What to Do If You Run Into a Scary Monster

It's that time of year again. The time of creepy creatures, ghosts and goblins, and things that go bump in the night. Some monsters don't wait for Halloween, though - they come out year round.

They can sneak up on you at any time, and they come in all different shapes and sizes. Scary, right? Not if you know how to handle them.


I ran into a monster called MS, and it's been causing trouble for me for the last eleven years. At first I was frightened, but the longer I had to deal with this monster, the more I came to realize that fear was not my only option.

If you run into a monster:

Stare him down. It's like they say - you have to face your fears. You can't run away.

Be strong. Dealing with this condition made me find strength I never knew I had. Just like the horror movie heroine who battles the monster, I got to a point where I just refused to let fear take over. I didn't want this thing to have that much power over me.

Laugh in his face. MS may have ruined some things for me, but I won't let it keep me from enjoying my life. No matter what happens, we need to keep our spirits lifted, laugh often, and appreciate all the good things we have and that are around us.

Whether you have MS or some other monster problem, sometimes you have to overcome your fears and deal with it on your terms. I still get scared sometimes; it's not completely avoidable. But I always try to stay positive, and not let the monster "get" me.

Luckily, when it comes to all the little scary monsters who come to your front door on All Hallows' Eve (the best kind), you just need to give them some candy, and they'll go away.

A Little Lost

Sometimes I wish life came with a road map. It's easy to get lost on the journey through life when circumstances change or plans get derailed. You can find you've taken a wrong turn somewhere, and gotten off the main road on the way to your goals.


Or maybe you just feel lost because you don't know how to get out of a difficult situation.


To find our way again, sometimes we may need to:


Reconfirm our destination - Sometimes we may forget what it is we are after. We stray off the path toward our goals and dreams in favor of something else, or we get sidetracked by circumstances beyond our control. Sometimes we need to think about what it was we wanted, what we want now. Maybe our goals need to be re-evaluated, and our destination needs to change, or we just need to figure out a new way to get there.

Be willing to ask for directions. Asking for help isn't always easy, but sometimes we just can't get through something on our own. Reaching out for the help and support of others often yields very positive and surprising results. Sometimes the right advice from the right person is all we need to get back on the right path.

Explore the possibilities - Though we may feel we've lost our way sometimes, that can turn out to be a good thing. We can go exploring and maybe discover some new path to take. That's one of the great things about life - you can change it. You can always choose a new direction, a new goal.

Sometimes you may find you're not lost after all, instead you're right where you should be.

My Obstacle Course

Getting around when you have MS can be challenging at times. I never realized how much I took walking for granted until my walking got slower and, occasionally, a little unsteady. These days, with my troubled gait and bothersome fatigue fighting against me, I often feel like getting around in everyday situations is like making my way through an obstacle course.

To keep the fatigue from walking to a minimum, I try to keep it simple, remembering that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. Still, there are those times when I have to change course when I'm walking, resulting in extra steps. There can be people or things that I have to go around when I am out and about. Little unexpected roadblocks. Just the other day, I had to walk around two parked bicycles that were blocking my path to the entrance of my local pharmacy. Sometimes I even have to walk around my cats, or step over them. They like to challenge me. I think it's their way of trying to keep me nimble.

Whenever I go somewhere new, I have to keep an eye out for steps, and scope out the parking situation to see how far I'll have to walk. Sometimes handicapped parking is not available, so I recently obtained a cane, which helps a bit with walking greater distances. I am mindful of curbs, or cracks in the pavement. Trip hazards. If I trip these days, I fall. I can't recover from a trip and regain my balance anymore. Another worry I have to contend with is winter travel. Walking through snow and over potentially slippery surfaces is always a concern. A little patch of ice and one wrong move, and down I'll go!



I try to look at getting around and performing daily tasks with my MS symptoms as an adventure. It isn't easy. Sometimes the obstacles I encounter can be frustrating. Maybe my arms get fatigued, and I find myself fighting with food packaging that's difficult to open, or dropping things repeatedly. Or I'm walking through a store, or wherever, and I feel like I just want to scream, "Everyone get out of my way!" But somehow, I get through it.



Life itself is sometimes an obstacle course. We make our way through it, bumping into this problem, or that dilemma. My own personal physical obstacle course has me dodging low energy here, having to take a longer walk there. Things that were once simple to do now require much more effort and attention to detail. Well, without obstacles, I guess life would be pretty boring.