Trading One For The Other

Multiple Sclerosis has so many ways it can come at you.  Your legs can ache or they can be numb or they can not work at all.  Your speech can be garbled or perfectly fine.  Your mind can be sharp or barely able to add 2 + 2.  You can have pain, burning, buzzing, numbness or all of the above at the same time.  It is a very unpredictable, cruel disease and loves to keep us guessing as to what it will throw at us on any given day.

For a change, I was fairly productive this morning.  I cut my husband’s hair, washed the dog, cleaned the birdcage and swept the floor.  As most of you can guess, it took a toll on me and I had to sit back in the recliner for a while to try and get some strength back.  My legs were trying to buckle on me and resting a while was the only wise choice.

After a while I got out of the recliner and tried to do a few more things.  My legs were still a little wobbly, so I decided this probably would not be a good idea.  As I turned to move out of the room, I hit the back of my left hand on the doorknob.  I hit it a pretty good lick and it hurt bad enough to make my stomach a little queasy and my legs even weaker than they already were.

It started me thinking, though.  I have been very conscious of my hand hurting for the past hour and completely forgot about my legs.  I am not totally convinced that it is a good trade-off!

On many of the MS sites that I belong to and stay in touch with, the people complain a lot of their family and friends not understanding their problems and not “getting it” about MS.  I, too, know this feeling and sympathize with them.  Some of them even go so far as to wish MS on others for a while so they could better understand their problems.  I do not go this far.  I would not want anyone to have to deal with the things we deal with on a daily basis even for one day.

Even though most of us have a lot of problems with our MS, I am not sure that I would want to trade with anyone else for their problems.  Although I have a lot of struggles and disappointments with this disease, I know that others have their own set of problems, too.  As much as I hate MS, I can usually deal with it and would not want to have to get used to something altogether different.  If anything, I wish we could all trade our problems in for a pain free life with no problems.  Since this is not possible, I think I will stick with my own.

I guess it is like comparing apples to oranges…………………everyone has their own favorite and would not trade it for the other……but, since they are both fruit, can’t we just learn to accept what we have and make the best of it??!!!