Of Ghosts and Multiple Sclerosis

Getting my ghosts on……..

To get in the mood for the upcoming holiday of tricks and treats, me and some folks dear to me went on a ghost tour.  We didn’t witness anything actually paranormal but I learned a few things; like the difference between residual hauntings and intellectual ones and what death doors are.

Did you know that in olden times it was thought that if you walked into a cemetary with a dead body you wouldn’t come out?  So death doors were posts where pall bearers could place a casket while the folks carrying it took turms entering the graveyard for burial. 

Fascinating!

There was shock in that I wasn’t the tour participant to trip, stumble and land on the ground and a surprising lack of violence when I didn’t attack my friends for their shock and teasing that I wasn’t the one who fell.  All were ok-thankfully. 

There was also some crying in the oldest wooden jail in the country but those were by kids too young to be on the tour.  And ther was some fright by how many people were stuffed in the old jail. Covid concerns anyone?  Now that’s scary!

But it was fun and interesting and I was pleased that I knew something about ghosts that the tour guide didn’t. 

Specifically, ghosts and multiple sclerosis are connected!

Here’s a prior Halloween blog where I prove it!!!

MS Horror Theory

Halloween is fast approaching and that fact, along with MS and a visit from an old friend, have gotten me thinking about ghoulish things.  And by ghoulish I don’t mean the age of me and my friend, although that is frightening in and of itself.

My friend is one of those that has been a friend forever, although we aren’t able to get together regularly.  But when we do, we can chat away a whole afternoon without realizing how much time has passed. If you have one friend like that, you are lucky. I’m fortunate to have a few and am very grateful.

This friend reads my blog and so in the spirit of my Pumpkins, Pumpkins Everywhere post, she brought me a pumpkin and some Hershey’s Pumpkin Kisses-yummy!

We were chatting and she suddenly said, “wow, how can you take that?  Doesn’t that drive you crazy?”

I had no idea what she was talking about and said so.  What she was referring to were the flashes of light that pass by the window in my new rental.

The rental happens to be on a busy street and I have blinds on the windows which I often leave open for light, but not all the way up as the glare is too much.  When a car passes, it gives off a spark of light.

I was relieved she saw this and mentioned it to me.  I had been living with these sparks since moving in but blamed them on another symptom of MS, (what I always blame things I don’t have an explanation for on,) or, ghosts.  Ghosts didn’t make much sense as this building is fairly new but my MS brain didn’t put together the car/window connection.

Speaking of ghosts, she then brought up a theory about my All Aboard post, the post where I describe regularly hearing a train that doesn’t exist.  After asking several questions, she determined I really was hearing a train.

“But didn’t you read my blog?  There hasn’t actually been a train in these parts since 1938.”

“The bike path went right through the backyard of your old rental and isn’t too far away from here.  You know, the bike path known as the Cape Cod Rail Trail? What you are hearing could be a ghost train,” she said sensibly.

It occurred to me that my friend was right AND she had solved the mystery!  The famous local bike path was built over the old train tracks.  What a relief.  I wasn’t crazy and the train sound wasn’t yet another MS medical mystery.

It was just a ghost!

This shouldn’t have surprised me.  For a while now, I have compared my MS fog state to that of being a zombie.  (See a former halloween blog titled Scary Brain, Scary Movie.)  Aren’t ghosts and zombies closely related?

The more I pondered the ghost explanation the more it made sense.  Especially since, I realized, ghosts have a lot in common with multiple sclerosis.

Ghosts are very popular during Halloween, which is represented by the color orange.  Orange is the color that also represents multiple sclerosis.

Ghosts are very scary at best, absolutely terrifying at worst.  Just like an MS diagnosis!

Ghosts can hang around you for a very long time before they bother you enough for you to pay attention to them.  Just like MS symptoms before an MS diagnosis.

Ghosts can take various forms and can affect people differently.

Sound familiar?

Ghosts can be invisible and so people often don’t believe you when you tell them you saw a ghost.

MS symptoms can often be invisible and so people often don’t believe you when you tell them you have MS.  “But you look so good,” they say.

Ghosts hang around some people but not others and no one knows why.

MS attacks some people but not others and no one knows why.

In spite of voluminous studies and expense, there is no scientific solution that will get rid of ghosts.

In spite of voluminous studies and expense, there is no scientific solution that will get rid of multiple sclerosis.

As Halloween approaches, how is any of this helpful to me and my other MS friends?

What you can’t blame on multiple sclerosis, blame on the supernatural!

You are then covered; people are horrified by both.

Whether you are a ghost or a zombie this year, Happy Halloween friends!