First, please note that NO TWO people diagnosed with MS have the same symptoms. Many folks with MS appear to walk like they’re drunk. I usually don’t have that problem – at least around our house. And when I am away from home and in public, I hold onto my husband or one of our kids to keep my balance. Or a grocery cart. Or a wall. Whatever it takes.
One thing that some MS’ers have is neuropathy in their feet. I do suffer from this and it’s been a bit of a bother. When I needed some podiatry work done a few months ago, the doctor tested my feet and told my husband that he was surprised I could even walk with the lack of feeling and the inability of my brain to tell my feet to do what he was asking of me. Luckily, my knees still work so although I occasionally walk like I have club feet (or foot drop), it’s mainly because I have little or no feeling in my feet. Case in point – I stubbed my little toe on a chair last night and except for feeling pressure, I felt no pain.
People with MS get lesions in their brains where the myelin sheath decides to go on a holiday and it kills whatever nerves it’s protecting in the brain. The first lesion (even though I had two prior to that but I did not feel any symptoms with those) that sent me to the hospital on 12/25/2006 and the subsequent diagnosis on 12/26/2010 by the radiologist, happened in my left cerebellum. Which is the control center for many things – including your right body functioning, your balance…and in my case, some serious dizziness.
Those of us with MS are definitely broken – hence my use of this great image:
But just because I don’t walk like I’m drunk, it doesn’t mean I don’t have balance issues – and they’re happening more and more often the further I get into this autoimmune disease. I fell in my office a couple of months ago while trying to sit in my chair. Last week, I fell twice – once into a prickly pear cactus (OUCH!) and once while just walking out to help put our chickens in their coop for the night (no damage, minor pain).
Then, I fell out of my office shed a few nights ago. It took me a couple of tries to pick myself up after that ordeal. Only minor grass rash and a bruised forehead above my hairline but the next morning, when trying to figure out why my right hand was itching so much, I realized I had also fell in a fire ant bed (OUCH again)!
But also, because of that white spot in my cerebellum where the lesion killed off those brain cells, my right side isn’t ‘normal’. It’s basically like a person who has had a minor stroke – I cannot use a cane, a walker or even propel myself in a wheelchair because the right side of my body doesn’t always do what I try to tell my brain to do.
But, this falling? We are NOT happy about it – and I’m especially not happy with the way it’s increased lately. But fortunately, I can still get in some quilt therapy as long as my right hand can cut my fabric with a rotary cutter!
