I've taken to buying alot of frozen prepared foods.....but I've found Kashi is pretty good and Newman's Own now has a line of dinners which are excellent. At least I can be somewhat healthy and still get the convenience of prepared things.

As I continue down this MS road I find that I "allow" more things I normally wouldn't but most are just for convenience sake.

DS is coming over tomorrow morning and I'm going to Publix. Senior discount day......Lord, give me patience. Now I need patience to put up with myself and not others!

Noooooooo, Kell, not on senior discount day..

And here I've been feeling sorry for myself because I haven't been in any store for almost three years!!! I live on the outskirts of a small town, which I love, but they recently built a super-Walmart across the road from the original Walmart, now closed so my "old" self has wanted to go spend hours just window shopping (so to speak). Thank heaven reality has set in before I've actually given it a try! Just like you've all mentioned, it's like feeding time at the zoo! My old self used to love all the commotion, but now my head hurts if more than three people are in my kitchen at the same time!

My "problem" started years ago when I was still walking with a cane. Was shopping at a mall, getting tired and sore, when I came to an "intersection" of two corridors -- you know, the big open area. It was like vertigo immediately set in, I literally froze, couldn't move, buzzing in my head, thought I was going to faint. Being alone I had to get through it somehow so after a deep breath, kept my head down, just looked at the floor, kept saying some stupid thing to myself so I wouldn't "think" about where I was, and just went. Made it across the humongous...so it seemed....desert and found a bench to rest a few minutes before heading out to tackle the parking lot. Oh yeah....I do have both MS and Fibromyalgia.....double over-load.

My cleaning ladies/friends, do my grocery shopping weekly and I spend alot of time looking through the hundreds of catalogs that come in the mail for finding those unusual things and clothes. Of course these days clothes are sweatpants and shirts/tee shirts/slippers. When the home nurses/doctors/friends are trying to encourage me to fill out the form for "van" service so I can get out in the world, I've always said "one of these days". Now I know that day will never come, I don't regret it at all and am happy to just "be here" in my safe home. By the way, my mailman knows I can't get to the mailbox anymore, so he puts it between the storm door and regular door, and rings the doorbell once to let me know he's been here. There ARE still good people out there.

A question for you all who shop here on the internet -- do you have some of the same problems with color, light, too many decisions, etc. here also? Trying to navigate some of the websites and make decisions can prove to be too much some days also for me. Of course today is great...NOT....my little dog, Tasha, seems to have eaten something that didn't agree with her and is throwing up all over the place. Yuck! Besides dealing with the smell (sorry) it's a challenge cleaning up with paper towels, cleaner and a grabber. Sitting in this "chair", there's no way I can actually reach the floor. Same thing when she forgets she's a big girl and poops in the house. Sometimes I just sit here and bawl, for a bit, then go ahead and figure out how to clean up the mess. Before MS, who woulda thunk it???

Thank you all for the chuckles, but know that in my heart I'm right there with you...........

Aww Judy You mentioned so many of my issues. I freeze at intersections and get vertigo.

From a wheel chair you can use a grabber with paper towels wrapped around the end to pick up poop. they sell some nice grabbers now. They have vacuums with long light weight handles that suck up most any mess. Have he cleaning girls change the bag when they come.

I am starting to order more from Amazon, and while I love schwans its expensive and full of sodium. I also have to be careful of mushrooms and shrimp which seem to be in alot of products these days. I am buying my milk, and meat from a local farmer. I walk into their barn, full my milk jugs, leave my money and go. I pre order meat, so my stuff is wrapped as I requested, and in the freezer in the barn waiting for me. I have prepaid for the beef/chicken so its mine to have. Husband helps at slaughtering time so we barter his service for free meat.

I find a lot of people to be so rude in the store. they bump you, they lean over you. they stand in the middle of the isle and scratch their...head...they bring a mass of children and dont watch them. They come sick or well, and touch everything, and then they start to push on you even tho you are tucked off to the side of the isle trying to read the package of what you are buying.

I need a few things, so I am going before 10am today. Tuesday is a decent day. We miss those who ran out on the weekend (monday shoppers) and senior day is Wednesday, so they are normally well stocked on tuesday.

and what is with those coupon shoppers that clear the isle of a whole product? You go to get a product on sale, you have a coupon ready, you get to where they keep it and...nothing! big holes and gaps in the shelf where it should be. I asked one shopper with TWO carts full of baby powder to have just one! I was told "you should have gotten here BEFORE me if you wanted baby powder." UGH! I want to slap her! you know that stuff will sit in her garage till the second coming! She will end up throwing it out 5 years from now, but for the next 5 brag on what a good deal she got. LEAVE SOME for the rest of us please! If you want 100 of something call the store and pre order it!

Probably the baby powder lady owns her own small business. I know one localish little store shops the sales at the big supermarkets, then resells the stuff.

I braved the store this morning. DS was here at 8:30 AM and we were there before 8:45!! I stocked up on lots of non perishables. Told DS to grab a buggy and get whatever he needed, too. Partly to get him busy doing something else besides hovering over me!! He got a few things he needed and I also put gas in his car.

There were alot of BOGO deals I wanted to stock up on. I think I'm set for a while. Also got all my prescriptions refilled while I was out so I'm good for probably another month or so of staying at home!

I was ready to leave just about the time I walked in the door of the store. The lights, music, perfume, noise.......I think I'm just so conditioned to staying at home that the onslaught of all these different things just overwhelms me. Not to mention the lady behind me in line who had to let everyone know she was on her way home from work with a virus! Get away from me!!

The cats were thrilled with all the bags we brought in and had to inspect each one thoroughly. I'm exhausted and ready for a nap.

The "Walmart syndrome" is one of my first symptoms just before my diagnosis. I thought I was crazy and just having some sort of anxiety disorder....but it came on suddenly and involved most public places.
I even tried to explain it to the doctor...and I used Walmart specifically as the example!
If you google it, you will see that the fluorescent lights are a problem for most M.S.ers.

Judy2, I have trouble with online catalogs too, too much light, going back and forth. So I mainly use paper catalogs. I too am isolated so I need to order from catalogs for things like bras and undies and nighties, but the shoes I get from catalogs just don't work, and I found that our local department store actually sells great shoes now!
I used to have much more trouble with "intersections" at stores than I do now, and I had classical agoraphobia at 3 distinct times in my life....could not go out in the open spaces at all. But I don't get that much any more...am I better than I was? Possibly. Eating Swank and resting up and wearing dark glasses--all the ploys have made it easier now for me to negotiate "open spaces". I could easily fall back into trouble if I was still working and dashing to the store and picking up a kid, and waiting in traffic with gaseous fumes blowing at me.

Woke today and hubby said "im sorry sweetie, but we need a few things at the grocery store. Do you think we can make a trip today?" My brain immediately went into panic. I said I would try, after I got something to eat, and time for a pill to kick in. All of a sudden, my clothes feel too tight. My feet feel like clay, and my brain is fearing the place before I even get there! I must do more exposure therapy I guess. I used to love that grocery store. now I cant think in there.

Can't he go by himself?