Category Archives: Pain

Pain Sucks!

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It is an undeniable fact that pain for lack of better words sucks! Of course, I, unfortunately, have some form of pain 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, but I somehow manage to deal with it without becoming too homicidal (most of the time at least😊). No matter how frequently we are inflicted with pain, there is typically one kind we find to be unbearable. Do you experience any type of pain that is so miserable, that you would not wish it on your worst enemy?

Of course, the pain that is always present in my mid to lower back is not easy, I can normally ignore it. The neuropathic issues residing in my legs can be a challenge, but I have learned to live with them. Then the issue with what I believe is plantar fasciitis is extremely unpleasant and as much as I do not want to, I can deal with it. The only type of pain I find nearly impossible is any pain that is in my head, which includes headaches, migraines, and tooth pain because they all nearly send me over the edge.

For the past several days I have had a tooth that has been getting increasingly awful. Of course, I do know what I need to call my dentist to make an appointment. The problem with making this call is I have what some would call an irrational fear of the dentist and I know they are going to want to pull the tooth. I have had this fear of the dentist for as long as I can remember, and I am unsure where it comes from. Yes, I do believe most dentists have the personality of a gnat and they seem to enjoy causing people pain with all their little drills. I once asked one of my former dentists if he was bullied when he was younger and that is why he became a dentist so he could legally cause people pain.

Although my fear of every dentist is very intense, I do know I need to call to make an appointment soon. I am also aware the pain from pulling a tooth will be uncomfortable, it probably will not last as long as I think and will eventually stop and then my tooth will not hurt because it will be gone. Maybe if I put the tooth under my pillow the tooth fairy will come and be very generous because I conquered my dentist fears😊! Seriously though, this pain is so miserable I do not believe I would wish it on my worst enemy and the person I think is the evilest and most immoral person in the entire world, well honestly, I do think it is something he might deserve😊!

I hope you are having a good week. The good news is, we are halfway through this insanely long week! I am not sure why this week has felt so long, but it has been overly busy, and people are more demanding. I am sure one reason this week has felt so long to me is the terrible pain I am dealing with, but I hope that pain will end soon. One phone call and I am sure the evil dentist will help the pain go away, but not before causing me more pain first! We have survived the first part of the week and just have the last few days until the weekend returns. I hope the quote I am sharing with you provides you with enough inspiration to get through the last two days of this week!

Thank you for visiting my site today. I hope you enjoyed what I have shared with you and the quote inspires you to push through the last part of the week. I look forward to reading your comments and I will respond as quickly as I can. Please never forget that I am always sending y’all LOTS of love, comfort, support, and MANY positive vibes!

Always, Alyssa

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Motivational Monday

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Welcome back, Monday. I had a dream Monday would forget to return and we had Sunday 2.0, unfortunately, that dream did not come true. The only choice we have is to tackle Monday with as much strength and motivation as possible. I hope you had a nice, safe, and relaxing weekend so that you are ready for another long week. It is never easy to begin another week, but we always manage to do it because we have an internal strength we often forget about.

As we start this week, we need a reminder of how to stay motivated. I know this is not easy, especially first thing in the morning, but I hope that I can help motivate you today! I think this quote can not only provide motivation but strength, courage, and the hope many of us have lost over the years. With everything that has occurred in the last few years, losing hope has happened to many of us. My goals have always remained to instill hope and strength in others as many of us are forced to deal with things that we do not deserve.

How was your weekend? During the past several days, maybe weeks, I have been experiencing pain in my heel and foot, which I think is something called plantar fasciitis. I have felt this before, but it was when I was on my feet all day long. Waking up with this, which is making it hard to stand is new to me. This has not just been in the mornings, but it does last all day. It is miserable for it to be painful to walk, sit, stand, or even lay down, but I guess it could be worst. Has anyone reading this dealt with this issue before and if you have, did anything help you?

