Is It In The Weather?...

Remember THIS post? The one about the billboard advertising going on in the Seattle area...sponsored by the local Greater Washington MS Society, where several billboards are asking the question "Is It In The (**blank**)"? The advertising campaign is designed to raise awareness about Multiple Sclerosis and also point out the COLD, HARD FACT all those donated dollars spent on MS research for the past several years STILL have failed to find a scientific CAUSE for MS...OK, maybe the ads are REALLY just to raise awareness about MS. I doubt the "Society" really wants anyone to focus on our lack-of-a-cause-or-cure factor. LOL

Well, as luck would have it, SAVE your next planned donation to the "Society" (and use it to stimulate the economy...hehe...which reminds me. WHERE'S MY DAYUMED CHECK, GEORGE?!?"), because I had a scientific EPIPHANY this morning as I struggled to pry myself out of my bed in one, solid, board-like mass. I discovered the answer to those billboard questions...IT IS IN...MY BODY!

That's right...no more millions are needed on this particular set of research questions. Multiple Sclerosis is in MY BODY. Oh, sure...I STILL don't know what's CAUSED it to be in my body, but by God, it's there!

Pardon me for sounding a bit crass and perhaps even discounting to some of the newly diagnosed MSer's out there...but right now in this stage of my life, I really don't CARE much "where" my MS originated or why...I'm pretty much living in the here and now of "it's here". It is highly doubtful in my life time that I will ever SEE a cure for this disease (because there's too much money being made off the ILLNESS portion of it...but that's fodder for another post), so spending millions of gazillion dollars on researching the disease ORIGIN is a moot point for someone like me. Finding the "cause" will possibly prevent someone ELSE from having to live with MS, but it is doubtful this discovery will ever improve MY life WITH MS. Yep, I'm selfish that way.

**Jumps off soapbox**

Today, I woke up (actually multiple times during my restless night, too) feeling as stiff as a board. I could hardly move, let alone do a graceful dismount from my bed. I know, I know...all y'all are shaking your heads with that "I told you so" look and "tisk tisk-ing" me for overdoing it on my days off from work. And still, others of you who practice in the psych world, are wondering if I have seriously developed a strong case of "Monday morning work aversion"...otherwise known as "Blue Monday"...that mysterious employment illness that seems to strike the not-so-mentally-sound when they are forced to return to work following a weekend or holiday. It is a psychological somaticization that manifests as a physical illness, thus rendering the person incapable of going to work as expected.

Well, poo poo to all of you! I believe my current state of "board-om" is the direct result of a combination of weather pattern changes/Tysabri infusion drain/overdoing it/poor sleep. There...the "cause" STILL remains a mystery...much like the "cause" of MS.

But regardless of the "cause", just like the disease itself, I am left to LIVE WITH IT and try to make the best out of my situation. And maybe...just maybe if I try hard...I might LEARN something from the situation and do things differently NEXT time. (But I still secretly think Baby Jesus is mad because I went gambling on a Sunday, and NOW I have to pay for my transgressions. LOL)...