It’s Friday!😃

​I am going to something differently here today.  I am going to tell you about some of my physical challenges so you can know a little bit more about why I wake up each morning looking forward to seeing how God is going to carry me through my day with joy.🙂

I slept terribly last night.  We spent a lot of money 3 years ago on a mattress that was supposed to solve all our sleep issues and it made them worse.  We finally couldn’t take it anymore and on Tuesday we went mattress shopping, ordered a new mattress and today it is supposed to be delivered!  But the mattress wasn’t my inly problem.  I have been experiencing a lot of problems with my stomach.  Since April I have experienced everything from nausea to burning feeling to bloating and gas to diarrhea and/or constipation.  Right now my stomach is making all these gurgling noises and I just feel really uncomfortable.  I had a colonoscopy in April that was clear).  I've been to the ER (in May) and had a CT Scan, bloodwork, urinalysis and even a pelvic ultrasound.  Nothing unusual in any of the testing.  Next I am supposed to have an endoscopy but I am weary of all the appointments and testing and expense.  So I am holding off and praying things will start improving soon.  Tums help.😉

Aside from these issues that seem to be unrelated to MS, I have limited energy (even when I sleep well) and when it’s used up, my fatigue is so bad I stop functioning and HAVE to take a nap.  I can’t “push through” like normal people can so I really have to pace myself and take regular rest breaks.

I have more lesions in my cervical spine than I do in my brain and one of those lesions is causing me to lose partial feeling down the entire left side of my body.  I am actually losing feeling everywhere but my left side is where I notice it the most.  I have a foot drop because my brain can’t get signals to my left foot fast enough so I can’t get my ankle to function properly.  Getting dressed in the morning or getting changed at night is a challenge because of the loss of feeling and function but also because I have very poor balance.  I have to lean against a wall to steady myself or I will fall.  Speaking of falling, because of my foot drop and inability to lift my left foot up high enough, I trip a LOT.  I haven’t fallen recently but if I lose my balance, I can’t recover and will fall.  I tripped over my son at Costco once and fell pretty hard.

Taking a shower can be exhausting but I love showers because I am cold ALL of the time.  Some people with MS have heat intolerance but I have a cold intolerance and I feel cold deep inside and have difficulty warming up.  I also have Raynaud’s - something I developed just in the past couple if years.  It’s an auto-immune disorder that effects circulation so I often lose circulation in my fingers and hands - even in the summer - especially in air conditioned places like the grocery store or our house.

There are other challenges but these are biggies and some of the main reasons I rely so heavily on the Lord for every moment of every day and why I get so excited when I watch Him working everything out so perfectly!

Today is going to be a great day!