It's About To Get Personal
Now that I’ve got a few blog posts under my belt, I figured it’s time to get personal.
So… yeah. It’s about to get real. July is Chronic Illness Awareness Month, and wouldn’t you know it, I just happen to have one.
MS to be exact. 👩🏻🦯🦼
Would I rather be celebrating Pizza Awareness Month or something less exhausting ? Helloooo. 🙄 🍕
-- Intravenous steroids = Roid rage. Just don’t make eye contact with me and we’ll always be safe. 😵💫 --
You might be wondering, Julie, why are you telling me this? Because maybe—just maybe—you’ve wondered, how does someone with MS even do dishes?
Well, I wasn’t always disabled.
I’m part of a club that anyone can join, at any time. Most people don’t even think about it… until it’s them. I didn’t think about it either which made me feel a little oblivious and self centered :(
For 30 long years (Oh, thank you 🤭 l use a really good eye cream) I was a truck-unloading, basement-stair-flying, stack-carrying, crate-hauling, bushel-pushing - BAD. ASS.
I didn’t even get MS until ten years ago.
Then—just like that—the little toggle that controls my immune system flipped. Like a light switch! I mean… the nerve. 🤬 (Literally, actually). Now instead of protecting me, my immune system has turned on me.
Traitor ! 😡
Suddenly, my body was at war with itself.
Good news: I am progressive.
Bad news: so is MS.
-- Cant climb on top of stacks anymore but once Danny has fished them out? Don’t even try to stop me! --
Also think about it, who doesn’t have something or know someone who does have something? Crohn’s, lupus, depression, diabetes, bad credit? 🤷🏻
So many people are carrying something invisible-or visible. This just happens to be mine.
Over the years, MS has changed me for sure. Sometimes my gait 👩🏻🦯 looks like I’ve been drinking. If only 🤪
Sometimes my hands are so shaky, putting on lipstick looks more like a crime scene. 😱(oh thank you—I use a simple red lip stain from Amazon 💋.) And sometimes my head bobbles like I’m constantly saying “no”—when I’m really a yes person.
So yeah:
BAD ASS turned BOBBLE HEAD.
Still doing dishes.
Still fiercely protective of what makes Fishs Eddy so special. A store full of joy, weirdness, music you didn’t know you liked, people you want to hang out with and things that make you stop and say...oh no you didn’t 🫣!
It kills me that I can’t do what I used to. But instead of being defeated, I overcompensate.
I get scrappy, invent new ways to get things done. And give my teammates permission to laugh—because MS is super dumb and stupid!
Like when I say, “Armondo can I just show you something? I look back and say, walk this way,” and he actually does. 🤣
-- Walk my way! --
I work with an amazing team who refuses to let MS get in our way. Together, we keep it all going. (And if you try to poach them, I WILL find you)
So yes—we still do dishes brilliantly. Even with MS.
-- National Organization for Women March 1986 on Washington mall. A protest I wanted to go to. --
