Multiple sclerosis can give a person the yuckies.
It’s not just that icky metallic after-taste that comes with
mid-exacerbation steroid treatments. It’s not the, um, unpleasant and
potentially embarrassing personal and private problems that some MSers face. And
it’s more than the queasy, woozy, bluesy feeling that goes along with the
nearly ever-present vertigo of MS.
MS just feels yucky a
lot of the time.
“Where does it hurt?” someone might ask. We may not have
specific answers (although we may).
“Are you sick again?” another might query. “Maybe it’s the
flu.” But it’s probably not influenza, allergies, food poisoning, or typhoid
fever. It’s just life with MS, always running in the background.
The MS yuckies are not like depression or grief. They’re more
like riding a tandem bicycle and pedaling hard, while the other person is
simply sitting there like dead weight. Add a significant headwind, a light rain,
a bit of midsummer humidity, three or four blaring radios (tuned to different stations), a pair of fogged-up glasses, a charley horse in
one leg, a too-tight belt tucked up around the rib cage, and some stomach upset – now you’re beginning to get the picture.
And, unless the MS yuckies turn into a full-blown exacerbation,
then they just feel like a reasonably difficult day with MS. Sure, some of us
have days when we can keep up with fit folks. But we also have times that feel …
well … yucky.
Maybe we’ll bounce back again tomorrow or the next day or
next week.
Images:
Word cloud generated by Kicking MS to the Curb - All rights reserved
Word cloud generated by Kicking MS to the Curb - All rights reserved
Series title graphic adapted from public
domain artwork.
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