Losing my coordination

This has been a morning of painful reminders. It feels like my entire  home conspires to beat me senseless. That's not true of course, but when you miss doorways for door frames, walk into walls, open cupboards and crack your knees on everything in sight, well, you get the idea. I feel like a bad comedy skit, and it's a painful one. If there's a way for me to have an accident, I 'll sure find it.

Half our laundry work is done in the kitchen, the washing that is. The dryer is out in our garage storage. It's just the way things are built. Anyway, with the help of a nice tile floor, I managed to step into an empty laundry basket that slid away with my foot. I'm not built to do the splits, let me tell you. That really hurt. It also hurt when I shut the bedroom door on myself.

This is one of the realities of an autoimmune disease/disorder (blast it, I had to stop typing for a few minutes because I couldn't get my fingers to type that last word!). It's more than a little frustrating.

Disorders and diseases that attack your nervous system, like autism and various auto immune disorders, destroy your coordination and balance. Autism isn't known for being progressive, but you change as you get older, believe that.

Children with autism have been found to have motor difficulties. It's why there are so many cases of handwriting problems (for one example). Delays in fine motor skills are not uncommon.

People with MS report problems with dropping things and severe coordination difficulties. It gets worse for any motor skills you don't use. One person who suffers the condition explained to me that basically, "if you don't use it, you lose it". So staying active as much as your condition will allow is important.

Things that help are exercise and motorskill practices. You can check with therapists for ideas on what you can safely do. It's amazing how the simple act of picking something up in your hand can be taken for granted, until you can't do it anymore.

There are no simple solutions, though well meaning folk will offer them.
"Just use a ruler for your straight lines, Dave."
Trust me, I do, but when neither of your hands will hold still, the ruler won't either.

I know I'm not the only one, that's why I'm sharing this today. Today has just been tougher than most. I know there are many people out there who suffer this and feel the same way.