Remember the mean kids at school who would put a tack on your chair or trip you and say..."Have a nice fall!"? Well, my Multiple Sclerosis is one of the meanest kids on the block.
I was out today in the sunshine (and heat) taking a walk with my son and our new doggy. Something strange happens when I am exposed to heat. Symptoms come out of the woodwork like roaches who wait until dark to appear. I was walking and even trotting along just fine when my right leg began to forget how to work. My mind was ordering it to do what it needs to do in order to walk, but it would not obey. Walking is something you take for granted. You don't often think about the mechanics of it. But today I found myself doing just that. I would take a big step and my lump of a leg would thump down in unusual places, like to the right of me instead of forward. My foot began to drag and the tip of my tennis shoe scraped the pavement of the path we were walking on.
I was becoming angry. How dare this MS bully ruin my time with my son!
My anger quickly turned to humility when I was just moments from home and I fell face down into an unlevel grassy patch.
It was then when my son who has special needs decided to show his displeasure at my lack of grace, pulled down the back of his pants and mooned me.
If MS were truly a person I can see their face now, red and sweaty, with laughter. Oh to just give it a kick in the groin!
Come sit a spell and shoot the breeze. Sweeten the day with a little synchronicity...
8 comments:
I recently started reading MS blogging posts. Wanted to say two things: first your prose is wonderful, you are a good writer, much better than I am. Second, I am not as far along as you are in terms of symptoms but I know exactly how you feel about MS taking the good times away from you and your family. Your bully is a perfect description. Thanks, I feel a kinship of shared pain.
Sorry that you had one of those bad days with MS. Sounds just like me, but mine is the left side. Not sure where you live, but it's going to be very warm here the next 3 days. So take care and try and keep cool.
thanks troy...i will add your blog to my links. i am always looking for more folks to connect with.
I've been having heat-related exacerbations too - my right eye fuzzes out when I heat up at all (my optic neuritis switched sides on me), and I just generally feel like weakened crap in the muggy heat, at a really core level. Sucks that I may not ever be able to enjoy summers the way I used to - active and sunbrowned, but I guess there's something to be said for A/C and relaxing in the shade too ... good luck!
My bully is on the left side - great analogy but I can still sense your frustration and despair as you write. Hope it helps to turn on your comments and see you have friends with the same problems and sense of MS humour.
hi Merelyme
just been reading your blog, you write beautifully i was crying my eyes out. really recognized loads, especially the hospital on the day you heard how everything slowed down and became unreal. i was amazed when i just woke up normally the day after i heard on 19 july 2006.
keep writing i will be reading.
take care.
It sounds like you made lemonade from some lemons, good for you!
I hope that someday there is a cure or something that can control this illness. I appreciate your description of what happened. I empathize.
Kids! You never know what they'll say or do. And always when you least expect it.
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