Let Me Do It My Way

For those of you with children, or even younger siblings, you may remember teaching them to tie their shoes.  They would hold the shoestrings in their fingers, form a loop, and try to put the loop around their other finger to make the tie.  It was often a frustrating experience for you and them.

Often, the child would want to tie their shoes only when you were in a hurry.  You would try to be patient but, after them trying several times and having to start over, you would attempt to take over the process.  Often when this happened, the child would stomp their foot and say “I want to do it”!

Most of the time those of us with MS have to learn patience when doing the things we want to do. Take cooking, for instance.  I love to cook.  I take out my veggies, wash them, rest.  I tear up the lettuce, rest.  I dice tomatoes and cukes, rest.  I shred carrots and dice peppers, rest, and on and on.  I season my meat and let it marinate.  Rest.  I get my potatoes ready to bake.  Rest.  It is a frustrating experience.

In years past, I could fix salad, marinate meat, prepare potatoes and go on to the next activity.  Now it is a long, drawn out process of little things accomplished between rest periods.

I have tried several medications to improve my energy level but none seem to help very much.  Although resting between activities gives me a little boost, my energy is never to the point that I can just do the things I want to without dragging.

I have read posts from different MSers where they have pushed themselves at times of low energy and fallen.  When I get to the point in my day when my feet are not picking up when I walk, I rest.  I have fallen and broken my leg and DO NOT want to repeat that activity!  It is better to rest than risk an accident.

Most of the time I am reasonably patient.  I have dreamed of the day when I would get up with an attitude.  I would march in the kitchen and tell MS, “Today I will do things my way” {stomping foot}!! ;)