So I felt that it was rather appropriate to share this blog about my vacation on Halloween (seeing that it was only slightly less horrific than a Wes Craven thriller!)
In the last four years I’ve come to accept the fact that Captain MS and his pilot Rebif always steer the ship and I’m usually not even asked where I want to go.. but not this time! On this vacation I decided to be more in charge of my surroundings and activities to better suit my energy level and my fantastic symptoms. So my family decided to rent and RV and drive to the Black Hills. No long airplane rides and waiting in theme park lines for us!
Because it is absolutely essential for me to fit my workouts in throughout the day, our thought was that I could bring my trusty Gazelle, take potty breaks as often needed, and stretch my legs as we made progress on our journey. Prior to the trip, we spent many hours researching and planning activities that would be MS friendly (such as making sure flat walking trails were available so unstable, rocky ground wouldn’t be an issue.) Seeing our hard work pay off would have been lovely but unfortunately, we never made it that far.
No, instead of swimming at Evan’s Plunge or buying priceless souvenirs at Wall Drug, we found ourselves yanking burs off our puppy with needle nosed pliers, cleaning up a crushed can of ravioli, and scrubbing our daughter’s vomit off the carpet. Since stress results in excruciating leg pain for me, I was extremely thankful for all the room I had to move around (avoiding the smelly spills on the floor of course.) Due to the outrageously awful scent in the RV, our five day trip that we had been looking so forward to was turned into a day and a half long adventure.
I’m grateful to know that options do exist for making travel a little more comfortable with MS. And even though very little went according to plan, it makes for a good story!
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Megan- thank you for sharing your story. We too decided to take an RV trip when Conner was 6 months old. I was in a wedding for my cousin in Arizona. We thought it would be cheaper and easier on our baby if we had a comfortable place for him to relax. My parents went with us for my Dad to help drive the RV and since it was my cousin getting married. Jared really tells the story good. You really need to hear it from him to enjoy it. It was a horrible trip. Conner was comfortable, but he was the only one in the RV. I thought I could lay with him in the back while we drove-no the RV was swaving all over I was terrified. We hardly ate in the RV- our plans to cook every meal went down the drain. We stayed in a WM parking lot overnight. Jared and I had the top bunk- I was hipervenalating so I had to sleep on the couch crunched with Conner every night worrying I was going to crush him. When we got to AZ I told my cousin where our RV park was. She said that was in a bad part of town...so I freaked out and said we are going to the hotel (where all the rest of our family was). So we bought hotel rooms for us and my parents for 3 nights. Not a cost saving :-) I was more comfortable though. The only terror I can remember was we were running on fumes in the middle of the desert looking for a gas station at 10 pm. I was not a very nice person. I always advise people not to take an RV trip eventhough it sounds like the perfect thing. Especially don't take your parents or in-laws. Take care of yourself Megan, be strong like you are. Love- Val
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