Thank you for visiting my site today. I hope you enjoyed this post and the quote I shared today. I hope your week begins great and only gets better with each passing day until the weekend is back again. I am looking forward to reading your comments and I will respond to them as quickly as I can. Please never forget that I am always sending y’all LOTS of love, comfort, support, and MANY positive vibes!

Always, Alyssa

Pick-Me-Up Thursday

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Happy Friday Eve! I do would prefer to not say happy Thursday because it makes me feel like there is a lot left of this week and the week has already been too long! To think of today as Friday eve makes me feel like the week is almost over. How has your week been? I hope it has not been as long and crazy as mine has been. I do my best to avoid watching the news because there is literally nothing but negative and terrible things that happen every single day. Unfortunately, I did see some news because it showed up on my work computer. I wish I had not seen any of it because it is incredibly disturbing and discouraging! I just wish we could all get along and for one day, the only things reported on the news are positive.

For the past several weeks, I have seen some very unpleasant and disrespectful behavior. These are things that I will never understand because it is the exact opposite of how I act towards other people. I do not understand if this is something new happening in the world and I have always been too naïve to see it before, but if that is the case, I wish I could go back to being too naïve to view people for what they are. This is the reason that I decided on the quote I am sharing with you today. It does not matter how others treat me or how much they choose to disrespect me, I am going to continue being who I am and treat others with kindness. I view it as there must be a reason for the way they are behaving because why else would someone behave so unkind?

I am trying to do at least one post each day, which I was unable to on Tuesday. We all face challenges and stress in life, so it is crucial to find ways to release those negative emotions. My way to do this has always been to write and read, which is difficult to do when I have a headache. I do believe one reason I have been dealing with so many headaches is mostly due to stress, which is why I mentioned in a previous post I was slowly going to be eliminating stress from my life. Who would have thought it would be so difficult, especially when I know the stress factors?

Thank you for visiting my site today! I hope you enjoyed what I have shared and the quote resonated with you. I know we do still have one more day until we get to the weekend, but that is much better than having to wait 5 days as we did on Monday. I do not have any definitive plans for the weekend, but I do want to go get the piecing I have heard helps migraines. Many people have told me that once they got the daith piercing (part of the ear), they did not have another migraine, or at least not as many. I look forward to reading your comments and I will respond as quickly as I can. Please never forget that I am always sending y’all LOTS of love, comfort, support, and MANY positive vibes!

Always, Alyssa

Inspirational Wednesday

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Happy mid-week. I barely survived the first two days of this week because I had another one of my awful MS migraines. I ended up leaving work two hours early on Monday and called out yesterday. I do not like calling out of work, especially since I work from home, but there was no way I would have been able to handle looking at a computer screen all day. I was miserable all day and was only able to sit on the couch with my cats and watch repeats of Law & Order Special Victims Unit, which is one of my favorite shows and have seen every episode at least three times, so it did not matter if I fell asleep and missed anything.

Considering I do experience migraines so often, I wish my doctor could find something that eliminated them. Unfortunately, there has been no such luck yet. The only thing I found the helps a little is a mixture of Advil, Excedrin, and Sudafed, but I cannot take two of the three more than once a day because of the caffeine they contain. I do know that staying hydrated is important, which is why I drink water all day and rarely drink soda, but never drink any soda with caffeine.

Now that we are at the halfway point in our week and have two more days until we reach the weekend again, I think we could all benefit from some inspiration. Anytime I start to get down and discouraged because of what I am going through in life, I always remember something a wise old man told me years ago, “Now matter how bad things may seem in life, remember that someone else is going through something much worse.” That was what my late grandfather told me when I found out I had Multiple Sclerosis and I thought my life was over.

Thank you for visiting my site today. I hope you have had a better week than I have so far. Even though the beginning of my week was terrible because of the evil migraine, I am hoping the rest of the week will be much better! I know I have mentioned this before, but I think one of the things I hate most about living with Multiple Sclerosis is the migraines. I look forward to reading your comments and hope the quote I shared helps you through the rest of this week. Please never forget that I am always sending y’all LOTS of love, comfort, support, and MANY positive vibes!

