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hOW TO GET THROUGH TO THOSE WHO DON'T UNDERSTAND! INFO I PASSED ON. CHECK IT OUT!

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    hOW TO GET THROUGH TO THOSE WHO DON'T UNDERSTAND! INFO I PASSED ON. CHECK IT OUT!

    When we with MS say we can't do something because we don't feel well, you without MS can put yourself in our shoes by using the examples of our symptoms below:
    MS Symptoms What You Can do To Understand

    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 there till tears appeared.

    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.

    #2
    I LOVE it! That is what is so frustrating to me that people do not realize we are struggling every day even though we look normal. (Tired and worn out but normal) Unfortunatley I've just put a wall around myself and blocked most of my friends out of my life because they don't understand and do no wish to try to understand why I can't do a lot of stuff anymore!

    Comment


      #3
      Originally posted by Lexie View Post
      I LOVE it! That is what is so frustrating to me that people do not realize we are struggling every day even though we look normal. (Tired and worn out but normal) Unfortunatley I've just put a wall around myself and blocked most of my friends out of my life because they don't understand and do no wish to try to understand why I can't do a lot of stuff anymore!
      Same here. It's just easier that way for me.

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        #4
        Brilliant!

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          #5
          I love this...Thank you for posting
          DX 10/26/11

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            #6
            Thanks for sharing this, chychydy!

            This has been circulating on the internet for ages. The original author is unknown / uncited. But it can be found at:

            http://www.howdoesmsfeel.com/how.html

            It's always good to have "tools" to help others try to understand MS.

            Be well,

            Comment


              #7
              I also passed this one around a little while ago here and still love to read it through!! This passage is one of those things that can be funny, but then again maybe not!
              1st sx '89 Dx '99 w/RRMS - SP since 2010
              Administrator Message Boards/Moderator

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                #8
                I intend on printing up 500 copies of this,and carrying it with me at all times. And,I am not kidding.

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                  #9
                  This list of what its like to have MS circulated before, and I found it great, so I typed it up, and sent an email to my 8 closest people. I got an interesting response.

                  My best friend (out of state) brought it up and thanked me, and said it really helped to understand, and she didn't know all that stuff. My brother said the same thing. (I only sent it to one brother, I know the other brother would consider me whiny, and tell me how bad all of his ailments are, and his family's, and how his is worse).

                  My two sons (ages 27 and 16), my husband, my mom, her boyfriend--none of them said anything.

                  A dear friend, whose husband has MS, said it was helpful, but her husband thought I sounded whiny.

                  This is the response from people who love me. The ones who already were very responsive and supportive are the ones who got the most from it. The ones who kind of needed to learn, didn't respond.

                  I surrender. My husband doens't understand why I spend time on the forums--its because no one else understands!!

                  Comment


                    #10
                    It would be so great if people could read this and truly understand how we MSers feel.

                    Comment

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