, sometimes over 100, but seldom.

Possibly, a low grade infection. We with MS are subject to UTIs (Urinary Tract Infections), and the symptoms don't always show. A trip to your Dr, or maybe an urgent care facility, might be in order.

Some people just have a higher normal temp than others, but best to get checked out before an infection digs in!

Off to the Group W bench with you, Sparky!

Don't mind me, I just meandered over here from the PN forum because they found lesions on my spine and are pointing me toward an MS dx now.

I'm sorry that your friend is being so frustrating, jnewk. Whether it turns out that I have MS or not, you have my sympathy. There's no shortage of idgits where neurological problems are concerned. Some of them are even medical practitioners.

My normal temperature is betwee 96.5 and 97.5. When I'm at 97.5 I congratulate myself for being so warm. But I do suffer from heat just as we all do.
It really changes one's inner self to have to always explain. I wait for the right moment, never telling people over and over again, but making it really clear when I have to. Even raising my voice to get their attention. With some people, it never works.

My poor grandma, my father's mother, had 14 abdominal scars from exploratory operations to find the source of her pain. She showed my mom her scars and my mom thought she was a hypochondriac. My mom thought my father was one too, as he had the same problem, and then I became the hypochondriac dujour. We all had Porphyria, undiagnosed until late in my life,never in my grandma or father's life. So we live with this inner wound all our lives, shrugging it off sometimes, other times taking it philosophically, and sometimes yelling loud enough to be heard!!!

So true Sparky....a good friend with some extremely annoying traits. I know its her mental illness. She does her best to be a good friend its just her issues get the best of her (as my issues do me) hers happens to be mental illness mine is neurological. but damn it just gets to me sometimes. And shes not the only one of course.

I do appreciate that I can come here and ***** about it and be heard. sometimes I feel so damn isolated. so thank you.