Always, Alyssa

Let It Go Friday

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I have always known that weather conditions, extreme temperatures, and stress can create issues with how Multiple Sclerosis behaves. If I am being honest, Multiple Sclerosis tends to misbehave frequently and have crazy toddler-like temper tantrums. I am not sure which issue causes more issues but do know that combination causes massive and miserable pain. I do not enjoy complaining about the pain and know that tears do not fix a thing, but yesterday my pain was at a high that makes me wonder how I managed to make it through my workday.

Of course, it has been rainy a lot lately with some wild storms. The power did go out while I was working yesterday, but only for about fifteen minutes. There was a part of me that hoped it did not come back on so fast because of how awful I was feeling. My poor cats hate when it storms because they seem to think the thunder is going to kill them and they all hide under the bed. I swear I often think where I am living is trying to be like Seattle where it rains most days☹.

What can you do when you are in so much pain and nothing helps? Right, there is nothing that you can do. I have heard so many times that stress is the silent killer, and I could not agree more with this. Stress can cause additional pain, headaches, loss of appetite, sleep disturbances, and invade your mind. Unfortunately, I have always worried about those I care about and worry about what they may be going through in life. The world is such a mess right now. We already went through years of COVID fears and now we need to worry about Monkeypox. I mean, when is it ever going to end? Right, no one knows, so all we can do is follow the experts’ advice.

We have finally made it to the end of this week and my goodness has it been a long week! The weekend is going to begin soon, and we need to let go of all the never emotions the week has caused. The weekends are so short, so we do not need to carry the negativity from the long week into the weekend! Friday is the perfect day to just let go and I hope the quote I am sharing with you today will help you do so. I hope your week went well and you did not have to endure any unnecessary stress and hardships.

Thank you for visiting my site today. I hope the quote I shared helps you to learn to let go of negativity and enjoy your weekend. I know I have asked y’all before to stay safe and do what is necessary with vaccines, but it is looking like Monkeypox can be extremely dangerous. I am looking forward to reading your comments and I promise to respond as quickly as I can. I will be playing catch up this weekend with comments as I do not have anything else planned. Please never forget that I am always sending y’all LOTS of love, comfort, support, and MANY positive vibes!

Always, Alyssa

Heat, Headaches, and MS Hug

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For the past several days I forced myself through my workday and the things that I had to do. Unfortunately, I was unable to do any posts, work on my essay for the writing competition, or read because I have been battling a headache that seemed to be never-ending. Anytime I thought it was improving, I was proven to be incorrect when the massive pounding in my head returned with a vengeance.

Many of you reading this post today and may have visited my site before are already aware that I have Multiple Sclerosis. Anyone new to my site, thank you for taking the time to visit and I hope you will return. I enjoy writing about various topics and hope you will enjoy what I write about as well.

I have lived with Multiple Sclerosis for over 20 years, so basically more than half of my life. Over all these years, I have had numerous challenges, setbacks, disappointments, frustrations which fueled stress, and enough tears to fill the ocean. The one thing I have not experienced is giving up and letting MS control my life.

One of the main reasons why I refuse to give up is I made a promise to my late grandfather shortly after my diagnosis that I would always continue to try to move forward, and I would never surrender to MS. Although he has been gone for almost 9 years, I will continue to keep the promise I made to him. It might help that I am also extremely stubborn and obviously a born fighter, just not the violent type of fighter😊!

During the 20-plus years of living with MS, I have dealt with vision impairments, numbness, various forms of pain, stress from the harshness of symptoms, fears from potential disease progression, changing and deciding the right medications, relapse, neuropathy, doctor’s appointments, dizziness, and much more. Most of my pain does not prevent me from living my life and I just push through it and try my best to ignore it. After all the years of experiencing head pain, I am still unable to tolerate it. Unfortunately, it does not matter how many headaches I have already had in my life or how often I battle with them in any given week, the headache always wins our war.

