I had a rough day yesterday. I had some kind of stomach bug. Let’s just say if I had to do a colonoscopy this morning I would be well prepared. I felt awful. I couldn’t really eat a thing. Anything I ate wouldn’t stay for long. I was dehydrated so the only thing I really could do was drink. My body was so achy. This is where having MS is always an issue. It wasn’t just the fear of an accident, there was still that problem, it was the constant up and down to the bathroom. My body just was so tired. I just couldn’t keep doing it anymore.

Multiple sclerosis makes everything so difficult. I was just beyond exhausted. Any kind of illness from a simple cold to the flu plays havoc with MS. Every illness exaggerates your MS symptoms and makes everything worse. So a normal little stomach bug like I had yesterday, which is sucky enough. becomes that much harder because I have MS. My body has to work double time and it can’t keep up. Yet I had no choice but to keep getting myself to the bathroom. I mean what are the alternatives? That is a rhetorical question. I know that answer. I’m trying to hold onto whatever dignity I still have.

The idea of this is why I’m very fearful of not only Covid, but any infection. Even when I was put in the hospital when I had cellulitis, that was a nightmare for me. Not because I was in pain but the medicine that they were giving me caused problems with my bladder. That issue required me once again to be up and down so many times to use the bathroom I couldn’t sleep. I also could never relieve my bladder fully. It was a complete nightmare for me and my MS symptoms. I was miserable. When I had the flu many years ago, despite having a fever aches and chills, I also couldn’t really walk. This was when I didn’t need any apparatus to help me get around. However having that fever brought out all my MS symptoms at their worst. Now my MS is already pretty bad, how much worse could it get?

Yesterday was so rough just because I didn’t feel good in general but adding the MS through it made it so difficult. Every step is harder. Every time I had a pull down my shorts and pull them back up again. Each movement became more and more fatiguing. It’s like being sick and carrying around a 20 pound bowling ball everywhere you go. It was a pretty rough day.