You're just dumb, but maybe I should have done a better job on my end.

Maybe you judge M.S. because you don't know what it is.  Yes, it's very hurtful when you judge me, especially when you have no idea what you're even talking about, but maybe I should have explained it better?  I still think you're just a judgmental little bit#ch with nothing nice to say, but hey, here I go again.  I'll try to clear my name.

I have been told twice in the last couple of weeks, by two separate family members, that it's all in my head, and that I'm choosing to be lazy.  These come from family members who are convinced they're God's gift to the world.  They're so far up their own asses, they can't even imagine someone else is suffering.  Do I sound sound pissed?  :)  I guess I could be, he he.  It's to these two family members that I write this for.  For these two family member I know will never read this.  Eh, makes me feel better anyways.

Okay, I'm just gonna copy and paste this information from Wikipedia.  Here is what M.S. is:

Multiple Sclerosis (MS), also known as disseminated sclerosis or encephalomyelitis disseminata, is a inflammatory disease in which myelin sheaths around axons of the brain and spinal cord are damaged, leading to loss of myelin and scarring.  The cause is not clear but the underlying mechanism is thought to be either destruction by the immune system of failure of the myelin-producing cells.  These changes affect the ability of nerve cells to communicate resulting in a wide range of sings and symptoms.  It is more common in women and the onset typically occurs in young adults.

Almost any neurological symptom can occur with the disease and often progresses to physical and mental difficulties.  Psychiatric symptoms may also develop.  MS takes several forms, with new symptoms occurring either in discrete attacks (relapsing forms) or accumulating over time (progressive forms).  Between attacks, symptoms may go away completely, but permanent neurological problems often occur, especially as the disease advances.

There is no known cure for Multiple Sclerosis.

Okay, so that's what it is.  What are the symptoms?  Let's ask MedilinePlus.com this time.

Fever, hot baths, sun exposure, and stress can trigger or worsen attacks.

It is common for the disease to return (relapse).  However, the disease may continue to get worse without periods of remission.

Because nerves in any part of the brain of spinal cord may be damaged, patients with multiple sclerosis can have symptoms in many parts of the body.

Muscle symptoms:

Loss of balance
Muscle spasms
Numbness or abnormal sensation in any area
Problems moving arms or legs
Problems walking
Problems with coordination and making small movements
Tremor in one or more arms or legs
Weakness in one of more arms or legs

Bowel and bladder symptoms:

Constipation
Difficulty beginning to urinate
Frequent need to urinate
Strong urge to urinate
Urine leakage (incontinence)

Eye symptoms:

Double vision
Eye discomfort
Uncontrollable rapid eye movements
Vision loss (usually affects one eye at a time)

Numbness, tingling, or pain:

Facial pain
Painful muscle spasms
Tingling, crawling, or burning feelings in the arms and legs

Other brain and nerve symptoms:

Decreases attention span, poor judgment, and memory loss
Difficulty reasoning and solving problems
Depression or feelings of sadness
Dizziness and balance problems
Hearing loss

Sexual problems:

Problems with erections
Problems with vaginal lubrication

Speech and swallowing symptoms:

Slurred or difficult-to-understand speech
Trouble chewing and swallowing

Fatigue is a common and bothersome symptom as MS progresses.  It is often worse in the late afternoon.

Doesn't that sound awesome?  These aren't even all the symptoms.  These are just the most common.  This is just M.S., too.  Fibromyalgia adds a whole entire set of its own crap.

Something else people don't know, is that there are four types of M.S.  You may hear of someone who's living just fine with M.S., then you hear stories of people who die of M.S.  How does that work?  The four types of M.S.  Like cancer, and many diseases, There is no carbon copy of the disease.  Everyone will experience it differently.  You can totally live a wonderful, fulfilling life with M.S.  IF you get the right type of M.S.  If you're one of the unlucky ones, you'll die.  I am one of the unlucky ones.  M.S. is only deadly when you experience a flare.  With most people, M.S. will come and go in flares.  You will have a flare up, then you go into remission.  Back and forth through this cycle.  M.S. does damage on your body when you have a flare up.  Medication will prevent flare ups.  No flare ups, no progression of the disease.  If you have the deadly kind, there is no medication that can prevent it, and unlike the other M.S.'ers, your flare ups never go away.  There is no remission period.  This is why you die.  The constant damage of M.S. will shut your body down fast.  If you're diagnosed with the bad one, your average life expectancy is ten years from diagnosis.  I got M.S. at 25.  That will put me at 35.

