Aa
What MS feels like.
My wife found this on another MS site.
When We Say We Can't do Something Because We don't
Feel Well,
Put yourself in Our Shoes By Using The Examples of our
Symptoms Below...
- Painful Heavy Legs: Apply Tightly 20 LB ankle
weights and 15 LB thigh weights then take a 1 mile
walk, clean the house, go shopping and then sit down -
how ya' feeling now?
- Painful Feet: Put equal or unequal amounts of small
pebbles in each shoe then take a walk, if we are mad
at you we would prefer needles to pebbles.
- Loss of Feeling in Hands and/or Arms: Put on extra
thick gloves and a heavy coat then try and pick up a
pencil, if successful stab yourself in the arm.
- Loss of Feeling in Feet and/or Legs: Ask a doc for a
shot of novocaine in both of your legs and then try
and stand up and walk without looking like the town
drunk. Hopefully you won't fall down.
- TN (Trigeminal Neuralgia): Take an ice pick and jam
it into your ear or cheek whenever the wind blows on
it, or a stray hair touches it. If you want something
easier to do, get someone to punch you in the jaw
preferably daily.
- Uncontrollable Itching: Glue or sew small steel wool
pads to the inside of your shirt, pants and
undergarments wear them for an entire day.
- Tingling: Stick your finger in an electrical socket
- preferably wet.
- Tight Banded Feeling: Put 12 inch wide belt around
you and make is as tight as you can and leave it there
for the entire day. How ya' breathing?
- Shots: Fill one of our spare needles with saline
solution, saline won't hurt you, we would love
something worse but don't want to end up in jail. Give
yourself a shot everytime we do our shot.
- Side Effects From the Shot: Bang you head against a
wall, wrap yourself in a heating pad, wrap your entire
body with an ace bandage tightly then finally treat
yourself to some spoiled food or drink.
- Trouble Lifting Arms: Apply 20 LB wrist weights and
try and reach for something on the highest shelf in
your house.
- Spasticity: Hook bungee cords to your rear belt
loops and rear pant leg cuffs then for your arms hook
bungee cords to your shirt collar and cuffs on shirt
sleeves then go dancing.
- Poor Hearing/Buzzing in Ears: Put a bee in each ear
and then put a plug in each
one...Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
- Balance and Walking Problems: Drink 100 proof grain
alcohol and then sit and spin in an office chair for
30 minutes, now get up and see what happens.
Urgently Needing to Pee: We put a .5 liter remote
controlled water bag and drip tube in your pants, we
point out 2 restrooms in a crowded mall, then we tell
you that you have 30 seconds before we activate the
water bag (by remote control) to get to a restroom.
Just for spite we may make that 20 seconds without
telling you.
- Bizarre and Inexplicable Sensations: Place tiny
spiders on your legs or arms and
allow them to periodically crawl around throughout the
day, heck all day would be good too.
- Pins and Needles: Stab yourself repeatedly with
needles all over your body or better yet....Get a very
large tattoo in your most sensative area.
- Dizziness (Vertigo): Get on a gently rocking boat
all day and all night and take
several walks around the deck with your eyes closed.
- Fatigue: Stay awake for two full days to induce
incredible fatigue and then cook dinner, clean the
house, walk the dog and see how you feel. Please do
not compare MS fatigue to you being tired from only a
few hours of sleep - it's not the
same at all.
- Cognitive Function (Brain Fog): Take a liberal dose
of sleeping pills but stay awake. Try and function
properly and think clearly. To make it even more real
without killing yourself of course, take the sleeping
pills with a small sip of wine.
- Bowel Problems: Take a 4 day dose of an
anti-diarrhea medicine followed directly by a 3 day
dose of stool softeners for a minimum of 3 weeks, at
the end of 3 weeks sit down on a hard uncushioned
chair and stay theretill tears appear.
- Burning Feeling: Make a full pot of boiling water
and then have someone fill a squirt gun with the
boiling water and shoot it at yourself all day long.
However, you can give us the pleasure of shooting you
instead...optional of course.
- Intention Tremor: Hook your body to some type of
vibrating machine try and move your legs and
arms.....hmmm are you feeling a little shaky? You are
not allowed to use anything fun for this lesson.
- Buzzing Feeling When Bending Our Heads to Our Chest
(L'Hermitte's):
Place an electrical wire on your back and run it all
the way down to your feet, then pour water on it and
plug it in.
