Pretty Good

So how are you doing? No, REALLY.

I get that question a lot. My answer is most likely to be "Pretty good", which is followed by the phrase, "No, REALLY".

Really? I am doing pretty good. Most days. Every now and then I have a day that stinks in relation to the MS. Other times I have days that stink in relation to my job, or my tenants, or my co-workers, or my spouse. What's that? You have those days too? Wow!

Everybody has days that don't qualify as even 'pretty good'. Funny thing, I have gotten 'pretty good' at reading if the question "How are you doing?" is in relation to life in general, the MS or just polite conversation.

As for the MS, most days it doesn't impact my life so much that I can't do what I need to do. I have learned what things are difficult for me and have adapted. For example, I know that my balance is usually questionable to some degree. This means that I hold the railing on stairs. I watch where I am going on uneven ground. I wear sturdy shoes.*

My balance is significantly worse if I am tired. My adaptation to this has involved not doing laundry when I am tired because I have to carry stuff down to the basement and don't have a free hand to hold the railing. Also, if I am really tired and feeling balance challenged, I am not going to climb a ladder. Or Mt. Everest. (Not that Everest was on my list of things to do!)

When the MS symptoms flair up, I probably won't say that I am doing 'pretty good'. I might tell you that things are going well, but I am having a rough MS day. That might mean that I am having vertigo or maybe my feet have been numb all day, making it hard to walk. Does that mean I can't get on with my day? Does it mean that I have to stay home and do nothing? No. Not at this point anyway. And I hope it never does. It just means that I have to work around it.

When I have vertigo, I don't drive unless I have to and then only on known routes and not at night. When my feet go numb, I might walk with a bit of a limp (the right is worse than the left) and if it is really bad I will use one half of an old pair of crutches to get around the house. Adaptation.

So really, I AM doing pretty good. No, life isn't perfect. It wasn't before my diagnosis either. And I don't expect it to be perfect any time soon. But I am pretty good and that is good enough for me!

*If you know me well, you know that I have a thing for shoes. Tomorrow I will tell you about one of the saddest things that has happened thus far in my MS journey. It involves my shoes. It was and is a little tragic. And I was and am a little melodramatic. Especially about my shoes!*