I find “normal” illness or injury sometimes harder to cope with since my personal evolution with Multiple Sclerosis. By normal, I mean just ordinary (simple, perhaps?) maladies not related to or caused by my MS. It can be easy to think “Really? This too? MS wasn’t enough for me to deal with?” Also “Whatever. I have MS! This is nothing!” While the latter response might sound a little like “she’s a rockstar and nothing gets her down,” it could also be that she’s wearing blinders. “If I don’t deal with this problem, it will just go away or I’ll forget about it.”
I try hard not to take this approach and to take care of myself as best I can. But some days (weeks, months...) are more difficult than others.
Currently, I’m coping with a wrist/hand injury that was a fun byproduct of my rather dramatic and frightening fall this past December. At this point, the likelihood that I have a TFCC tear (“the meniscus of the wrist”) is very high. The likelihood that I will need surgery to repair it since it’s my dominant hand is also quite high. For the time being, my specific instruction from the hand surgeon is to practice “benign neglect.” Do nothing. Proceed with life (writing, typing, cooking, working, lifting things, walking the dog) for a few months and do nothing. The hope is that it’s not a cartilage tear and it just needs more time to feel better. Admittedly, this sounds far fetched to me.
The comedy of this to me is: I was already practicing benign neglect for some other unrelated pain! I have a foot that’s been pretty consistently sore for a few months. I’m not a healthcare professional and we all know we shouldn’t self-diagnose based on google searches... but it seems plausible that I might have a stress fracture in my foot. Because I’ve been more impacted by pain and difficulty functioning with my wrist, I have made a conscious decision to ignore the foot for the time being. (FYI, it hurts a bit at some point with every kind of shoe I own - it’s not simply “bad shoes”) Its fairly easy to convince myself “I have MS and this wrist injury. I just can’t cope with another injury at the same time.”
Jumping forward from my prescription for benign neglect, I spent some time gardening last weekend. My lower back was a little cranky, but that’s not unusual. Then on Tuesday I received deliveries (as always) at work. Lifting things into the elevator as they were handed to me? Well. My lower back/hip protested quickly and loudly. <audible eye roll>
And so, tomorrow I have a Doctor’s appointment to follow up on my still very painful hip/back.
How about you? Are there challenges you address quickly, and others you choose to overlook? I’m proud of myself in that as I’ve gotten acquainted with MS, I have made adjustments and concessions in my self care accordingly. I thoroughly embrace napping. I’m very careful about myself and heat, working to not get overheated. I pay attention to my fatigue level and stop what I’m working when my brain won’t focus quite the way I wish.
I will address my health questions all in time. But I will also allow myself to gauge when benign neglect seems to be an acceptable course. At least until I feel I can cope with it all accordingly!
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