Nursing Assignment on Multiple Sclerosis and its Impact on Daily Life

This nursing assignment discusses the impact of multiple sclerosis on daily life. It covers the symptoms, causes, and risk factors of MS. It also explains the impact of heat sensitivity and fatigue on MS patients. The assignment is suitable for nursing students and healthcare professionals.

Running head: NURSING ASSIGNMENT
NURSING ASSIGNMENT
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

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Mrs. Ally Peterson, (38) lives in 101/10 Princess Street, Port Melbourne
S - Mrs Ally Peterson (38) requires ADL assistance and pain management
B – Mrs Peterson lives in her apartment with partner and 2 children. A current
medical health history of Mrs Peterson includes relapsing- remitting multiple sclerosis
(RRMS), fatigue, neuralgia, (heat sensitive), diplopia, depression, constipation and
dysphonia.
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune disease condition which involves the
central nervous system, that attacks the myelin sheath (myelin sheath is the protective coating
that shields the nerve fibres) and also causes damage in brain, spinal cord and optic nerve
impulses ( Lewis et.al., 2017). It was mentioned that due to the due to the activation of
the immune cells, the inflammatory complication increases and due to this, the myelin
sheath is also affected. This complication leads to smaller damages in the neurological
structure and develops plaque and lesion. Further, due to these changes in the structure
of the neurones nerve impulses are affected and consequently, the affected individual
develops impairment in the sensory, motor, and cognitive functionality (Olsson,
Barcellos & Alfredsson, 2017).
Within the age 20 to 50, the patient developed critical health condition as this is the
optimal time for this disease condition to occur. Further, it should be mentioned that the
disease affects women more than men. In the provided case study, Mrs. Peterson is also
suffering from multiple sclerosis and within this her heath condition is associated with
relapsing- remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS). Relapse of multiple sclerosis is a common
phenomenon and as per researchers, 80% of the newly diagnosed MS patients has been
observed to have relapsing- remitting multiple sclerosis initially. In this condition, due to
affected health condition, and chances of partial or full recovery is higher.

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Researchers are unable to understand the primary causes of MS, however, the
genetic and environmental factors are associated with the onset of the MS in majority of
the affected individuals (Hedström, Olsson & Alfredsson, 2015). While analysing the
impact of MS, it should be mentioned that the impact of MS is observed differently in
different individual and in majority of the cases, the affected individual’s ability to
perform activities of daily life is compromised. Within several common symptoms,
complications in vision, pain in eye, back and neck pain, and moderate facil pain are
critical. Further, pain in the trigeminal nerve, walking and mobility issues, improper
eye movement or nystagmus along with sensory symptoms such as paresthesias,
intranuclear opthalmoplegia were also observed in the patient. Besides this, the patient
also developed critical condition related to heat sensitivity, cognitive disturbance,
muscle spasm, fatigue and dysarthria due to this, her health complication increased.
In the provided case study of Mrs. Peterson, it was seen that she is currently suffering
from neuralgia. It was mentioned that due to the severe pain related condition, the peripheral
nerves starts developing painful feelings related to stabbing, or burning due to severe damage
in their nerve system. As mentioned in research articles that due to the injury in the myelin
sheath, patients suffering from MS develops feeling of RRMS. Further, neuralgia or pain in
the nerves were also witnessed in the case of Mrs. Peterson as researchers mentioned that
nerve related pain is one of the critical symptom in Ms that is associated with trigeminal
neuralgia. The trigeminal nerve, that traverses from brain and reaches out to different
muscle groups and nerve endings of the face, is associated with the pain related
condition. The primary cause of pain could be associated with the blood vessels and
nerve endings, as when the blood vessels presses down the nerve endings, in brainstem,
it could lead to severe pain sensation (Pillai et al., 2018). The location of this neuralgia is
at one side of the face. Due to the occurrence of severe pain it should be mentioned that

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Mrs. Peterson is suffering from risk of sickness due to which she would not be able to
perform activities of daily life relate to walking, bathing, dressing and undressing and
other hygiene related activities of daily life.
Moreover, one of the critical symptom of MS is fatigue due to the heat sensitibity. It
has been mentioned in the case study that Mrs. Peterson has developed fatigue and it is
one of her critical health condition mentioned in the case study. In the health condition
of MS, fatigue is associated with the critical condition in which heat functions as the
trigger of critical health complications. Besides these, numerous critical factors
especially environmental aspects are involved in the occurrence and complexity of the
MS condition. These are overheat due to environmental condition, increased heat or
working continuously with rest, that exerts the complete energy of the person. In a
recent study, it has been observed that individuals suffering from MS are unable to
regulate their body temperature (Leavitt et al., 2018). Further, it was also noted that
minimal change in their body temperature could lead to recurrence of their MS
symptoms, thereby enhancing the complexity of their disease condition (Peferoen et al.,
2015). There are several people who thinks that their fatigue related feelings increases every
day and if their body temperature increases, their health condition worsens due to the changes
in surrounding environment. Further, majority of the patients suffering from MS thinks that
due to their MS condition, they lost their ability to enjoy life events and are unable to take
part in several activities. Due to fatigue related condition, people become unable to take part
in several activities as well as their personal and professional life becomes affected. Despite
the fact that researchers are unable to understand the cause and time of fatigue, there are
several influences of other physiological and environmental condition that has been observed.

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References
Hedström, A. K., Olsson, T., & Alfredsson, L. (2015). The role of environment and lifestyle
in determining the risk of multiple sclerosis. In Emerging and Evolving Topics in
Multiple Sclerosis Pathogenesis and Treatments (pp. 87-104). Springer, Cham.
Leavitt, V. M., Blanchard, A. R., Guo, C. Y., Gelernt, E., Sumowski, J. F., & Stein, J. (2018).
Aspirin is an effective pretreatment for exercise in multiple sclerosis: A double-blind
randomized controlled pilot trial. Multiple Sclerosis Journal, 24(11), 1511-1513.
Olsson, T., Barcellos, L. F., & Alfredsson, L. (2017). Interactions between genetic, lifestyle
and environmental risk factors for multiple sclerosis. Nature Reviews
Neurology, 13(1), 25.
Peferoen, L. A., Gerritsen, W. H., Breur, M., Ummenthum, K. M., Peferoen-Baert, R. M.,
van der Valk, P., ... & Amor, S. (2015). Small heat shock proteins are induced during
multiple sclerosis lesion development in white but not grey matter. Acta
neuropathologica communications, 3(1), 87.
Pillai, R., Pigg, M., List, T., Svensson, P., & Baad-Hansen, L. (2018). Somatosensory
Function, Pain, and Unpleasantness in Trigeminal Nerve Damage Models. Journal of
Dental Research; Special Issue B, 97.

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