MS Fatigue.

TIRED!!!!!! Fatigue really sucks. It comes on suddenly and your energy is gone, as if that energy was contained in a balloon and someone popped it leaving you with the limp, leftover rubber. Everything is too big, too heavy, too high, too loud, too bright, too much, too hard, too TOO!

It takes effort to breathe, talk, move your hands, feet, even your eyes. Your brain feels like someone took it out and replaced it with cotton wool (or hot coals if a headache comes with it). Your eyelids feel as though someone sandpapered the insides of them, and filled your nostrils up with the dust.

EFFORT, everything is just such a big effort. And if you have any pain going on it is amplified by a factor of 10. Any muscle you use feels like a wrung out noodle when you've finished with it.

I drive a dump truck on a mine site for a living so twice at the start of each shift (and a few other times during the day) I climb up a two step ladder, then up a stairway of 9 steps just to get up into my cab. Then at the end of the shift I have to clean the rather large cab and the windows (inside and out) for the next shift. By the end of the shift that is such a daunting task if I'm having a fatigue day that I could just about cry - just about because crying is about the most energy draining activity there is.

You might think that when I'm sitting in my truck driving around (it's automatic - so not too taxing) I might recover some of my lost energy. Not so - I am now learning to appreciate how many muscles in your toes, foot, leg and butt that it takes to hold an accelerator pedal down. Not to mention the muscles in your fingers, hands, wrists and arms it takes to move the power assisted steering wheel, indicators, retarder lever, tub hoist lever etc. Every single one of these muscle movements chews up another little piece of your precious energy reserves. As does holding your head up and bracing against the bumps of a mine pit floor. And then to try to think through the aforementioned cotton wool and/or hot coals in your head, it all really adds up to a tremendous amount of energy that's leaking out of your being.

It just sucks, and that's all there is to it.