[Lumia_black]

I still drive, years with M dot S and at 40 I am thinking of giving it up. Hard to do since I am a car enthusiast, actually did some dirt racing in street stocks some years ago, but I just get so beet up driving these days. After a few hours of driving around town it whips me tired. Also the cost. I had to put in over 400 dollars into my car this week, since my steering seemed out of whack. Turns out I had bad ball joints, tie rods, left strut(replaced both)Oh and the alternator went to crap...that was 184 bucks alone. Plus gas, insurance....cars aren't cheap.

So yeah time has come to think about giving it up....I'd save a ton and I live in town and have many people that would help me out as far as being taxi cabs. I dunno...I just don't feel like driving anymore and unfortunatley it seems I am one of the better drivers around here.... yes....other drivers scare me these days....they are nuts.

Well how about you all? most still drive? have you thought about hanging it up for good?

[MSbelle]

I've just been on a hiatus from driving since January and just started back up yesterday. I am 30 and have two young kids and it has been terrible not being able to drive them and myself around... I hate relying on people. I was recently prescribed modafinil (Provigil) and it's given me so much more energy and helped my legs not get fatigued! Have you tried it? If just tiredness is the issue it might help!

[Erin524]

I'm driving. I didn't drive for the better part of a year, since late summer of 2013, to early 2014. Just wasn't feeling good, and also I'd hurt my left shoulder (non-MS related case of frozen shoulder). While I was waiting for my shoulder to heal, the forced inactivity kind of caused my walking to get worse.

When your shoulder is out of commission, it royally screws up your balance. I also have drop foot in the right foot. I'd started back to driving a car normally last spring, but numbness in my foot was getting worse, and I decided to ask for hand controls.

I finally got my hand controls last August, and finally got my license updated in December. (you get something like 90 days after getting the hand controls installed to go take a driving test, and get the license updated. I got my license on the 90th day)

I love my hand controls! I got them just in time too. My dad had a stroke that affected the vision in his left eye. He can't drive anymore, or at least for the moment. His eye is still healing. I got my hand controls about two weeks before he had the stroke.

[SallyC]

I finally gave up driving totally 9 yrs ago. It was renew my license or stop driving.
I wasn't as good at it anymore and just had been driving short distances.
I really had no other choice, but if I had still been a good attentive driver, I
would have continued, because if you don't use it you lose it.

Just my 2 cent worth.

[doydie]

Erin, it is so good to hear you are driving!!!! I still drive but I do notice a difference at night with depth perception

[Erin524]

Being able to drive again is helping me not feel so trapped in my house, down in my parents basement.

My only problem, is that my walking seems to be worse, and if I go anywhere, I don't have the energy to do anything. I usually will drive my parents to the grocery store to get stuff, and then sit out in front of the store, and use their wifi to wander around on the internet on my iPad. (so far, no one has made me move my car when I do that).

There's been a couple of times that I've gone into the store, but again, not much energy to get around to buy things that I want. Lately when I want something, I just order it on Amazon.

Still, even being able to get out to the store occasionally. I still feel like I'm trapped in my house. Ever since the exboyfriend dumped me, that just ruined any inclination that I've had to want to go do anything. I used to love to go to the movies by myself. Not so much anymore. I either got used to having someone go to the movies with me when the boyfriend still liked me, or the movie theatres remodeled so much that they're too huge for me to walk thru to get to a seat. And then, I'm always stuck in the handicapped seats, which are too close for me sometimes. I used to sit way up in the back of the theatre.

I wish I hadn't had the issues with the frozen shoulder last year. I don't think my walking issues would be so horrible, and I might still be driving a car normally, instead of with the special attachments to it now.

Do think it's kind of funny that my Japanese car now has German hand controls in it. I had to put an American flag sticker on it, so that the car won't decide to reenact the Second World War (Germany and Japan were part of the Axis Powers).

The hand controls look like they were made just for my car. They match the interior really nicely.

[Lumia_black]

Originally Posted by MSbelle

I've just been on a hiatus from driving since January and just started back up yesterday. I am 30 and have two young kids and it has been terrible not being able to drive them and myself around... I hate relying on people. I was recently prescribed modafinil (Provigil) and it's given me so much more energy and helped my legs not get fatigued! Have you tried it? If just tiredness is the issue it might help!

It's more than tiredness... nah I haven't tried Provigil.

I guess this thread is to kind of way in my progression, wondering how many of you still drive.

I thought you were older.... because of the name you have.... it's classical.

[Kitty]

I voluntarily stopped driving a few years ago. I wanted to make the decision.....not be told by someone else. And I didn't want to risk injuring someone else or myself. When my vision deteriorated and my drop foot got worse I just didn't feel like it was safe. And, being a Mom, I surely would not have wanted my own kids driving around with someone like me on the road!!

It was a little hard to get used to but now.....I love it. No car payment, no insurance, no gas, no repairs or upkeep. Not that I could afford it anyway but it's nice not to have to worry about it. My kids take me to family get-togethers and doctor appts. That's about all the "going out" I do and that's fine by me. By the time I get ready to go somewhere I'm exhausted and I haven't even left the house yet!

I get everything I need delivered and what can't be delivered my kids get for me. Plus I have friends who always call and tell me when they're going to the store and offer to pickup items for me. So......I figure I'm doing my part for the environment and the safety of my fellow citizens!!

[Erin524]

I wish I could get everything delivered. I don't have kids to go get the things I can't get.

I do have relatives, but they all have given me the impression that they think I'm faking the MS. And for some reason, they don't seem that willing to help me with my elderly parents very much. You'd think they'd at least go get stuff for my parents, even if they're not willing to get things for me. Nope.

My relatives seem to have abandoned us, and my friends are now non-existent. I have to be the one who drives.

[Kitty]

That's sad that they won't help. I wonder who they think will help them if they ever need it? You know what they say about karma........