PLEASE don't tell  me you know someone with M.S. who lives a good life.  Please don't tell someone who has cancer that if their neighbor could over come it, they can, too.  People die of cancer, people die of M.S. Not everyone is one of the lucky ones.  I don't wanna sound like, "I'm one of the ones that will die, pity me." It's not like that.  Not at all.  I just want you to understand the severity of my specific case.  I want you to stop saying stuff like, "everything is mental.  You just need to break the mental barriers down."  Or, "I wish I could lay in bed all day."  It's rude.  It's very hurtful.  Being sick does not make you lazy.  Dying of cancer or M.S. doesn't mean you have mental barriers to get over.  It's physical.  Say it with me, "PHYSICAL!!!!"  Not mental.  How can you will yourself better of an auto-immune disease?  No one says that to Type One Diabetics.  They are auto-immune brothers, but no one tells them to mentally will their blood sugars to a normal level.  So I just don't get it.  Why is M.S. different?  Why?  I try, and I try, but I just don't get it.  I'm sorry if you're lazy and wish you could sleep in later.  I wish I could get up early and live the normal life you live.  I'm sorry your life is so incomplete that you wanna pick on a dying cripple.  That makes you one sick fu^&.  Sorry, but it's true.

Did you know stress makes Fibromyalgia and M.S. even worse?  Did you know you're stressing the hell out of me with your insensitive comments?  I make it pretty obvious, so I'm sure you do.  As# wipe....

Anywho, yay for writing, boo for M.S.  I am so worn out from writing this, I don't even know how to close it.  I need to go eat and lay down now.  So we'll end it with stop being judgmental, you could be killing someone.  I'm not harming, hell, even affecting you in ANY way.  Why is it any of your dam business?  Oh yeah, it's not!  Go do something with your pitiful life.  I'm gonna go lay down now.

I'm so very anti the anti princess movement.

Didn't you know?  Princesses can't be presidents!  That's pretty anti feminist.  Last I checked, a girl can be whatever she wants... even a princess....

We all know someone like this.  Someone who bashes Disney's princesses.  I know a few, and frankly, I think they're dumb.  Their arguments?  "It's giving young girls unrealistic ideas about love and life."  "Disney's saying all you have to do is be pretty and you'll land a rich husband, and you'll live happily ever after."  Wow.  Bitter, much?  Here's the lame reasons I hear about how Disney princesses are brainwashing girls today.

Snow White.  The very first Disney princess.  Let's see, she had a narcissistic step mother who was trying to murder her.  Snow White was a servant who worked her as$ off.  All her life, AFTER losing a father she loved dearly.  She runs away, then has to take care of seven mentally challenged men.  Sounds like the good life, right?  No, she wasn't pretty, and her voice is bone chillingly shrill.  Then she marries a good guy.  The end.  What did you get from that?  It's unrealistic?  That a step mom is trying to have her daughter killed?  He he.  So she marries a prince.  She doesn't deserve a prince after all that?  What's more unrealistic?  A woman staying sane with seven men, or the fact that she marries a prince?  I dunno, people focus an awful lot on the prince part.  The lady endures hell, and she can still stay positive during it all.  That's what I got from it.

These people also can't get over the fact that Disney princesses were (a lot of them) sixteen years old.  None older than twenty one.  "What is Disney trying to promote here?  Child brides?"  You're just a stupid head.  Let's get one thing straight.  These are fairy tales.  Fairy tales Disney did not write.  Most are hundreds of years old.  It's common knowledge that women were married off in earlier times when they began menstruating.  I started my period at eleven years old.  Once you were a "woman," you were married off.  So all these medieval stories of sixteen year old girls getting married?  Sounds historically accurate to me.

Unrealistic idea of love?  Um, the first Disney princess movie, Snow White, was released in 1937.  Until recently, divorce was unheard of.  People who married during this time had/have long lasting marriages. You don't hear of a lot of baby boomers complaining about unrealistic marital expectations based off of a Disney movie they saw.  Ya just don't.  People today wanna blame Disney, though.  Is it Disney, or watching stupid tv shows like Jersey Shore?  Desperate House Wives?  Yeah, I can see how those could be misleading.  Disney?  Really? The number one reason marriages fail today is over financial stresses.  Even in the top ten reason marriages fail, I didn't see "had unrealistic ideas about marriage due to Disney movies."  If your marriage sucks, if you're unhappy, that's your fault, not Disney's.  Take responsibility.  No one is responsible for your failures.  You are.  Own up to it.

It's degrading to women.  Feminists are so funny.  If you're not doing a man's job, it's degrading towards women.  Dreaming about falling in love, wanting to be loved by another human being, overcoming obstacles is soooo degrading towards women.  "No, it's not that at all.  It's that all these princesses do is wait to be saved by a man.  They're not even doing anything for themselves."  Let's look at every scenario here.  Who did that?  None of them.  No one was waiting to "be saved by a man."  Being abused and hoping for a better life, wanting to be loved, not abused, makes you waiting to be saved by a man?  Don't we all do that?  When life sucks, don't we all dream of a better life?  That's not Disney princesses, that's life.  Pretty realistic to me.

