Before I even start today’s blog, I need to give hug of condolences to my little sister, who put her dog Blueberry down yesterday. Blueberry now joins my Boomer over the rainbow bridge to wait for us with a few other past dogs she had.

Lets once again discuss life with multiple sclerosis and its challenges. My daughter had to be in the city today to take a math placement exam for John Jay College. Since we had to be here, I figured we’d knock out a few things so we are meeting with the disability department, leaving a tuition deposit, filing out a waiver form for me to be able to speak for her and hopefully meet with the housing department. Great, good plans.

New York Coty is about 40 minutes from my Long Island home without traffic. There is NEVER no traffic and she had to be in the city at 9:30 so it wasn’t just traffic it was rush hour traffic. First issue, how to get in. I knew the city called for my scooter. Too much walking for me. My walker can get me from my car to inside a building but if I have to walk a lot, not an option. To get into the city I had a few options, Uber, train, me driving or other.

Uber wanted a small fortune and the quote wasn’t even for rush hour traffic. Couldn’t reserve the time either so that got thrown out. The train, here’s the problem with the train. I’m traveling in a scooter and I need help to get on and off the train. Sometimes the conductors aren’t on top of these things and your at the mercy of nice people, standing near you helping you lift the chair over the gaps and onto the train. Then you need working elevators. I’d love to say this is never an issue but it completely is. Without a working elevator you can’t get off the track. Same thing to get out of Penn Station. Next is a cab…yes the scooter breaks down but I’d be on the sidewalk with hundreds of people in a scooter flagging down a cab. I’m getting hives thinking about it. Plus then your travel has to fit according to the train schedule. So I might have had to take a train literally at 6:40 just to give enough time to flag a cab and get to the college because the 7:20 would be cutting the time too close.

Me driving, well unfortunately driving has become more and more an obstacle for me. I’m ok for local but long distance and traffic will start leg spasms which are super painful. Then you have my reaction time which can be off. Traveling at 60mph is no joke. When your leg can possibly have a slow reaction time to brake that’s a HUGE safety risk. It’s one thing if I’m alone but not when my daughter is with me.  Even though it would be cheaper it wasn’t really the safest option.

Finally my cousin gave me a name of a car service much less then Uber to take us in. I want you to know that the whole thought of how I was getting into the city gave me anxiety and had me up for 2 nights while I was away. I was so grateful to my mom and stepdad for paying for the trip. I would have driven before the train or the Uber but it was unrealistic once again as I think I can do more than my body can. It want just the symptoms of multiple sclerosis alone it was the safety of my ms symptoms that made that drive out of the question.

Luckily it was a smooth trip the traffic sucked took close to 2 hours to get into the city this morning. Driving would never have worked. The nice man even stopped for me to use a bathroom because another multiple sclerosis issue was about to happen and that crisis was averted (pays to know the trip and possible places to use a bathroom). Now I’m just chilling writing my blog as she takes her placement test. As always with this disease, accept, adapt, adjust and accommodate.