Palate Spasms: No Laughing Matter

February 27, 2011 8:07 AM

Palate Spasms: No Laughing Matter
I edited and filmed a short film about a strange symptom of my ladyfriend's Multiple Sclerosis. It's entered in the Neurological Film Festival, which has a Fan Voting prize, so if people like it and want to vote for it you can do so here. It's the first thing I've ever shot and edited!
posted by Potomac Avenue (5 comments total)

I watched the whole thing. I also have a lot of sympathy.

I was once really really sick. I spent 9 days in the hospital. I had a roommate for a couple of days. He got diagnosed with MS. Everybody acted like his life was over. I think I was 23 at the time, so had little/no understanding of what MS is. I just knew that by people's reactions that I wanted whatever I had and not what that guy had!

I have terrible tinnitus. Some nights it keeps me up for hours. Even though I know it's internal I am sometimes nearly driven nuts by the ringing. Where is that coming from! I don't think I could tolerate a palate spasm!

My commentary on the film is that it has to be targeted to people familiar with MS. This video does nothing to explain what the condition is (that fine, you can't be all things in a few minutes). I also wanted to see some of the standup. I think that would have made it a bit more powerful to me. A joke or two would lighten things up and make a nice contrast with info about a medical condition.
posted by cjorgensen at 5:10 PM on February 28, 2011

Palatal myoclonus? WTF! Thanks for adding a new item to my list of "MS worst case scenarios".
I agree with cjorgensen - perhaps a bit more info about what MS is for those not in the know, and I certainly would have liked to have seen some of her act.
I'm also curious as to what was so interesting about her optic neuritis that the entire staff had to check it out.
Anyway, well done, it's a lovely little film. I really liked the music, too.
Best wishes to Erin.
posted by goshling at 4:13 AM on March 3, 2011

I loved the quirky french guy photos! I wasn't clear if the shot she got was MS medicine or dealing with the palate twitchiness in specific. In fact I wasn't sure whether there was a decent medicine that she had been able to take for that. Totally enjoyed the shots and the music and Erin seems charming and like someone you'd want to know, from the movie. Nice job.
posted by jessamyn at 4:14 PM on March 7, 2011

Thanks for the kind words yall! Yeah a lot of narrative confusion resulted as I tried to cut it down to less than 5 minutes and only had about 3 minutes of voice over. Still I'm glad y'all liked it even if I didnt totally convey what was going on at any point. Erin is indeed the best.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 6:23 AM on March 8, 2011

Just returned to this thread (after almost 6 years! wow!) as I wanted to show someone the video.

Just to answer the question that Jessamyn asked in case someone else finds their way back here after all this time: The medication looks like Copaxone which is for MS, not for the palatal myoclonus, which sounded like it didn't respond to any of the medications they tried for it.
posted by goshling at 12:45 AM on January 13, 2017 [1 favorite]