Good afternoon Y’all! I hope you had a good Thursday! It is amazing, the weather is finally starting to stabilize and be cooler temperatures with no humidity! This summer was insanely hot every single day. High temperatures and humidity makes things miserable.
Today was a pretty bad day for me. As y’all know I went back to work yesterday, but only was able to work 5 hours and had to go home because of the intense pain I was having. I had so much additional pain in my back and so much leg spasticity, I could not even sleep last night, at all! Needless to say, I was not able to go work today. I think it is possible I tried to do too much yesterday and pushed myself further even when I felt the pain getting worse. It is okay though, a minor set back will only make me stronger and things will get better. I am
hoping tonight I will be able to get some sleep and the spasticity will calm down so that I can go to work tomorrow. No promises as to hour many hours I will work, but I am going to give it an honest effort!
I do think it is best while healing I should not make any promises as to what I am going to do. I think it is best to just take things one day at time, or even sometimes an hour at a time. If I get too much on my mind of what I think I need to do, it will only cause me stress, which will only allow for negative things to come into my life. Even though this flare up has been the worst one I have experienced, I can honestly say that I feel truly lucky. I have had MS for 16 years and only had a couple of bad flare ups. I guess in my opinion that makes me blessed. Having a debilitating illness for this 
many years and still having the ability, most of the time, to do what I want to is purely luck! I can not say for sure though if it is really luck or just the fact that I will not give into anything, no matter how bad things get. Even though my legs and back are as bad as they are, I still want to do as much as I can for myself and only ask for help when I have to. Call it stubborn or headstrong, but it has worked for me.
I hope y’all have a great and relaxing evening! I truly love all the comments y’all make because I love being able to communicate with others that understand the trials I go through. I hope that during our conversations, I am able to help you as much as you help me. I try to respond to all your comments as quickly as I can and when asked any questions, I do try to give the best advice I can based solely on my experiences. Take Care!!
Always, Alyssa
Fightmsdaily 
Reblogged this on Survivors Blog Here.
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I think I’ve said it before but your positivity is truly amazing! I also think your “stubbornness” helps with a disease like MS. I can’t imagine the struggle, but I can see how it would be easy to give in to your symptoms. Instead, by focusing on the positive you’re giving yourself a fighting chance!
When I worked for a neurologist a few years back, heat was a common trigger for flare ups in a lot of our MS patients. I hate the heat because it makes me fatigued, but I have a love/hate relationship with cold weather. It gives me energy but also causes my arthritis to flare up. I left work early today due to the cold and increased pain.
I’m glad you have such an understanding job/boss! I hope tomorrow is a better day for you, whether you go to work or not.
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I am glad my boss is understanding as well. He has a friend that has MS, so that gives him perspective.
Yes, heat is horrible. Honestly extreme temperatures no matter if it’s too hot or too cold bother me some. I think cold makes people tense up which just causes the body to hurt.
You have no idea how much your positive and sweet comments mean to me. So many people tell me that all my stubbornness does is cause stress issues and make it hard for doctors to do their job. I just question everything and make sure what they want me to do matches what I am comfortable with. I think I am every doctors worst nightmare! But, I think being stubborn makes it so I control the MS not the other way around! I wish nice people like you worked at my Neurologists office!!!!
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That’s what happened to me yesterday. I have arthritis throughout my body but especially in my neck and right shoulder, elbow and wrist, and yesterday (and to a degree this morning) when I woke up I was shivering, so all of my muscles had been contracting for who knows how long, making the pain so much worse.
Thank you for the compliment! I got into this field to help people and I’ve watched my mom go through so many health issues, and now myself, that I have a keen understanding of what it means to be a patient.
I’m not perfect, but the way I see it is that when you walk out of our door, it’s your life – not ours – and you are your best advocate. Doctors know a lot and most of them really care, but they aren’t perfect. You know your body better than anyone!
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I am sorry that you dealt with that yesterday and this morning. I hope you are feeling better now.
You are very welcome! It is good that you have a good understanding about people and health issues. It makes you a knowledgeable person that cares!!!
I have always been my own advocate for my health. I actually moved my follow up appointment with the NP from Tuesday to today so I can get that over with and hopefully this NP can offer some suggestions on the spasticity I am dealing with, but we will see!
I hope you have a great day! Take care and stay warm!!!
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You go girl! But pacing is a skill that must be learned! It will ensure positivity stays in place. ~Kim
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Thank you Kim! I am learning, slowly but surely! We will see how tomorrow goes, but I will not push myself!! I hope you have a great evening!
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So very sorry…..
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I’m not much of an optimist but when I was seriously ill, positive thinking and learning how to overcome negative thoughts was one of the rare things that kept me going. And I’m alright now.
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I have always been very optimistic, but when I have difficult times I do sometimes fall on the negative. But, positive thinking does bring on positive things!! I am glad you are alright now!!
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