Several weeks have gone by since I have posted anything, although I have enjoyed reading what others have written.  I do hope everyone had a pleasant holiday season and that your New Year is filled with good health, happiness and love.

It’s been a difficult few months between moving to a new apartment in my building right before Christmas, the hectic but pleasant holidays, and then some health related problems that have not only been difficult to treat but also usurped the little energy I had left.

Having one chronic illness is difficult enough.  .  Unfortunately, I have several chronic conditions, including but not limited to:

• Chronic pain from a spine problem I have had since 1964, for which I have had four spinal surgeries;
• MS, which can manifest  in a variety of ways and results in the need for various specialists to manage these symptoms;  
•  Complications like chronic lymphedema and cellulites that resulted from compromised lymph nodes and infections during a series of five surgeries on my right leg after I fractured my right tibia/fibula and hip; 
• More recently, I have been dealing with a chronic cough for which I am seeing a pulmonologist;
• Over the last three months I have had two surgical procedures to close up veins in my left leg because I have venal reflux, which prevents the blood from being pumped from my legs up to my heart.  The blood then pools in my legs.  I am scheduled to have the procedure done in my right leg next month.
• Last June I developed a kidney stone and had to have that blasted out of my system;
• And I continue to deal with unmanageable high blood pressure that I can’t get below 160/100, even though I take 3 medications a day.

Of course not stated here are the mobility and balance issues, the double vision, the bladder problems and other cognitive and physical symptoms related to MS, for which I see various specialists and have to either take medications or treatments.  The fatigue that I experience from my MS is often exacerbated by any one or more of the other chronic problems that might act up, or the medication I take to manage it, and between them all there is no way of knowing in advance how you will feel on any given day.

Does this sound familiar to everyone?  Do you find it difficult to make plans? Do you miss friends and going to social events?  Are you embarrassed by not being able to fulfill a commitment you make?  One of my doctors asked me how I felt.  For a minute I didn’t know how to answer because I didn’t want to just give a litany of complaints so I simply said, “I feel sick and tired of feeling sick and tired.”  I was pleased that she didn’t think I was being flip but seemed to understand that I was at a level of frustration and despair that had been coming on for a long time.