Beach Day!

Well, we hit 90 here in the Pacific Northwest, and that is a circumstance that is enough to make a grown man cry. Even if he doesn't have MS. So... my girl and I hit the beach.

I particularly appreciated the gutsy lady in the two piece situated next to us. Good for you, lady.  Let it all hang out.

We had to walk from the distant parking lot to the beach.  I was a little tingly, but mostly fine.  Not bad for a 90 degree day.

Today I took my younger daughter into Seattle to "do" Pike Place Market.  My older daughter, Mo, and my husband are on her 8th grade trip to Hawaii. So Lise and I are staving off our bitterness by sampling the local attractions. 

Anyway, I had some concerns about all the walking. We took the Bainbridge ferry over and had to walk to the market and climb the stairs up to it.  It's not a terribly long walk, but my legs have been kind of zesty lately (that's my term for nerve shocks,) and I wasn't sure how it would go. Plus it was a hot day so, which

is not a great thing for someone with MS.  Luckily, I felt pretty strong. So that's a win. I worry about not being able to take trips like this on my bad days. I'm so glad this wasn't one of them!

Here's Lise are eating her Pike Place clam chowder--part of the impetus for the trip.  I was literally dripping sweat as I ate. Clearly, we are idiots.  However, as we stood in line for 20 minutes behind a zillion tourists--mostly Japanese--to get it, we are not the only idiots.

And these are the gorgeous flowers we brought home.  They weighed a ton and were packed in a bag of water that leaked all over my pants on the ferry.  Good thing it was a hot day!

I have always aspired to be funny on the internet.  Otherwise, what's the point? I don't go to the internet for serious. I've got all I need here in my kitchen. But I don't feel so funny right now. I feel boned.  And not in the good way. So this blog might be more serious than funny.  Or both.  Time will tell.

Why do feel boned?  Because I have MS and, at the moment, it is dragging me down. 

For those of you who are not familiar with MS, for many of us it comes and goes...and gets worse. And comes and goes in a worse way.  Or something like that.  Honestly, I don't know a lot about MS. That's really why I'm writing this blog.  I'd like to chronicle my journey--to serve as a road map for the future unfortunates.

A little history if I may be so dull. In 1997, I had something that looked like Optic Neuritis. It showed up when I was studying for the bar exam, so I figured I had just broken my eyes staring at law books. After the exam I sought out medical advice, had an MRI, and was told I had MS. At that point I found a job, moved to the magical fairyland of Seattle, got new health care and started down the road to formal diagnosis.  I saw Neurologists, Rhuemotologist and Optic Neurologists and Gynecologists...ok, not really that last one. But I saw a ton of doctors and everyone seemed to think I had something different going on.  I got fed up, said, "Screw you, I feel fine," and closed the door. Also, got pregnant (hence the gynecologist.)  One of the multitude of doctors wanted to put me on meds that would make me sterile and that kind of jump started my biological clock--not unreasonably so since I was 31. 

Anyway, I had some kids and some laughs and didn't have much more than occasional leg weakness for lots of years-- until 2011. Then I had extra super baddy badness. As my profile name indicates, I am a swimmer.  I competed when I was young, and after both my kids were in school full time, I decided to compete as an adult.  I was swimming four days a week, at least an hour a day, and blowing the doors out. I was seriously in shape (she says with a longing look back into the past. Sigh.) I was also exhausted and getting myself through workouts with lots of chocolate espresso beans and Rock Star energy drinks.  Did this abuse to my 45 year old body bring on my MS? Maybe. Probably. Who knows. It was stupid all the same.

Whatever the cause, during my swimming blitz I developed what I call "lightening leg." The first time I experienced it, I was swimming and my left leg just stopped working. I got to the edge of the pool and freaked out a little and then felt better.  That was not so lighteningy. But as this course of MS progressed, the attacks would start with firey shooting pain up and down my left leg. Then it would fade and my whole leg would burn crazy hot. Sometimes the burning would extend up my torso and into my shoulder and arm. Everything would fade away in about a minute, but it was pretty unsettling. Also, challenging because I was continuing all my activites as usual and I never knew when it would show up.  I was particularly nervous chaperoning my daughter's 4th grade camping trip.  What was I going to tell people when my leg shut down on the hike in the Olympic National Park? And, no, I didn't put MS on the health form that I had to fill out.

Anyway, future posts won't be so long winded--I promise. I'm just trying to lay some ground work. My whole point is, when MS was first bandied about in 1997, I did a little research. The internet was pretty weak in those days, so there wasn't the wealth of information that you find today. But I did keep reading about pain. And I didn't get that. How would there be pain?  I thought your body parts just got weak and stopped working. Well, now I get it. There's pain because your nerves become live wires and start shooting off like the Fourth of July (not a medically accurate explanation, BTW.)

That's the background and the Why of this blog. I can make no promises about the medical accuracy of anything I say. I purposefully don't do a lot of research because I want to be surprised.  Ok, not really.  But I don't want to start imagining symptoms like a good hypochondriac. Anyway, I hope this can be a faithful and humorous catalog of my journey with this super-annoying condition and to show fellow travelers that they aren't alone.