Getting Dizzy With It

The spin in multiple sclerosis

 

When I was a teenager I worked at a card store. I still remember the best card I ever stocked. It was in the “Thinking of You” section and the front cover had a drawing of a person who was shaded in blue, sitting on a chair. The front read “Don’t think I am just sitting here holding my breath until I see you again.” When you opened the card the person had fallen off the chair and the card now read “Sometimes I get dizzy and fall over.”

I loved that card and have always remembered it even though I have never seen it again. To this day I wish I had bought the whole supply as there are a ton of guys in my past life I could have sent it too.

OK, maybe a ton is not the right wording but there were a few.

This guy below definitely would have gotten one.

Recently the card took on a new spin, spin being the operative word. Lately I have been getting dizzy spells. Just when I think I’ve got multiple sclerosis figured out, it adds a new symptom to my already symptoms filled life. Sigh……

Like everything else MS wise, for a while the dizzy spells came and went. Since MS also provides me with random memory issues, I would forget about them when they weren’t happening.

Just so I wouldn’t think they had gone away for good, they chose to come back with a vengeance and stick around permanently. And it was my own fault for it was my daring to try to have a g-rated good time that brought them back.

 

Around the time I was working for the card shop, a carnival would come yearly to my little town and I would spend my earnings on some of the rides. As far as I remember, I don’t think I would have sent the dizzy card to any of the carnies I met but how can one with MS really keep track?

The point is, while a carnival is small and usually doesn’t have room for a major roller coaster, I did alright with the tamer rides. My favorite was the Tilt-A-Whirl. My friends and I could go on that over and over, especially if the guy who was running it was cute.

I also had fun with the pendulum type rides. As an adult I managed to visit more involved amusement parks and upped my riding experience a bit. I didn’t do so well with crazy roller coasters but managed Space Mountain and Thunder Mountain ok. No boring Tea Cups for me, thank you. I even took on the Tower of Terror but once was enough.

 

Forgetting my dizzy spells recently I decided to take one of my nephews and his oldest son to a kid friendly mini- amusement park. The child was under three so I was sure I would be fine to take him on some of the kiddie rides if he got scared.

Apparently MS had other plans.

I took him on a child’s version of the Tilt-A-Whirl ready for some fun. He was apprehensive at first but I convinced him it would be a blast. I lifted him up onto the two foot high platform to pick out his car and then climbed up myself. We strapped ourselves in and waited with excitement for the ride to begin. Here’s a picture. Keep in mind that the camera adds 60 lbs.

Then the party started. Only seconds into the fun I realized I wasn’t having any fun at all. The ride was spinning as rides are supposed to do, but my head was now spinning in the opposite direction. I became nauseous and had this terrible vision of throwing up on the child which would traumatize him for life.

I must have started to turn blue/green because the 16 year old girl running the ride stopped it for me, much to the irritation of the other toddlers along for the ah, well ride. I tried to climb out of the little car but was as wobbly as a Weeble. Weebles wobble but they aren’t supposed to fall down. I wasn’t so sure.

 

I did my best to make it off the platform and onto the ground without any further humiliation. Since children under three weren’t allowed to ride alone, the teenage killer ride operator next handed me my great nephew who, being great, was eager to hit the next fun thing and didn’t complain too much. But it was all I could do to pass him off to his dad before I fell onto a bench to recoup.

When did this happen? When did a minor little motion on a kiddie ride become too much for me? This was ridiculous. I used to ride the Tilt-A-Whirl ten times a night just to flirt with the guy running the thing!

What brought on this terrible motion sickness?

Ah yes, how could I forget? It was yet another result of the no fun, no spin, no joy, joy ride that is multiple sclerosis.

And since I dared to try a ride with a little more excitement, the unpleasant dizziness decided to stick around for a while. While I haven’t actually fainted yet, I do tend to fall over sometimes. I could really use that old greeting card now.

Lucky for me, my great nephew was resilient. He was happy to go back to the stationary car that he could drive himself that luckily was near a bench that I could sit on and watch him ride away.

Then we got ice cream.

And we were both happy.

The moral of this particular blog post? When MS hurls another bummer of a symptom at you, briefly lament the passing of another piece of the old you and then, like a child, find another way to have fun.

Then go get ice cream….

 

 

Have you had a chance to pick up MS Madness! A “Giggle More, Cry Less” Story of Multiple Sclerosis? The book that Kirkus Reviews calls-

“A warm, unique memoir about coping with disease.” ——Kirkus Reviews

And that Richard M. Cohen, NY Times best-selling author of Blindsided and Strong at the Broken Places says,

“combines defiance with humor, the secret weapon of the sick.”                             Richard M. Cohen

Find MS Madness! online or request it at your local bookstore.

Or, purchase in the month of April through the link below to donate 50% of the proceeds from the sale of the book to the Race to Erase MS campaign through the Nancy Davis Foundation.

MS Madness! A “Giggle More, Cry Less” Story of Multiple Sclerosis