All Aboard!

Multiple Sclerosis crazy

 

                                                         Riding on a train

Come and ride with me

Let’s look out the window and see what we can see

 Friends, do you know this song?  I’m not even sure that it is an actual song, like with a copyright and royalties and stuff.  I just know it is the words and music that blasts from one of my nephew’s favorite toys.

This nephew, his brother and his parents live very far away and so I don’t get to play with the train often.  BUT, I will be seeing all of them (even the train toy,) next month so perhaps that is why the train song is on my mind, annoying though it may be.

 

But I doubt it.  I think the real reason this silly song is hanging around has to do with multiple sclerosis.

Since way before my diagnosis I have had weird things going on in my ears.  My first neurologist told me four years ago that this was not likely MS related.  But now I read that strange ear stuff is yet another of the many strange symptoms of MS.  Aches and unexplained noises are part of the MS/ear connection.

I wanted to research this a bit to make sure that my ear noises were normal and of course, they are not.  What I hear is a train when there is supposedly no train.

 

It started in my old neighborhood, the one I lived in for almost six years up until about six weeks ago.  For a while, once a morning, I would hear a train passing through the woods behind my house.  This was strange as there hadn’t been a train in these parts since 1938.

But things change of course.  A local business must have re-built the tracks in order to ship goods in and out of the area.  My town was pretty small and not at all commercial, but I had heard that there was a coffee retailer nearby that did all kinds of things with coffee beans.

 

Maybe in fear of the feds cutting postal service, they started a coffee train.  That was what I assumed anyway.

Just to make sure, I mentioned this to my neighbor who had lived in the area even longer than I had.

“So, what’s up with the train I hear every morning?”

“What train?”

“Don’t you hear it?  It goes by behind our houses constantly.  I hear it all the time.”

“Ah, the only thing behind our houses is ponds, lakes and trees.  There hasn’t been a train in these parts since 1938.”

 

I figured my poor neighbor must have lost it.  Or, she had bad hearing.

This was confirmed when I moved across our little town, about five miles away.  Sure enough, there was the train.  To prove I knew what I was talking about, I decided to write down the time that I heard it and then I might be able to figure out its schedule and hence, its story.  Then I didn’t hear it for days and by the time I heard it again, I forgot to write down the time.

Recently, I was at my mom’s house, the next town over from my little town when I heard the train again.  I pointed it out to her.

“Train, what train?  There hasn’t been a train around here since at least 1937, maybe 1938.”

“But I just heard it.”

“I didn’t hear a train.  I heard a car horn several minutes ago, but no train.  I think you may have lost it,” my mom told me.

I wanted to prove I wasn’t crazy so I started researching the train online.  Nothing.

So then I did what I always do when something confuses me and makes me want to pull my hair out, I blamed MS.  Online again, several articles describe ear problems with MS.  But no train noises.

 

Filled with frustration, I did what I do best.  I pulled the covers over my head and sang the toy train song over and over.

I refuse to believe that I am crazy.  It must just be a crazy train…

 

Mental wounds not healing

Life’s a bitter shame

I’m going off the rails on a crazy train…..

Crazy Train

by Osbourne, Rhoads and Daisley

So speaking of Ozzy, now is a good time for our Dancing with the Stars moment.  Jack Osbourne has made it to week four in season 17.  The Cha Cha was not his best dance.  As a long time fan of the show I can offer three reasons why that may be-

1. The Cha Cha is just not for him
2. He had an off night
3. Partner Cheryl Burke may have done some bizarre choreography.

Whatever it was, off nights happen to all the stars at least once in the season.  I’m just thrilled he is still in and doing such a great job.

I do have a suggestion however.  Jack, please share with the world what the intense rehearsal schedule is like for you.

 

Yes, I know it is often a fine line between describing our MS symptoms and complaining about them, and you don’t want to be seen as any less of a competitor than your fellow stars.  And I am sure you don’t want to sound like you are asking for sympathy in any way.

But you being in the competition has become a springboard for a conversation about MS, and not always in a good way.  Please help your fellow MS’ers with the conversation by offering some realities on how you deal with life, a heavy dance card and MS.

Fun quotes of the night-

“I’m an insecure pimp, a scared pimp.” Jack Osbourne

“Your arm does all these strange amorphous things.”  Judge Carrie Ann Inaba

Please keep voting-

 

Vote for Jack and his partner Cheryl Burke by calling 1-800-868-3402 up to 60 minutes after the show on Monday nights or by logging onto ABC.com or Facebook.com/votedwts up to 24 hours after.

 

And finally, speaking of crazy, a book (my book- now that’s crazy!) is in the works.  I have been working away with an editor and a publisher and we are aiming for a release date of mid-February 2014.  And the big news, we are close to coming up with a title!

I will keep you posted and hope you will consider checking the book out….  If you like my blogs, you should love the book.  I have been working on it and savoring every word tediously for over three years now, so it’s got to be good, right?