Living with M.S.

"Living with M.S. is sort of like training for a long race. The harder you try, and the longer you keep at it, the stronger you become.
Eventually, looking back, you may be amazed at the power you possessed, even when you had no idea it was within your reach." (Linda Ann Nickerson)

Sunday

Does MS wake you up with cold feet ... even when your home is warm?




Don’t mean to step on any toes here, but I gotta ask. Does MS wake you up with cold feet ... even when your home is warm?

Been there – for sure.

In fact, this is pretty much a daily thing for me lately. I’ve tried fuzzy socks, but they don’t seem to do the trick. And extra blankets only complicate the problem. Hey, we all know what the slightest rise in body temperature can do to an MSer.

So what’s with the cold, numb feet in the morning?

OK, maybe my feet are not always actually cold. They feel chilly – until I touch them and discover the skin is still warm.

It’s not like my feet are pins-and-needles tingly in the morning. They just feel frozen and numb.

Fortunately, this condition seems to improve, once I get up and walk around. But first thing each day, I am puzzled to wake up with absent-feeling feet.

Chalk one up for the MonSter.

On the other hand, the numb feet thing sort of spurs me to get up in the morning … just to get my feet back. (Hey, ya gotta find your feet, if you're gonna kick multiple sclerosis to the curb.)

Image/s:
Does MS wake you up with cold feet ... even when your home is warm?
Created by this user,
including adapted public domain artwork

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Friday

Oops! It's the MS dropsies again!




 The MS dropsies have struck again.

Stop me, if you’ve heard this one.


Thud!

Him:  What was that?

Her: I just dropped a plastic peanut butter jar on the floor.

Him: What did you do that for?

Her: Remember? I have MS. Sometimes my hands don’t work, and I drop stuff.

Him:  Well, knock it off. Did it spill?


OK, at this point, I could blog away about how certain people might try to display a certain level of caring, empathy, or even plain patience with loved ones' multiple sclerosis. It’s not like they have to experience balance and gait problems, nearly daily dizziness, extreme body temperature shifts, nerve pain, numbness, random stumbling, sudden-onset fatigue, sleeplessness, tingling, vertigo, vision losses, and other come-and-go medical mishaps.

But I don’t need to stress on about all that. So let’s just look at the MS dropsies for today.

Historically, dropsy has referred to a collection of fluid under the skin. This condition can cause painful swelling and other unpleasant symptoms. But that sort of dropsy has nothing to do with multiple sclerosis.

Naw. When an MSer talks about the dropsies, it’s all about flinging stuff unintentionally all over the place.

We drop our keys, our cell phones, our eyeglasses, the mail, and all sorts of other stuff.

That’s pretty much why I buy the cheap reader glasses (besides the fact that I tend to misplace them), instead of pricey prescription spectacles. It’s the reason why my smart phone is safely ensconced in a lifetime-guarantee protective case.

Got the MS dropsies?

Hey, we have a doctor’s note for that.

Image/s:
Oops! It’s the MS dropsies again!
Created by this user,
including adapted public domain artwork

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