MS Doesn’t Take A Holiday….

MS grinchWell, the big day has come and gone.

Shame I can’t say the same about MS, which had the bad grace to leave a few extra presents under the tree.

It started so well. We had our company Christmas bash – just me and the boss marooned in a restaurant full of proper office parties (all excruciatingly forced jollity, loud voices and a solitary woman crying in the loos).

We had a glass of wine at my place afterwards, where I amused the boss by holding up the plastic wineglasses my mum bought me for Hallowe’en after I smashed my last one. ‘Spooky ghost or howling skull?’. Awkward.

The next day I had champagne with the family while The Teenager was in London. I took it easy, inwardly congratulating myself but MS had other ideas. The last thing I remember is getting home, feeding the cat, tripping over, hitting my head on the door and knocking myself out. I woke up several hours later with the cat next to me shaking her head sadly.

Then my arms started to go numb at inopportune moments. Normally it’s one or the other, along with constantly buzzing legs and feet. So with two numb arms and dodgy legs, Christmas Day was a trial. We helped to serve Christmas lunch to a roomful of pensioners. Someone thrust a jug of gravy into my hands and motioned for me to go forth and pour. Gripping the jug as tightly as I could, I made my way round.

I did try to explain that gravy washes out of clothes quite easily, just pop a bit of Vanish on first, but they were unimpressed and a good few elderly ladies glared at me as they dabbed ineffectually at their skirts and blouses.

So now we are in that odd period between Christmas and New Year. Numb arms or not, I have still managed to polish off a tub of Quality Street (the pain was worth it). I fall asleep at odd times of the day, I’ve tripped over a stray bauble and am considering installing grab rails in the shower (you really, really don’t want to hear that story).

MS has certainly made Christmas that little bit more interesting. Laugh? Til I cried….

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18 thoughts on “MS Doesn’t Take A Holiday….

  1. With you on the grab rails – if you have flat glossy tiles in the shower then get the grab rails that you can stick onto the tiles where ever its convenient. Yes they do work, I will act as witness, judge and jury.

    Otherwise you are going to have to get the screw in ones

    Forget the expense get’em

  2. Yikes!! Can’t believe you knocked yourself out! Poor dear. I guess you did outdo the tripping up the stairs from last year.

    Sorry to hear about the new symptoms. Meh. Here’s to a better 2014! Oh, and I must know what Quality Street is.

    p.s. Don’t underestimate (or in this case, *over*estimate) your audience! I’m sure we’d LOVE to hear the grab-rails-in-the-shower story.

    • stumbling in flats says:

      It was quite spectacular!! And honestly, you really don’t want to hear about What Happened In The Shower. A real MS horror story lol. Thankfully, I found a few stray Quality Street to cheer myself up afterwards. Quality Street are a fab selection of chocolates – everyone pinches the purple ones first. finally there’s only coffee ones left (yuk) but it is my duty to eat them too.
      x

      • blagh at the purple ones, i dont know anyone who eats them :p its always the purple or green ones left, and no one will eat them here :p

        sorry to read you knocked yourself out, might have given yourself a concussion :/

        we always put grab rails,(or the council does for us), on the showers/baths we have had. better safe then sorry and really easy to put up. even if i dont need them everyday, great for days when i am not steady at all

        if you get the railing that needs to be screwed into the wall, watch out for cables

        • stumbling in flats says:

          Excellent point about the cables! Last thing I need to do is electrocute myself, lol.
          I love the purple ones! And the green ones!!
          x

  3. Angela says:

    Bless you. That certainly was an eventful Christmas. Sorry to hear about the odd new symptoms. Thank goodness for a sense of humour. I too have had an eventful time leading up to Christmas. A bus hit the back of my car …..minor damage to the car but it was the effect it had on me that was quite unexpected. I pulled the car over, got out and retrieved my elbow crutch and walked to the door of the bus. Granted I was quite angry but the driver would not open the door straight away and it was freezing. By the time she did and I stumbled into the bus crying I could hardly see couldn’t speak and couldn’t feel the right side of my body and my feet were on fire. Anyway that resulted in a trip in an ambulance to our local a@e. I lost two hours but fortunately by the time I was seen by a very sensible neurology reg I had started to recover and was able to go home. I too have had some strange symptoms since then but I’m sure things will settle eventually.
    Merry Christmas lol xxxxxx

    • stumbling in flats says:

      You poor thing, that’s awful! And so unfair. Hope you feel better very soon. Things like that can really shake you up.
      x

      • Angela says:

        Thank you. I guess the hardest thing to get used to is that before this I would have been able to deal with that situation but now my body has different ideas. I hope that you continue to get better and that those odd symptoms you have experienced since your fall eventually subside. Keep smiling xxxxx

        • stumbling in flats says:

          Thank you! I’m with you on that one. Symptoms suddenly reappear and seem to just as suddenly disappear. Just a shame the nerve pain is pretty constant 🙁
          x

          • Angela says:

            Yeah the nerve pain never goes away. Mines pretty well controlled but I do get the odd break through like this morning 🙁

          • stumbling in flats says:

            Not nice. Funnily enough, I was given an electric blanket for Christmas and it seems to make the nerve pain in my legs disappear. But then I’m also heat intolerant. Can’t win!
            x

          • Angela says:

            Lol damed if you do and damed if you don’t !! I find stiffness a real problem at night …. my back gets reall stiff and painful so I don’t sleep well and have to change position frequently which is a feat in itself. Who would have thought the simple task of turning over would be such a problem. Thank God we don’t have a waterbed ….. My husband would end up on the floor !

          • stumbling in flats says:

            That’s exactly the same as me – really bad backache at night 🙁
            x

          • Angela says:

            Bless you. I’ve tried all sorts and the only suggestion anyone can come up with involves heat. Hmmm don’t need to tell you what effect heat has . 🙁

          • stumbling in flats says:

            Yup. I end up looking like a deep-fried sausage 🙁
            X

  4. Tricia says:

    So sorry about your Imm I call ohh Gould, not again bits. I end up on the floor all the time, trip on invisible things, fall into the fridge/freezer all the time that’s my favourite at the moment (where I keep the chocolate), but the one that hurts the most is falling up the stairs. So here’s to it MS keep it coming you WONT win, I got the upper hand on you, I’ve got the chocolate x x

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