Sick and then sicker.

So I have this beast of a disease.  It causes daily bumps in the road and sometimes head on crashes with a fifty car pileup.  There's a laundry list of symptoms that I deal with but most of them I don't share with the general public and can hide because, let's face it, most of my symptoms are "invisible".

What those outside the MS realm don't know, other illnesses make the MS symptoms worse.  Monthly hormonal mess makes MS symptoms worse.  A day without a nap, rising outdoor temperatures and stress make MS symptoms worse.

I have had many times where my symptoms ramp up even if I'm not sick but others in the house are.  I can call foul but, let's face it, the referee has his back turned and the other team is going to win.  I have to play the game the best I can and hope that I don't get permanently derailed from gameplay.

For the 2 years that I was on chemotherapy, I avoided the general public for a couple of weeks after treatment, stayed out of the giant petri dish that some call an elementary school and just avoided situations that I could get sick and then sicker.

It's an odd thing to look at your life knowing that social, school, church and family situations could lead to more complications.  People know that shaking hands during cold and flu season can lead to passed on germs and potential illness.  Most people don't know that those passed germs could lead to increased fatigue, legs that don't want to work, just overall increase in symptoms in addition to the fight with the cold or flu for people with MS.

So if I say, "I have a cold" what I'm saying is "I have to blow my nose a lot, I'm extra tired, my tongue might spew something that doesn't make sense and I just need to sit down and find something to focus on that doesn't take much energy."  My cold isn't just a cold, it's a body slam.  It's something that you can't see when I blow my nose.  It's something I hide as much as I can, just like every other symptom.