There once was a time when I had a headache, I could take Advil and lay down with an ice pack for an hour or so and the headache would be gone. I wish I could explain how much I miss those days! Unfortunately, over the past few years, nothing provides me with any relief. Although I had many reservations, I ended up trying everything my doctors recommended, but they were all a complete waste of time and money because they did not help. I have tried combinations of over-the-counter medications, such as Advil, Excedrin, and Sudafed, which have helped more than anything else.

Over the past several days, not only was I dealing with the headache straight from hell but the invasive tight band feeling also known as the “MS Hug” visited me. The only good thing about COVID was social distancing, but I guess the MS Hug did not get the memo. I am just speculating, but I think I am experiencing the tight band feeling because of stress, the insane heat, or a nasty combination of the two.

This outrageous and uncontrollable heat is my enemy because it always causes me to feel awful. Over the weekend, I had to run out to two different stores and when I finally made it back home, I told my husband I am not leaving the house again during the day until at least November. I am pretty sure if the temperatures get any hotter, it will be the death of me. I do understand that this massive heat is being felt all around the world, and I do not think anyone can say global warming is not real anymore.

How are y’all handling the incredibly dangerous heat? One thing that I believe helps is to stay hydrated. I have four different stainless steel insulated water bottles. I fill the bottles about a quarter of the way with water and put them in the freezer. This makes it so I always have ice-cold water handy! I strongly recommend them, especially during the summer months. These stainless-steel insulated water bottles are very affordable on Amazon and there are any colors you can think of😊!

Another thing I recommend during these HOT summer months is if you must leave the house, start your car, and let the A/C run for a few minutes. It is never a good idea to try driving when you are hot because you could get overheated, which can cause you to feel dizzy and faint. The heat can do some terrible things to our bodies and minds, so it is best to do everything we can to stay as cool as possible.

Thank you for visiting my site today. I hope what I have shared was helpful for you. If you have any other suggestions regarding staying cool with these drastic temperatures, please share. Also, if you have experienced the evil MS hug, is there anything you do that helps? I am looking forward to reading your comments and I will respond as soon as I can. Please never forget that I am always sending y’all LOTS of love, comfort, support, and MANY positive vibes!

Always, Alyssa

Relaxing Rainy Sunday Thoughts

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As Sunday rolled in and we know Monday will be following behind, we should take this day to relax and ponder thoughts, and prepare for the week ahead! There has been a lot of rain where I live and it included many crazy thunderstorms. My poor cats are terrified of the storms and hide under the bed. Last Thursday, we had an awful storm that knocked trees down, which caused a power outage. Unfortunately, the power when I still had two hours left of my work day causing me to make up the hours on Friday.

Although the rain does increase my pain levels, it does have a relaxing sound. I know we all need rain during these terribly HOT months, but we have had too many consistent days of rain and I have had enough of the atrocious pain. Do you enjoy the rain and the storms it can produce? Does rain make you sleepy and cause extra pain for you? Earlier the rain was so bad, all the cats because scared again and hid under the bed. I believe we are going to be getting more storms next week and I hope it does not knock out the power again.

How do rainy days make you feel? Do you become relaxed and read a good book or do you binge-watch something on Netflix? I prefer to not drive when it is rainy because it makes it hard for me to see. Of course, it increases my pain levels and causes my feet to not work as well with stepping on the gas or brake pedal. I do enjoy it when it rains while I am sleeping because the sound is soothing and it already makes me sleepier. The other good thing about rain is instead of the temperature being in the high 90’s, it has been in the 70’s today. I would rather have cooler temperatures as opposed to the deadly heat!