All it's focusing on is pretty girls, like all their value lies in being pretty.  "The message they're sending here, is 'all you need is to be pretty, then you too can have all this.'"  Eh heh.  Okay, let's do a little test here.
Which bouquet of flowers would you rather have?

These?

   

Or these?

Which baby is prettier?

This one?

Or this one?

Which would you prefer in your living room?

Pretty, right?

Or this?  This one's a little better.

This may come as a shock, but human beings are aesthetically swayed.  Flowers, babies, furniture?  We're gonna go with the prettier choice.  Makeup has been around for thousands of years.  Beauty, in all things, is pleasing.  I don't enjoy dead, ugly flowers.  I enjoy beautiful flowers.  It's not a crime to enjoy and pursue the beautiful things in life.  This may come as an even bigger shock, but it is not a crime to be beautiful.  Being beautiful does not make you shallow.  Crazy, right?  People who are anti princess think it's all about being beautiful.

We should have had more princesses like this.  This way, you too, no matter how ugly you are, can feel good about yourself.  I'm sure this idea would sell like hot cakes.

We've got this whole, "big is beautiful" stuff going on today.  Yes, big is beautiful, just like beautiful is beautiful, too.  Skinny or fat, ugly or beautiful, beautiful is just beautiful, and beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Kourtney Kardashian.  Smokin' hot.  Extremely beautiful woman.  Has a bachelor's degree.  As you sit there criticizing beautiful women, tell me, what do you have a degree in?  Bit$hing?

Laila Ali.  Working woman, mother, bachelor's degree in business.  Smokin' hot.

Natalie Portman.  She graduated from Harvard University with a 4.0 GPA in psychology.  Beautiful.  Woman.

The point I am making here is that it's okay to be beautiful!  You can be smart AND beautiful!  Disney princesses can be smart AND beautiful.  They can deal with the crap life has dealt them and still come out on top.  As an abused child with a horrific past, I totally understand how big of a deal this is.  Snow White didn't turn to sex, alcohol or drugs to deal with her crappy childhood.  She put on her big girl panties and lived her life.  She dreamed big.  She stayed a happy person throughout it all.  Heaven forbid I should let my two daughters learn to be tough!  Mercy, I would not want that!  

I grew up obsessed with Disney movies, and yeah, I loved my Disney princesses.  I have a loving, healthy marriage.  No, I don't feel like Disney gave me any false expectations.  I love that my daughters want to be Disney princesses for Halloween.  I'd rather them want to be Disney princesses than Snooki.  I'd rather them watch Disney love stories than the Twilight love story.  I'd rather them watch Disney than Teen Mom.  I mean really, in the world we're living in, you wanna pick on Disney?  Okay, but I think you need to be medicated.  Seriously.  

It is your responsibility as a parent to teach your children.  Not Disney's, not MTV's.  If they have unrealistic ideas, maybe it's you who didn't teach them right.  Stop blaming everybody else.  On the flip side, children will be children.  They have their personalities.  They will still choose their paths, no matter what you teach them.  They didn't turn out the way you wanted them to?  Not your fault.  Not Disney's fault.  Let's be responsible for our own lives, our own choices, our own children.  Yes, your children will be exposed to things.  Disney or Snooki.  How you handle yourself, that's how your children will learn.  If Disney princesses bother you, talk to your kids about it.  Don't teach them hate.  Hating princesses for whatever reasons isn't healthy for you or your kids.  Yeah, little Suzy CAN be a astronaut when she grows up.  She can also like to play dress up and feel pretty, too.  With all things in life, we must learn moderation and balance.  Don't make your daughters feel guilty for wanting to dress up and feel beautiful.  That is human nature, we all want to feel appreciated and beautiful.  All ya gotta do is show them the healthy balance.  That's it.  It's not rocket science.

Laryngeal Dystonia (spasmodic dysphonia)

I was diagnosed with Laryngeal Dystonia a month ago.  At the time, all I thought was, "uh-huh, I'm sure there is something else to add to all this..."  Out of boredom, and curiosity, I Googled it.  Turns out it's actually a big deal.  It's painful, and downright exhausting.  Who knew?  It's also common in those who have certain diseases.  Diseases like, oh I don't know, Multiple Sclerosis.  I did not know that.  It's not all that common of a disease, the Laryngeal Dystonia.  It's estimated only around 300,000 in the U.S. have it.  My husband said I'm special.  My response:

I really looked JUST like this, too.  Bald.

I just thought this was a condition that wouldn't be that big of a deal.  So I can't talk on the phone anymore.... so it's super embarrassing to talk to people.... that's all I thought I was dealing with.  Reading the symptoms, it turns out it's causing a lot of issues.  I had no idea it was that big of a deal, really.  Very, very big deal.  One more thing to add to my list of "that sucks" health problems.  Oy vey, leave me alone already. If you wanna know what Laryngeal Dystonia is in better detail, read about it here. Read about it HERE. :)