What to tell others........

I’m as yet undiagnosed but due to the numbness in my feet and legs and also my very poor balance, I’ve started to use a stick. Now I’m over the intial horror myself, what I am getting fed up with is people asking what I’ve done.

I have been shrugging it off by saying I’ve got neurological problems but am not comfortable with that.

Any ideas?? I need (what a ridiculous thing to say) a further lesion before they’ll diagnose MS so wondered if anyone can suggest a suitable repsonse.

Thanks in anticipation - or is that answers on a postcard please…

How about “not sure yet, but they think it might be MS” or “probably MS, but they’re not 100% sure yet”?

Of course, you could get inventive…

(whisper) “It’s actually a sword; I’m being stalked and I want to be able to defend myself.”

“I’ve had a leg replacement and it’s not quite healed yet.”

(if you don’t like them) “I have a very rare, contagious and fatal disease.”

“I have a hole in my brain that makes my legs think they’re drunk.” (Not too far from the truth!)

“I was shot/stabbed/poisoned/etc.”

(with a small sob) “I really don’t want to talk about it”

:slight_smile:

Karen x

Hi pink lady First off Karen your reply made me chuckle!! I wish I had used some of those reasons , brilliant !! :slight_smile: I too have to use a stick because of my balance and dizziness , my neuro says it vertigo caused by the lesions on my brain. So I just tell people I have vertigo . The people closest to me know it’s a symptom of my MS but anyone else who asks thats my reason. Hope this helps . Sarah x

Great ideas Karen lol Samxx

Karen thank you so much for your ideas. You have cheered me up so much. I’ve decided that I shall use a combination of all of them… Once I’ve stopped laughing that is… Thanks everyone Helen XxX

Those replies really did make me LOL Karen thank you, think I might try a few.

I too keep getting the what have you done to your leg,back etc when they see me with the crutch and i’ve just been telling people i have balance problems and it usually shuts them up.

I’m also undiagnosed x

Hi As I had poor balance and dizzy ness per DX as well as poor memory too was stating that I cannot remember what the doc had told me but it affected my balance and if I was having an off day was to say I had a problem with my balance but it stopped when I fell over

Ha ha, love them all. I have a great group of friends and i told them all at the same time at a bbq so if they had any questions they could ask me. Now I just get how are you feeling, any news, (which can be equally as annoying).

Now for those people I have not told, (normally because I have no interest in them or want them knowing about my life)

I put it simple.

Why you limping, " STD, tell your sister to get checked, I caught it from her" (normally I have to be drunk and really not like them.)

what up with you, " docs dont know" why not, “dont know, " thats weird, " yeah”

or the other way, How you doing, “not good, Somedays I cant walk, somedays I fall over, somedays I cant get out of bed, somedays I dont think i can go on, I struggle to go to the toilet, I struggle to get to work, I have had loads of tests, still dont know. I bet your glad you moaned last night on facebook how you stubbed your toe”

I like the creativity, “last night i was abducted by aliens, this leg is no longer mine, they control it, if you listen closely it even talks”

Hi, I`ve been trying to deal with this question a long time.

Just yesterday I was aksed Whats wrong with you? his was by a friends daughter. So my friend and i looked at each other, gave a wry smile and said Well, oh its MS` it seemed to satsify the enquirer.

How I answer the question depends on who is asking, where we are at the time, is there time to go into a full explanation. I dont think it is fair to pin someone down and go though the whole saga of a story (in my case, but maybe not yours). They may well avoid me in future. Sometimes I just say, my legs don`t work.

So I guess you could just say what you did say…it`s a neurological problem.

I really like Tom C`s rendition of alien abduction…not tried that one yet!

luv Pollx

Go for it Poll, I set them up for you guys to bang them out.

You could also say, I have 2 knee caps on one knee.

If they are a very handsome man or women, (im married so cannot use this) but say “I go weak at the knees for such handsome/beauty” ha ha.

also," if I had a penny for everytime someone asked me I would have £10.56" If I had a penny for everytime someone stayed to listen I would have “.2p”

Do you really want to know about my leg? people ae normally more interested in my 3rd nipple.

My grandad used to say ‘I’ve got a bone in me leg’! Makes no sense, but but seems to work…!