Thank you for visiting my site today! I hope you have had an enjoyable and relaxing weekend! The weekends are always so short, but I am thankful for them no matter how short they are. Last week was a “short” week that felt brutally long. It does not make sense why the so-called short weeks feel longer than a normal week, but they always do! I look forward to your comments and will respond as quickly as I can. Please never forget that I am always sending y’all LOTS of love, comfort, support, and MANY positive vibes!

Always, Alyssa

Just another day in paradise

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Despite having lived with Multiple Sclerosis for 20-plus years and understanding it more than I wished, there are still times I get discouraged and frustrated. Of course, I understand that most of the symptoms that make me feel this way will subsite in time, they can be difficult to tolerate. Something worse than normal, and I have been forced to endure for the past several days is the neuropathy in my legs. I should be used to dealing with this because it is not new, but it does not get easier. Lately, it has been painful to walk and even sit down the sensation of tingly, pain, and the “spider dance party” on my legs have been almost unbearable. Considering I have been dealing with this for years, I can almost guarantee the reason for the increased issues is due to heat and stress.

Another issue that is not new but has been returning frequently is dizziness. It used to happen more later at night, but for the past few days it comes on suddenly at random times throughout the day. The only way I learned how to deal with this is to sit down immediately (to avoid falling), never lay my head backward, and or force on a still object. I already know I will get extremely dizzy if I lay my head backward, so I try to never do this. Heck, I also know when I go to the neurologist, they always have me do this, even though I explain what happens. It seems many doctors do not listen to their patients; you know the one that knows more about their body than any medical school can teach?

Many things can make Multiple Sclerosis symptoms flare up and we need to learn how to avoid these issues as much as possible. Summer in the south makes avoiding the heat pretty much impossible. Anytime I must leave my house and get in the car, I make sure to never drive until the air conditioning has been on long enough for it to not be too hot. How do you avoid heat when there are more hot months than cool months?

Stress is also a HUGE factor. Stress can make old symptoms return and create new evil symptoms. I am still learning how to avoid stress, but for me it is impossible. Everyone already knows that stress is a silent killer, but what it can do to Multiple Sclerosis is miserable. I know many of the reasons I have had awful relapses previously were because I was stressed about work, life, medication, money, and many other issues we all face.

Something else I have always had a hard time with is fatigue. It is hard for me to sleep most of the time and even more so during the insanely HOT summer months. I do try getting enough sleep, but it hardly ever happens, which more than likely has something to do with the inability to turn my mind off. Unfortunately, my mind is always racing, and I have not figured out how to stop this. It does not matter what day it is or what time I go to bed, I am awake at the same time every single day. If I am not awake at a certain time, the cats will play their part and force me to wake up. The truth is, I tend to wake up early anyway because of the pain I experience.

Finally, pain is a major burden in my life. I deal with pain in multiple parts of my body 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and with no breaks. The crazy thing is, that I would not feel normal if I did not have pain. Of course, I would love to have one day or even one hour when I was not in pain, but it is not in the cards for me. I try to embrace the pain and just ignore it the best I can. My logic is, why focus my attention on something that is not going to change and use up the energy I do not have I have for something cannot control when many other things need my energy and focus? Great way to think, right?

Thank you for visiting my site today. I hope you are having a wonderful and safe long weekend, so far. I would love to read your comments and any advice you have regarding what I have shared today. I promise to respond to all comments as quickly as I can. Please never forget that I am always sending y’all LOTS of love, comfort, support, and MANY positive vibes!

Always, Alyssa

World of Hurt

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I think we can all agree the past several years dealing with COVID fears has not been easy. The COVID pandemic put our lives on hiatus. All the things we wanted to do and took for granted were halted. It was not easy to be stuck at home all the time and only see the same four walls, day in and day out. While COVID has not vanished from existence, many have taken the necessary precautions by getting the vaccine. I still have hope that life can start becoming closer to the normal we once knew, but I do understand things do not always work out the way we want them to.

