Repetitive: Describing multiple sclerosis from A to Z

Day after day after day, the MS warrior slugs it out with multiple sclerosis. Sometimes it’s like dancing on tiptoes around the savage beast, trying not to awaken him and begin another battle. On other occasions, it’s all-out warfare.

Certainly, the experience differs, depending upon the type of multiple sclerosis one is enduring. So far, I count myself blessed to be in the relapse-remitting MS (RRMS) category. It seems far simpler than the other, more progressive, forms of the chronic neurological condition.

(READ: Reviewing the four types of multiple sclerosis here.)

RRMS means, although MS remains a repetitive challenge, we sometimes get a break from the worst of it.

Dictionaries may define “repetitive” with terms like automatic, boring, dreary, dull, humdrum, mechanical, monotonous, mundane, recurrent, routine, tedious, tiresome, unchanging, and unvaried. Many of those words fit life with MS (especially in its progressive forms), but a few certainly don’t.

MS is recurrent, but it’s definitely not unchanging or unvaried.

Although multiple sclerosis symptoms and experience can change, each time they crop up, the overall battle can feel like a never-ending struggle. Several of the most troublesome features of this disease seem to show up during each exacerbation (or flare-up), and often almost continuously. 

"Brace yourself, body," says the MSer. "Here we go again."

The most persistent ongoing problems with MS may be crippling fatigue, dizzying vertigo, strange numbness, and inexplicable tingling. When those symptoms manifest themselves repeatedly, it’s like a bad echo.

Perhaps someday soon, an MS cure will silence such resounding. 

 

Image/s:

April A to Z Challenge 2016 logo – fair use

 Adapted from public domain artwork

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