I woke up this morning tired, not how you are supposed to feel after 9 hrs sleep, I guess that means I will be tired all day. I actually can’t remember the last time I woke up feeling really great and bouncing with energy. I remember that great feeling of a new day with expectations of things to be achieved and fun to be had. I don’t remember when that ended but I do know that is gone. I’m frequently being told not to hold on to the past as it is gone and that I should use my energy planning for the future. I know this sounds bad but I can only answer that by saying ‘what future’. Yes I have plans of getting a new job and things I would like to do my home once I have one, but that doesn’t fill me with the warmth of my memories.
There are for me just as there are for everyone, dark areas which some would rather not remember, yet now I also embrace them. When you are forced to change your world, constricted with no way of continuing what you had, you see everything in a different way. I could moan about not being able to dance, walk or run any longer, make myself feel bad about MS or I can let myself truly remember, remember all the good feelings and find a freedom that reality had taken away from me. I haven’t stopped living I just changed the way I do it. Physicality is so much part of our world that to lose it seems unthinkable.
I challenge you to spend just one weekend at home, were you can speak to on one other than your partner, you can do nothing but sit in front of your PC in the day and TV in the evenings. No you can’t do any housework, a blessing you may think, but think that into the future and the dust that just has to lie there. You can’t read a book as your eyes won’t let you, nor can you knit, sew or any other craft type project. Theses are all gone, as is anything you need to do standing for more than a few minutes. You will then get a glimpse of the easy side of having MS. Then when you wake on Monday morning, I bet you will be happy to go to work, happy to have another person to talk to, happy to be outside. The thing is in my world I don’t wake on Monday morning to anything different than I do any other day. I wake to a limited future with a rich past.
There is still a lot left for me to do and much I want to do, but I have to accept that mountaineering just isn’t going to happen. I thought I would never survive living this way, yet I have and I think the reason why I manage is quite simple. I balance what I have with the richness of what was.
I’m not anything or anyone special. I’m not different or stronger than you, the only difference between us is I have Multiple Sclerosis, that’s all.
You Familiar with the FB Page
http://www.facebook.com/MSSociety
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I too often wake up tired,and unless I have to do a Supermarket shop (exhausting)or have a Doctors or dental appointment,most days are the same.I am not housebound,but am very limited just the same.I have my mobility scooter,with my walker strapped to the back of it,but there is not much to explore here,also I can walk with my sticks or walker,but tire very easily,so even if I do go anywhere I don’t really enjoy it as it really wears me out.Just lately I have lost interest in going out at all.I do get fed up at times,but I am not depressed.I do try and keep my muscles working by walking on my treadmill,but cannot at the moment manage more tha 15mins.
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Thanks for the thought but I am now totally housebound, even the effort of dressing is to much for me. Although the last few days having my hair done and daring to put on a little make-up on have been fun, they have knocked me for six. The help I have had in Glasgow has been fantastic. I have fought every second to do everything, but even I know when I’m beat, especially when the medics give you that look of ‘well will you listen now?’
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You do have a great way of expressing yourself.
Keep fighting the now!
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Sometimes it is hard to accept one’s limitations but acceptance is inevitably the only way forward. It sounds like you manage your illness and get on with things as much as you can, I wish you success in the search for suitable work.
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I so hope things will become easier for you somehow. Best of luck with job search.
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Make the most of getting out while you can. I know you say that where you live isn’t very exciting but I promise you one thing, you will miss some of the most stupid thing should ever be able to get out there.
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I think the way to deal with limitations is to expand on them, by looking for things you can do within your range but you may never have thought of doing in the past.
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Thank you:.
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You are right.Today was sunny and beautiful,Tony and I went to sit by the sea,and I had quite a good walk.
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