Great Aunt Gertrude

Remember great aunt Gertrude?  Yours may have had a different name, but everyone had an aunt with some of the same characteristics. She was always the one who smelled like BenGay and mothballs.  She would give you a big choking hug when you saw her and always kissed you on the cheek.  Most people considered her one of their favorite relatives because she seemed to always be in a pleasant mood and always made them feel important. Most of that does not apply to me, but some of it is beginning to.

As with most with MS, I have a lot of pain.  Although I have medicine for the pain, it is not always enough.  I use a pain relieving cream sometimes with the medicine.  It has a really distinctive odor.

At first I balked at using it when we were going visiting or shopping because of the smell.  After my husband told me several times “had you rather hurt or smell a little”, I quit worrying about the smell and instead learned to enjoy the relief from the pain.  Relatives understand the smell and I have never had anyone just stop and hold their nose when I walked by them out in public.  I could probably live with it even if they did. J

For a long time I tried to suffer through the pain and only take aspirin-type pain relievers.  If you have ever had chronic pain, you know that it wears you down physically and mentally.  It is not worth trying to be “brave” and try to “just take it”.  Although the pain is still there most of the time, the medicine does cut it enough that it is bearable and usually does not interfere with my day.

Reading some of the posts that people have on Facebook and other sites, I feel so thankful for the little aches and pains I have rather than the major ones that some others have.  It is so sad that there are many times that they cannot find something that helps them and they are left to just deal with it as best they can.  What is even worse is those that have no pain at all because they have no feeling left in their body.  Many are in wheelchairs and have to have around the clock care.  Most of us fear getting to that point.

There are so many medicines to choose from for everything. I remember my grandmother telling me that shopping was so much easier when there were not so many choices of everything.  I agree.  Each medicine tells us that it will cure/help what is bothering us.  It usually doesn’t but we keep trying things to see if one will.

 

Maybe we should go back to some of the things our grandmother’s used to treat ailments. They seemed to work for them and they were a lot heartier than most of us are. Smelling like great aunt Gertrude may not be such a bad idea after all!