The Spinning Room

As a child my room started spinning, I could not make it stop, very scary stuff. When I started crying it made it worse, really scary stuff. I found if I darkened the room and lay very still it would go away.

Unberable leg pain

In my early twenties leg pain became unbearable enough to speak to a doctor, he was a military physician, this was during Vietnam era. All I received from him was a look of contempt for such a complaint so I never again tried to explore why I was having either of these issues. Both would come and go but I never could figure out what the triggers were.

Temperature triggers

In my thirties I taught at a university, my boss was a physician. One day he stopped me in the hall to tell me I was dragging my left leg. He wanted to know what I had been doing for the last week. I told him I ran as a volunteer on the National Ski Patrol, so I had been working in the snow doing EMT support. He asked if I had done anything else, which I responded yes I was going to the hot tubs in the evenings after work. This is when I got educated back in the early 80s about MS. There was very little literature out there but I learned my trigger, going from cold to hot or hot to cold. This was forty years ago, I still live by his advice as he was one of the top research doctors in the area of MS.

Taking care of my health

Now I wear double leg braces when I need them. Built a handicapped home thirty years ago which has made my declining health issue easier to live with. Bought a long term care policy with full paying home health care benefits for my lifetime and made sure my cash flow needs monthly during my retirement years has a large buffer for health care and travel. I do spend more time at the physical therapist than the gym, I see both as getting exercise.

Find your triggers, adjust, and live your life

Since retiring I have scheduled an annual month-long trip to places I have not traveled to, all of France, Morocco, Africa, the volcano in Hawaii with many more to come. When not traveling I renovate run-down houses, getting up at 5AM and finishing by 1PM to manage the heat factor health issue. For me this has been a life well-lived, I did not choose to have MS but I sure have made the best of it. Find your triggers, adjust for them then plan your life and live it. Living life is a singular sport, it has nothing to do with MS.