This week many communities are opening haunted houses for the Halloween season. One of my friends was going on and on about how much they enjoy the fright of turning that next corner & not knowing what will come up & scare the crud out of them. When asked if I was interested in getting tickets to go – I declined – as I’m not one that enjoys almost messing my pants from fright…(I didn’t tell them I have enough of the almost peeing my pants anyway…)
I’m sitting here at my desk & pondering the conversation we continued to have about past Haunted Houses they have toured & all the various frights they’ve endured with pride. My friend described lights blinking on & off with fog filling the air making it difficult to see – then something reaching out & grabbing them as they walk through darkened halls – with floors beneath their feet shaking & dropping a few inches causing them to lose their balance – only to be covered with lifelike spiders and the fake spider webs that makes her skin crawl. On and on she described all the horrors of not knowing what will happen next and the total relief when they reach the end of the path and know they are safe.
Then it hit me.
MS is like a haunted house.
The difference is – for us with MS, as of right now there is no ‘end’ (aka cure) to this path we’re on… at least, not yet.
Each day we wake up – not knowing what is around that next corner. Sometimes we get the crap scared out of us – when all of the sudden our vision goes screwy & we can’t even see our hand clearly in front of our faces. We may experience the pain of the MS Hug as they call it. Or – with no notice, our legs give out & we fall (which in-turn can become relief when we find out nothing was broken). Or – the tingles/itches that so many of us experience.
For those of us with MS, we live in a variable haunted house every day. We don’t know what may be around the corner for us… it may be a room that is completely calm with still waters & it may be a room where our legs don’t seem to hold us up like the should.
No – I don’t think I need to take the ‘Haunted House’ tour this Halloween – but I will keep trudging through my own Haunted House of MS – hoping and praying that the ‘end’ (cure) will arrive soon & fill us all with the relief we so much deserve.
Always,
Kristie
