The Effect of One Bad Bulb
[ad_1]
Ah, it’s that most wonderful time of the year. Decorations that brighten the long winter’s nights are being strung and lit all around homes, businesses, and neighborhoods. It really does lift the spirit to see the tasteful displays, and, I must admit, even the garish ones make my inner child smile.
The lights I now string on my own Christmas tree are far different from the strands I remember from my childhood. As I wrap 3,000 LED fairy lights on this year’s Yule fir, I’m brought back to the old incandescent lights and the difficulties they proved most years.
One Bad LED Bulb Doesn’t Darken the Whole Strand
On today’s tree, there is one LED light on one of the strands that flickers inconsistently, but unlike the old kind of lights, this one defective light doesn’t affect the whole strand.
Back in the day, I remember plugging in strands of 50 or 100 lights to test them and then having to unplug and inspect each bulb to see which one was causing the outage.
It really got complicated if more than one bulb was bad. Let’s just say that it wasn’t all Christmas carols and glad tidings that were coming from me as I made my way through, re-through, and sometimes back through the lights to find which was the offending bulb.
Testing was something I learned after I once strung the whole tree, only to find that there was one bulb causing the entirety to remain dark, bringing to mind a National Lampoon Christmas movie.
One Bright Spot on an MS MRI Does Have Downstream Effects
Of course, I also know the feeling of chasing a bad bulb when I think about my multiple sclerosis (MS).
Over the years, I’ve used a number of electrical references to help me describe how the symptoms of our disease manifest. A frayed extension cord was always a good one, as was the insulation being stripped from a copper telephone cable — until mobile phones mostly replaced landlines and their associated cables.
One missing connection along the long string of nerves from brain to body, and a part of the body goes dark.
MRI images can show where active damage lights up in the brain or spinal cord. It’s the opposite of those fairy lights, however. A bright spot means one of my body’s lights has gone out, rather than a darkened bulb causing the breakdown.
On-and-Off Bulbs — and Symptoms
The frustration associated with an incandescent Christmas bulb gone bad is much like the annoyance that’s frequently felt when explaining come-and-go symptoms of MS to other people (and doctors).
A bulb flashes and then a string goes dark. Then it flashes and the tree lights up again. You go searching for the cause, but by that time everything is “normal” again. But for those of us who know what a flashing bulb means, it’s never really normal again. We’re just waiting for the defective light to reappear.
The LEDs that now adorn my tree don’t have that same issue. If one lightbulb flickers, faults, and goes out, the circuits are still complete and the rest of the lights stay on. But still, when I see that one bulb on the tree begin to flicker or dim in some way, I am brought back to the nightmare of trying to find and replace a bulb on a fully decorated tree halfway through the holiday season.
I’ll not jinx any seasonal party plans by bringing that analogy any further into focus.
Enjoy the Season, With or Without Flickering Bulbs
So here’s hoping that all your lights are bright and that even if they do flicker, you’ll find a way to enjoy the bright and warm times that can be on offer this time of the year.
Wishing you and your family the best of health.
Cheers,
Trevis
My new book, Living Well With Multiple Sclerosis, is available for preorder on Amazon. Follow me on the Life With MS Facebook page, and read more on Life With Multiple Sclerosis.
[ad_2]