- Vision Problems (Optic Neuritis): Smear vaseline on
glasses and then wear them to read the newspaper.
- Memory Issues: Have someone make a list of items to
shop for and when you come back that person adds two
things to the list and then they ask why you didn't
get them. When you come back from shopping again they
take the list and
erase three things and ask why you bought those
things.
- Foot Drop: Wear one swim fin and take about a 1/2
mile walk, nothing else needs to be said for this one,
you'll get it.
- Depression: Take a trip to the animal shelter
everyday and see all the lonely animals with no home.
You get attached to one or more of the animals and
when you come back the next day you come in while they
are putting her/him asleep.
- Fear: Dream that you have lost complete feeling in
your feet and when you wake up wiggle your feet, just
so happens they don't move. Think about this every
night wondering whether something on your body won't
work the next day when you wake up.
- Swallowing: Try swallowing the hottest chili pepper
you can find.
- Heat Intolerance or Feeling Hot When it's Really
Not: You are on a nice vacation to Alaska. It's 35°
outside and 65° inside. Light a fire for the fireplace
and then get into it. Once you have reached about 110°
tell me how you feel, even a person without MS would feel
bad, now add all of the above symptoms - welcome to
our world.
Then Finally...
After subjecting yourself to the items above, let
everyone tell you that you
are just under a lot of stress, it's all in your head
and that some exercise
and counseling is the answer.
When We Say We Can't do Something Because We don't
Feel Well,
Put yourself in Our Shoes By Using The Examples of our
Symptoms Below...
- Painful Heavy Legs: Apply Tightly 20 LB ankle
weights and 15 LB thigh weights then take a 1 mile
walk, clean the house, go shopping and then sit down -
how ya' feeling now?
- Painful Feet: Put equal or unequal amounts of small
pebbles in each shoe then take a walk, if we are mad
at you we would prefer needles to pebbles.
- Loss of Feeling in Hands and/or Arms: Put on extra
thick gloves and a heavy coat then try and pick up a
pencil, if successful stab yourself in the arm.
- Loss of Feeling in Feet and/or Legs: Ask a doc for a
shot of novocaine in both of your legs and then try
and stand up and walk without looking like the town
drunk. Hopefully you won't fall down.
- TN (Trigeminal Neuralgia): Take an ice pick and jam
it into your ear or cheek whenever the wind blows on
it, or a stray hair touches it. If you want something
easier to do, get someone to punch you in the jaw
preferably daily.
- Uncontrollable Itching: Glue or sew small steel wool
pads to the inside of your shirt, pants and
undergarments wear them for an entire day.
- Tingling: Stick your finger in an electrical socket
- preferably wet.
- Tight Banded Feeling: Put 12 inch wide belt around
you and make is as tight as you can and leave it there
for the entire day. How ya' breathing?
- Shots: Fill one of our spare needles with saline
solution, saline won't hurt you, we would love
something worse but don't want to end up in jail. Give
yourself a shot everytime we do our shot.
- Side Effects From the Shot: Bang you head against a
wall, wrap yourself in a heating pad, wrap your entire
body with an ace bandage tightly then finally treat
yourself to some spoiled food or drink.
- Trouble Lifting Arms: Apply 20 LB wrist weights and
try and reach for something on the highest shelf in
your house.
- Spasticity: Hook bungee cords to your rear belt
loops and rear pant leg cuffs then for your arms hook
bungee cords to your shirt collar and cuffs on shirt
sleeves then go dancing.
- Poor Hearing/Buzzing in Ears: Put a bee in each ear
and then put a plug in each
one...Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
- Balance and Walking Problems: Drink 100 proof grain
alcohol and then sit and spin in an office chair for
30 minutes, now get up and see what happens.
Urgently Needing to Pee: We put a .5 liter remote
controlled water bag and drip tube in your pants, we
point out 2 restrooms in a crowded mall, then we tell
you that you have 30 seconds before we activate the
water bag (by remote control) to get to a restroom.
Just for spite we may make that 20 seconds without
telling you.
- Bizarre and Inexplicable Sensations: Place tiny
spiders on your legs or arms and
allow them to periodically crawl around throughout the
day, heck all day would be good too.
- Pins and Needles: Stab yourself repeatedly with
needles all over your body or better yet....Get a very
large tattoo in your most sensative area.
- Dizziness (Vertigo): Get on a gently rocking boat
all day and all night and take
several walks around the deck with your eyes closed.
