(my)Life’s Ironies

I’ve said this many times on this blog and anyone who knows me or is around me can attest to the fact that there is always method to my madness. In my apartment, I have things in certain places for a reason. Yes it, depending on what it is, could be because it looks good there but oftentimes it’s because it’s easy for me to get to or, it’s being in that position makes my life easier somehow. Everybody keeps the small garbage can in their bathroom next to the porcelain goddess. I don’t. I remember years ago the parents were visiting and every night I went into my bathroom I’d find the bin next to the toilet and every night I’d move it and put it where I needed it. And then one night, after I’d moved it, Learls came in, picked it up and said, “every time I put this in the right place, somebody moves it.” I took it from her and said, “no ma’am. Every time I put this in the right place, somebody moves it.” She never touched it again. Always a reason for the way I do things and the places where I keep everything in my space.

Setting the stage here:
There is a stool in my bathroom. It’s where I sit to get dressed and organise myself when I have to get ready to do anything. It’s always roughly in the same spot. I went out Saturday and for whatever reason, as I was leaving the bathroom, I pushed the stool much farther away from its regular spot. Why did I do that you ask? Wish I could tell you.
I take a few pills everyday – 1 set in the morning and the other whenever I’m getting ready for bed. I can definitely tell if I’ve forgotten to take either set but forgetting the nighttime set is much worse. I am unbelievably stiff in the morning and getting out of bed and subsequent movements are no fun. As a result, I really try my best not to forget to take those pills.

Saturday gone now:
I went out and as usual, had a great time with the inner circle and J dropped me off a little after midnight or so. I parked Optimus in his spot in my office closet and walked to my bedroom. As I entered my bedroom, I made a beeline for my bed and then thought, shit. Pills. Every now and again when I’m heading out, I take them with me, but Saturday I didn’t – go figure. I turned around and headed for my bathroom and as I crossed the door, I got the strongest scent of soap or something in there that made me feel a little off. And then the nausea started and I could feel cold sweat coming on (I’ve mentioned this numerous times too – my issues related to ms are multiplied tenfold any time my body gets “out of whack”). There have been times in the past when I’ve felt sick; it’s like a wave of sickness (the best way I can describe it) because I feel nauseous and think I may end up throwing up and then 5/10 minutes later, the feeling subsides and it’s like nothing ever happened and I’m as good as can be. Of course, when it happens, I just want to sit and let it run its course – the last thing I want to be doing is, you guessed it, walking! Taking steps at those moments is the most difficult thing and of course, that’s what I was doing Saturday night. GREAT!

And guess what? Had the stool been in its normal spot, I would have gotten to it and been able to sit this thru. But it wasn’t – I’d pushed it back. I was leaning on my bathroom counter, willing myself to keep pushing forward and stay upright. All I had to do was take about two steps and reach out with a small lean and the stool might have been within reach but of course I was also afraid of what could happen if I actually leaned too. I could do neither. Eventually, my knees gave out and I went down. Beautiful! All in all, it wasn’t horrible, I suppose…it was a soft fall; I didn’t go crashing to the floor, I didn’t hit my head, no broken bones or bruises. Truth be told, the cold floor was also just a little soothing; the fall momentarily distracted me from the fact that everything happened because I was feeling sick. I eventually got back up (with help) and made it to the bed where I was trying to go in the first place had it not been for those damn pills!

All’s well that ends well. I can’t say what kind of inner strength I had prior to this disease but I think that it’s okay for me to say that I possess a herculean amount of it now. I think that it’s amazing I don’t cry or feel down more often, just having to deal with my entire situation and some of the shit that is thrown my way on a regular basis. Anyhoo, I gone so…hol’ it dong till next time.

Strength

Therapy finished last week, I’ll be more consistent once again.

i don’t question “why me?”  Quite frankly I don’t remember when/if I’ve ever asked that question.  The question I really want answered is “why multiple sclerosis?” I really wish I could pinpoint something I did/somewhere I went/something that happened in my past that could explain why I have my wretched disease, but no. No explanations, no answers…sigh. Allyuh tell me how strong I am and how much you admire me because of how I handle things and, I’ve said this before, I’m not putting on a show for that praise, I really do handle things well (at least I try to) – I eh go lie, I sometimes amaze myself at how I handle things.  Well…all that strength came to a crashing halt some Fridays ago.

truth be told, I haven’t had a bad day in a long while, so one can probably argue that it was time I s’pose. It was the week after labour day (sept 4) and it all stemmed from a mix up with the delivery date of one of my medications.  It’s a twice a day tablet that is specifically for ms patients’ walking issues. Every month, I speak to a pharmacy representative and we agree on the delivery date and every month like clockwork, it’s delivered on said date.  Well I’m not sure what happened and it didn’t come as I expected and when I called to find out what was going on, I was told that it was coming 4 days later. That news was no good, I had 2 days of pills left. As I said before, this is a twice a day pill that’s specifically for my walking and one time years ago, I went down to one a day just to see if that dosage could work and I discovered that the pill actually also helped my overall good feelings and 1 daily wasn’t cutting it. So here we are that week and I have 4 pills for four days. Shit! As “luck” would have it, I’d forgotten to take a set of pills sometime that month, so I actually found one more. So for that week, I took one pill a day and I was coping – or so I thought.

that week was leading up to an event that happens annually here in ATL that pits the men in our Trini community against each other to see who “han sweetest” in the kitchen. It’s a competition that’s been run by AuntyP for years and it eventually morphed into a part fund raiser for the MSCA on my behalf. It really brings our little community together and now in these times of social media, all week long I was tagged in comments and pictures and the pekong amongst the competitors was hilarious. That Thursday, in the midst of all the ole talk, a few people were very complimentary of me and reading what was said made me smile – gave me warm and fuzzy feelings, if u will and really lifted me up. Looking back I realised that my funk had started that Thursday afternoon. I really needed those comments right at that time.

the pills are usually delivered to my front door. Don’t u know it, that day UPS left it in the leasing office so I had to get them. The scoots to the office and back were uneventful so I’m not sure what got to me but in that moment when I got back to my apartment and opened the package, all my strength, positivity, “glass half full” energy vanished…shit was just too unfair and I was on the verge of tears. I was angry, I was sad, I was upset, I was despondent, I felt hatred to the MS and I can go on.

It was the middle of the day though…I had to get back to work…

A few hours later, after having spoken to Learls and a few others, I was almost back to normal.

I’m fine these days but MS still sucks!

 

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