The truth is, we are only offered one chance at this life, so we should not waste any time on anger and hate. Instead, we should always continue growing, changing, learning, and striving to improve. Each day we encounter numerous challenges and struggles, which even though it is not easy to see in the moment, make us stronger and more courageous. No matter how difficult the challenges we face seem, if we can think of them as opportunities, they might get easier.

We have been dealing with stress and loneliness due to COVID for so long, that I can hardly remember what life used to be like. I cannot remember what we used to do on weekends or vacations. The only way I can view weekends now is time I do not have to work. It seems like for years we have had nothing to look forward to or be excited about.

Although I know cases and deaths from COVID have decreased, there are still lingering fears in my mind that I cannot erase. Besides COVID, other terrible things are occurring too often. I understand the United States will not take away the people’s right to guns, but something needs to change. We should not have to fear going to a grocery store, hospital, mall, movie theater, out to dinner, or children going to school. Gun control may help save lives or at least lessen the chance of an unstable person being able to purchase a gun. Assault rifles and semi-automatic guns are not meant to be in the hands of ordinary people and should only be used during war times. Schools, stores, restaurants, and hospitals are not acts of war.

Mental health has been a serious issue for decades, but it does not seem like anyone is trying to make changes. Those that suffer in silence and alone need to feel comfortable asking for help, without fear of ridicule, judgment, and not having the ability to afford help. There are too many people battling addictions, which can lead to depression and possibly death. Why should people be forced to suffer without any viable help? The United States is one of the wealthiest countries in the world, but the citizens cannot afford help, healthcare, or medications. That just does not seem right to me!

Unfortunately, we continue to live in a world of fears. We should all try to understand others and help when we can. Of course, we need to try putting our needs first because if we are not well, we will not be able to help anyone else. Putting our needs first is not selfish, which I do tend to have a hard time understanding because has always been in my nature to put other’s needs ahead of my own. This is something I am working on and know I will succeed with someday.

Thank you for visiting my site today. I hope you found what I have shared today meaningful. I am looking forward to reading your comments and will respond as quickly as I can. I hope you are enjoying your weekend and remaining safe. Please never forget that I am always sending y’all LOTS of love, comfort, support, and MANY positive vibes!

Always, Alyssa

Half-Way Through the Week

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Happy Half-Way through the week! I was, unfortunately, unable to work on Monday because of an awful migraine that was making me extremely nauseous. I get migraines too much and I would rank this one of the worst I have had in a long time. I thought I was going to be able to work, but after twenty minutes decided there was no way I could make it through the day. I was miserable with pain that went into my neck and shoulders. I could hardly see straight much less do anything else. I am used to dealing with pain, but it was so bad nothing helped. I ended up being on the couch with my cats and an ice pack all day with NO relief. Thankfully, I was able to work yesterday, but still had a slight headache throughout the day.

Talking about headaches/migraines, do you get these frequently? I would not have wished the one I had on Monday on my worst enemy because no one should have to deal with that. I can normally use an ice pack to help the pain in my head subside, but nothing was helping me at all. My poor cats did not leave my side and I mean that literally. When you get a nightmare headache/migraine, what do you do about it? I feel bad because I think I probably neglected the cats on Monday, but I could hardly take care of myself, so they were lucky to have been fed.

Enough about migraines/headaches, how has your week been? Thankfully, we are closer to the weekend than we were on Monday, so it will be here soon! Of course, we do still have two more days to make it through and I think we could all use something to make us smile and give us some kind of hope! We have a choice to be happy with the life we were given and if there is something we are unhappy with, we need to find a way to change it. I understand change can be scary, but life is short and we need to make the most of what we were given!

Thank you for visiting my site today! I hope you found what I have shared interesting and you might even be able to relate. I look forward to reading your comments and I will respond as quickly as I can. Please never forget that I am always sending y’all LOTS of love, comfort, support, and MANY positive vibes!

Always, Alyssa