- Fatigue: Stay awake for two full days to induce
incredible fatigue and then cook dinner, clean the
house, walk the dog and see how you feel. Please do
not compare MS fatigue to you being tired from only a
few hours of sleep - it's not the
same at all.
- Cognitive Function (Brain Fog): Take a liberal dose
of sleeping pills but stay awake. Try and function
properly and think clearly. To make it even more real
without killing yourself of course, take the sleeping
pills with a small sip of wine.
- Bowel Problems: Take a 4 day dose of an
anti-diarrhea medicine followed directly by a 3 day
dose of stool softeners for a minimum of 3 weeks, at
the end of 3 weeks sit down on a hard uncushioned
chair and stay theretill tears appear.
- Burning Feeling: Make a full pot of boiling water
and then have someone fill a squirt gun with the
boiling water and shoot it at yourself all day long.
However, you can give us the pleasure of shooting you
instead...optional of course.
- Intention Tremor: Hook your body to some type of
vibrating machine try and move your legs and
arms.....hmmm are you feeling a little shaky? You are
not allowed to use anything fun for this lesson.
- Buzzing Feeling When Bending Our Heads to Our Chest
(L'Hermitte's):
Place an electrical wire on your back and run it all
the way down to your feet, then pour water on it and
plug it in.
- Vision Problems (Optic Neuritis): Smear vaseline on
glasses and then wear them to read the newspaper.
- Memory Issues: Have someone make a list of items to
shop for and when you come back that person adds two
things to the list and then they ask why you didn't
get them. When you come back from shopping again they
take the list and
erase three things and ask why you bought those
things.
- Foot Drop: Wear one swim fin and take about a 1/2
mile walk, nothing else needs to be said for this one,
you'll get it.
- Depression: Take a trip to the animal shelter
everyday and see all the lonely animals with no home.
You get attached to one or more of the animals and
when you come back the next day you come in while they
are putting her/him asleep.
- Fear: Dream that you have lost complete feeling in
your feet and when you wake up wiggle your feet, just
so happens they don't move. Think about this every
night wondering whether something on your body won't
work the next day when you wake up.
- Swallowing: Try swallowing the hottest chili pepper
you can find.
- Heat Intolerance or Feeling Hot When it's Really
Not: You are on a nice vacation to Alaska. It's 35°
outside and 65° inside. Light a fire for the fireplace
and then get into it. Once you have reached about 110°
tell me how you feel, even a person without MS would feel
bad, now add all of the above symptoms - welcome to
our world.
Then Finally...
After subjecting yourself to the items above, let
everyone tell you that you
are just under a lot of stress, it's all in your head
and that some exercise
and counseling is the answer.
I have that bookmarked - I found it myself when I was trying to find descriptions to take to the neuro..
http://notsonicesugrspice.blogspot.com/2008/03/what-living-with-ms-feels-like.html
http://notsonicesugrspice.blogspot.com/2008/03/what-living-with-ms-feels-like.html
This is really funny! I wish that people understood the fatigue and weakness that way!
Wow I felt kind of sorry for us by the time I got to the bottom of the list!!
Thanks for sharing I will save it for when I feel like no one gets it and then maybe post it on the fridge without saying a word and just wait for comments.
Erin :)
Thank you so much!! The one with the movement like tiny spiders on it I can really really relate to! I am sooooo terrified of spiders and when i get this feeling i freak out cuz im expecting to see them all over my body...lol..i actually have that feeling right now.
They all hit so close to home!!!! Im going to be showing this to my husband!
They all hit so close to home!!!! Im going to be showing this to my husband!
Thank you, coach291, It is so true being told that exercise and counseling will help...lol...Don't you just want to scream!! All the effort we take to just move and some idiot wants to tell us exercise will fix it. Don't we wish!!
I will see what site my wife found this. I got diagnosed 3 weeks ago...she got diagnosed 2yrs ago. She has been on copaxone and is doing great. I on the other hand ...I am dealing with about half the symptoms above and I am waiting to go back to the remission stage(hopefully). I start my shots this week.
I love it, too. Can we list what website it came from so we give them the appropriate credit? Thanks for sharing. -Lu
WOW, that's amazing.
I was particularly struck by the fear and sleep. I dreamt that my torso area became numb. Guess what, I woke up and it is numb--has been for 6 months with no change
I was particularly struck by the fear and sleep. I dreamt that my torso area became numb. Guess what, I woke up and it is numb--has been for 6 months with no change
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