I'm getting to that point of admitting that I'm not as normal as I was just a couple of years ago. I have my near "normal" days only once in a blue moon.

I had an accident that made me use a walker for quite a few months. Made me learn to appreciate both what others have to go through and to appreciate what I still have now.

I've been learning tips and tricks with the other stuff that's been going on. The only problem I'm really having trouble adjusting to is the wall of endurance. It keeps moving on me. I'm trying to know when my bod is telling me enough's enough - but sometimes it just hits from nowhere.

I can't say as I have ever felt "normal", but I think I felt physically average. As far as my health went I felt I could say it was excellent, now I don't know how to describe my health: good? up and down? not great? not as bad as it could be? pretty good, but full of little inconveniences?

Mostly I feel good, and normal, but this past weekend for example, I got worn out pushing my grandson on the swing. It felt like I was pushing boulders up a hill!

The worst part is I look "normal" no braces, no cane, no crutch, no limp. I'd sometimes like a bright yellow T-shirt that says, "Its MS"

I have to join the normal is NOW group! I am NORMAL right now! I was normal 20 years ago, I was normal 10 years ago, and I'm normal today....

Normal is a state of mind. And I hope that you will be able to accept you and all your quirks as normal. I found that once I did last year, after a MS attack that landed me unable to do ANYTHING for myself, that I was able to start repairing myself.

I believe to this day that I am still recovering from that attack. But you know what? Whether you saw me a year ago today in a wheelchair at my son's ball game or you saw me a month later walking in my walker up to the neighbor's driveway or you see me today walking a mile in 25 minutes with my cane. Whether you saw me sleeping 20 hours a day (as I did) or today at 9-12 hours a day, I have been NORMAL each and every day.

Find the blessings in the chaos of this disease. Find the things this disease has brought into your life.

I know you are groaning and rolling your eyes, because it has caused a lot of pain and made you change a lot of things. But strain....look for the good stuff, the unexpected things. These blessings will help you deal with the bad stuff.

Sounds like the start of a PollyAnna thread to me!

To clarify a little more what I meant in my earlier statement. When I got up this morning, I felt very fatigued. Went out with my husband to lunch, seems like he can't take his mother out without me. When we got back home, I took a 2 1/2 hour nap and felt normal when I woke up. Now 12 years ago my 'normal' feeling would have been abnormal.