I think I’ve had my first bout of actual writer’s block. It’s been almost two weeks since my last post and while this bothers me intensely, I think it might also mean that I’ve found some new ways of coping. So, yay me?

Kind of.

The thing that keeps occurring to me, this past week, is how hard it is to roll with whatever is happening in this moment. Right now. At THIS time.

For example, as I wrote in my last post, I’d discovered a new way to manage my pain. That’s been a huge change for me, an astronomical shift in how I can get through the pain of every day life with MS. Here’s the thing, though.

You still have shitty days. I still have shitty days.

I literally can’t rely on myself from day-to-day. And by myself, I mean my body. For the most part, my mind seems to remain mostly intact so there’s that. Thank the universe for that. But my body? My body is fickle.

Some days I feel so good it’s almost like I’m inching closer to pre-MS me. I am talkative. I find myself laughing. I sleep soundly and wake up feeling almost ok. When those days happen (and they don’t happen that often), I have to force myself to not go flying over the rainbow on my glitter unicorn singing, “IT’S OVER! IT’S OVER! I’M GONNA BE OK!” Because chances are within 24 hours, or even less, I’m going to feel completely differently and wonder where the good went again (I’m a bit obsessed with Tegan & Sara, but you guys already knew that).

Some days, I am halfway up the stairs to my second floor before I remember to hold on. Other times I go to stand up from sitting and my body literally won’t budge. Some days I wake up in the morning before my alarm and I don’t feel like I need 10 more hours of sleep. Other days I wake up and feel like sleep was a big fat freaking lie and I cannot conceive of getting out of bed. Some days my legs operate as legs should, for the most part, and I find myself feeling silly for walking with Stan (my cane, my one and only man) because he’s become somewhat irrelevant (kind of like some of my last boyfriends). Other days, I lean on him like my life depends on him. And sometimes it does.

Sometimes these changes don’t even take an entire day. Sometimes things change moment to moment.

When I was diagnosed with relapsing/remitting multiple sclerosis, I thought the spans of times when I would be either relapsing or remitting would be big long times. Weeks at least. Months even! I was led to believe that I’d have symptoms at times, at other times they would be worse, but I’d eventually level off again and get back to “normal.” Remitting means “cancel or refrain from exacting or inflicting (a debt or punishment).” Canceling or refraining is not what I’m experiencing. Waxing and waning maybe? Always on until it’s off? Firmly off before it snaps back on again without warning?

“Relapsing and remitting” might be the most deceptive term I’ve ever come across related to a medical diagnosis. It should be called “Constantly Changing and Keeping You Completely Off Balance MS” but I think CCAKYCOBMS doesn’t roll off the tongue so well, so they voted against it when choosing MS names.

The thing is, there is no normal anymore. One cannot become “accustomed” to having multiple sclerosis because one cannot ever get used to any one thing.

I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately because my MS friends and I have been riding the roller coaster together. We text. We message. We talk online. We talk a lot and thank god for that because damn, it feels good to be 100% understood.

The day usually starts with “what kind of day is it for you today?”  Sometimes the answer is, “eh, not so bad.” Other times, the answer is, “Woke up with non-functioning legs.” Or, “Took a fall, feeling crappy, here we go again.” Or something similar.

We always forget to say “for now.”

Because it could be hours, days or weeks until your current state changes again or it could be minutes. This works in both directions, good and bad. Some days I wake up thinking I can’t. I just can’t do anything. Hours later, I’m grocery shopping and things don’t feel all that bad with a cart to hang on to. Other days I wake up thinking, I can and wind up flat on my face with dishes flying through the air and a purple-ish bruise blooming across my nose. You just never freaking know!

It’s a challenging way to live. My entire life is supposed to follow a schedule of some kind. I’m employed full time running a business. Meetings are a perfect example.

I used to plan meetings and feel nearly 100% confident that I’d be able to be where I needed to be when I needed to be there. I’m a reliable kind of gal. I like to do what I say I’m going to do. Consistently. Period. Now? Chances are 50/50 at best. I’ve nearly killed myself trying to keep to some kind of regular work schedule, in some kind of reliable way (either in the office or not in the office) but the fact is, I have to roll with what my body can handle on any given day and that’s just how life is now.

I might want to be there in person, but you might also get my tinny voice on a conference line instead. I might want to plan a trip to the home office to spend some much needed time with my colleagues down south – but I can’t tell the airlines I may or may not be able to make my flight and I won’t know until I’m walking out the door which it will be! I can’t tell my colleagues I may or may not be coming to see them in person, so just hang tight and free up some time for me just in case, because that’s not how the business world works!

But it’s how my world works. Thank the universe, once again, that I’ve somehow had two of the best years of my professional life these past two years since I was diagnosed with MS. The universe has a perverse sense of humor. But the constant threat of “what if I can’t?” takes a toll on us. Being a person with MS means never getting to really plan a goddamn thing.

The obvious up side to all of this is that we have to constantly remember, or rely on one of those trusty fellow MS buddies to remind you that whatever it is that feels so horrible now probably won’t always feel so horrible. It might last months (like after my first big relapse) and you might even start to get used to your new limitations, when all of the sudden something changes. You feel better. Or you just feel different. You will never see it coming but you can rely on one thing. It will change.

Sometimes I laugh to myself and think that MS is trying to teach me the secret to inner peace by proving to me that all we ever have in life is right  now.

Just as I type those words I got another right now but I might not have. I, of all people, should know that fact from my experience with young widowhood. But you forget! Time passes by and you start to feel normal again and you allow yourself to believe that there is such a thing as normal! You find yourself falling into a new routine and thinking it’s real but it never really is.

It is all about to change (or not) at any given second of any given hour in any given day (and so on and so on and so on). Or not.

It’s a universal truth and it’s universally ignored because there is truly no easy way to live without holding on to the delusion of control and remain a functioning member of our society that is built on plans, expectations, commitments and other silly things that are absolutely meaningless to me now.

I try to remind my friends (and at the same time myself), when we’re having shitty horrible terrible MS days that we have to remember to say to ourselves, “This really sucks balls…for now.” Or, “Fuck this…at this moment.” Or, “I love feeling so awesome…today.” Because good or bad, you kind of can’t count on any of it. And you have to be ok with that. Otherwise, you will straight up be in misery every day of your life and who the heck wants to live in misery?

I have to tell you…not me.

I’ve nearly gotten to the limits of my ability to wallow in misery. I’m sure you’ve all been waiting for me to reach that place, finally, and stop bitching constantly about how much I hate this entire experience! I was beginning to be concerned it would never happen myself. But there is a limit on how long you can feel hopeless and still find the energy to wake up each morning and play along. There is for me, anyway.

Reminding myself to put a shiny pink bow on a shit sandwich is important. It’s all gonna change! It’s not worth the energy it takes to believe any of it will last forever – now that could be your crappy legs, the rainy day or the month of January that seems without end. But it always comes to an end. And something new begins.

Now I’m not going so far into my commitment to misery-free living as to think I’m going to have more good moments than bad ones from now on. My experience of the last 24 months has not proven that to be the case. It’s just not true.

Yet. It’s just not true YET.