Borrowed from


Painful Heavy Legs: Apply Tightly 20 LB ankle weights
and 15 LB thigh weights then take a 1 mile walk, clean the house, go

shopping and then sit down – how ya’ feeling now?

- Painful Feet: Put equal or unequal amounts of small pebbles in each shoe then take a walk, if we are mad at you we
would prefer needles to pebbles.

- Loss of Feeling in Hands and/or Arms: Put on extra thick gloves and a heavy coat then try and pick up a pencil, if successful stab yourself in the arm.

- Loss of Feeling in Feet and/or Legs: Ask a doc for a shot of novocaine in both of your legs and then try and stand up and
walk without looking like the town drunk. Hopefully you won’t fall

down.

- TN (Trigeminal Neuralgia): Take an ice pick and jam it into your ear or cheek whenever the wind blows on it, or a stray
hair touches it. If you want something easier to do, get someone to

punch you in the jaw preferably daily.

- Uncontrollable Itching: Glue or sew small steel wool pads to the inside of your shirt, pants and undergarments wear them for an entire day.

- Tingling: Stick your finger in an electrical socket – preferably wet.

- Tight Banded Feeling: Put 12 inch wide belt around you and make is as tight as you can and leave it there for the entire day. How ya’ breathing?

- Shots: Fill one of our spare needles with saline solution, saline won’t hurt you, we would love something worse but
don’t want to end up in jail. Give yourself a shot everytime we do our

shot.

- Side Effects From the Shot: Bang you head against a wall, wrap yourself in a heating pad, wrap your entire body with an
ace bandage tightly then finally treat yourself to some spoiled food or

drink.

- Trouble Lifting Arms: Apply 20 LB wrist weights and try and reach for something on the highest shelf in your house.

- Spasticity: Hook bungee cords to your rear belt loops and rear pant leg cuffs then for your arms hook bungee cords to
your shirt collar and cuffs on shirt sleeves then go dancing.

-Poor Hearing/Buzzing in Ears: Put a bee in each ear and then put a plug in each one…Bzzzzzzzz

- Balance and Walking Problems: Drink 100 proof grain alcohol and then sit and spin in an office chair for 30 minutes, now get up and see what happens.

Urgently Needing to Pee: We put a .5 liter remote controlled water bag and drip tube in your pants, we point out 2
restrooms in a crowded mall, then we tell you that you have 30 seconds

before we activate the water bag (by remote control) to get to a

restroom. Just for spite we may make that 20 seconds without telling

you.

- Bizarre and Inexplicable Sensations: Place tiny spiders on your legs or arms and allow them to periodically crawl
around throughout the day, heck all day would be good too.

- Pins and Needles: Stab yourself repeatedly with needles all over your body or better yet….Get a very large tattoo in your most sensative area.

- Dizziness (Vertigo): Get on a gently rocking boat all day and all night and take several walks around the deck with your eyes closed.

- Fatigue: Stay awake for two full days to induce incredible fatigue and then cook dinner, clean the house, walk the dog
and see how you feel. Please do not compare MS fatigue to you being

tired from only a few hours of sleep – it’s not the same at all.

- Cognitive Function (Brain Fog): Take a liberal dose of sleeping pills but stay awake. Try and function properly and
think clearly. To make it even more real without killing yourself of

course, take the sleeping pills with a small sip of wine.

- Bowel Problems: Take a 4 day dose of an anti-diarrhea medicine followed directly by a 3 day dose of stool
softeners for a minimum of 3 weeks, at the end of 3 weeks sit down on a

hard uncushioned chair and stay there til tears appeared.

- Burning Feeling: Make a full pot of boiling water and then have someone fill a squirt gun with the boiling water and
shoot it at yourself all day long. However, you can give us the pleasure

of shooting you instead…optional of course.

- Intention Tremor: Hook your body to some type of vibrating machine try and move your legs and arms…..hmmm are you
feeling a little shaky? You are not allowed to use anything fun for this

lesson.

- Buzzing Feeling When Bending Our Heads to Our Chest (L’Hermitte’ s): Place an electrical wire on your back and run it
all the way down to your feet, then pour water on it and plug it in.

- Vision Problems (Optic Neuritis): Smear vaseline on glasses and then wear them to read the newspaper.

- Memory Issues: Have someone make a list of items to shop for and when you come back that person adds two things to the
list and then they ask why you didn’t get them. When you come back from

shopping again they take the list and erase three things and ask why

you bought those things.

- Foot Drop: Wear one swim fin and take about a 1/2 mile walk, nothing else needs to be said for this one, you’ll get it.

- Depression: Take a trip to the animal shelter everyday and see all the lonely animals with no home. You get attached
to one or more of the animals and when you come back the next day you

come in while they are putting her/him asleep.

- Fear: Dream that you have lost complete feeling in your feet and when you wake up wiggle your feet, just so happens
they don’t move. Think about this every night wondering whether

something on your body won’t work the next day when you wake up.

- Swallowing: Try swallowing the hottest chili pepper you can find.

- Heat Intolerance or Feeling Hot When it’s Really Not: You are on a nice vacation to Alaska. It’s 35° outside and 65° inside.
Light a fire for the fireplace and then get into it. Once you have

reached about 110° tell me how you feel, even a person without MS would

feel bad, now add all of the above symptoms

Welcome to our world.

Then Finally…

After subjecting yourself to the items above, let everyone tell you that you are just under a lot of stress, it’s all in your head and that
some exercise and counseling is the answer.

Cheree’s Added Note: This may sound harsh or exaggerated, but trust me when I say that it’s all true. MS is most
times considered the ‘invisible’ disease because alot of us with MS can

walk around looking like we’re ok! What you don’t see are the rough

times spent at home, alone, at night, when MS causes us the most pain.

The next time you see someone with a chronic illness and see them

smiling, just remember that they’re probably dealing with a whole lot

more than the eye can see…and let them know that you care!