It has been over ten years now since MS has been fully in me, and I begin to feel removed from the MS experience. My recent weekend experience with an ugly virus brought back vivid memories of my full MS experience. On a smaller scale, it brought me back to those years when MS ruled my life. Like when MS was building strength and preparing for its big attack, I ignored the early warning signs; I foolishly tried to ignore this ugly virus as well--and in both cases I paid.
The virus settled in my head causing an excrutiating headache, dizziness (vertigo), fever, weakness, achiness, coughing and a horrible pervasive fatigue. Fortunately, the virus ruled for only two days, while MS takes much longer to vanquish. Yet on my worst day, I woke at 8:30, after sleeping ten hours. Though when I woke in the night, a headache and dizziness made it hard to walk, reminiscent of my years with MS. I was unsteady and had to hold onto wall to make my way, though this time I fortunately felt my feet. I started to fix breakfast, but had to stop because I began to feel that I was going to fall and pass out. The headache prevented my mind from working so, though I had tons of work to do, I couldn't. By 11:30, I was exhausted and closed my eyes for a little rest. I woke again, very surpised to see that it was 4:00. This echoed my MS times when I had about 10 waking hours a day. In a small burst of energy, I did what I could, then hit the couch again. The sense of frustration that I just couldn't get anything done--which over a longer time with MS had developed into a sense of uselessness--again filled me. I wasn't good for anything meaningful after that, just some TV and by 9:00 I was ready to got back to sleep. How I hated visiting that kind of sickness again, even if it was just a passing virus--vicious bug.
The reason I am writing about this, not just holding my own pity party, is that it also brought back to me some of the important lessons I had learned about healing. First of all, don't ignore what your body is telling you. An ounce of prevention holds true. Major setbacks do not come in a vacumn, there are warning signs. Secondly, don't resist sleep--it is like a medicine, time out for your body to use the energy to heal. And lastly, and this is hard to put into words, accept the disease so you can fight it intelligently. Until I acknowledged the virulance of this virus, I was not going to take the proper measures to really effect a cure.
I know that I will never have the MS experience again, thanks to the Recovery Diet. And, I will continue to do everything in my power to stay healthy from all diseases no matter how temporary. I hate being sick.