This morning, well, actually, this afternoon (we got a late start!), My Mom changed my compression socks. As she peeled my left sock off, we noticed a very dark, silver dollar sized bruise on my upper shin, on the almost medial side. She looked at it because it is such a stark difference from my white legs ( they haven’t seen the light of day since I was pregnant, 18 years ago).
She told me that it looked like it hurt and asked me where I got it from. I looked from the bruise to my Mom and shrugged. I had no idea! She told me that it must have hurt and I shrugged again. I told her that I didn’t remember.
MS brain REALLY sucks sometimes! I stared at the bruise trying to remember where I would have hit my shin so much so that I would have left the very dark and large bruise. I really had no idea! As I stared at that bruise, I thought back to a few times when I had some pretty big bruises! I didn’t think about the bruise that Adam wanted to press that was on my upper arm when I got run into a door knob in my manual wheelchair until I began to write this post.
I thought of two instances where I had numerous bruises on both of my shins. I think I must’ve been a Junior or Senior in high school. I remember putting my makeup on in my parents’ bathroom and my brother walked by and I looked at him and asked him how I looked. He looked me over and said that I’ve looked good except for my, “abused legs.” I had probably five or six very dark, silver dollar sized bruises on both of my shins the too. I kind of laughed because I had no idea where those bruises came from. This was just before I had it been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis.
Another time I had multiple bruises on both of my shins was when I must have been three or four months pregnant. I had already been diagnosed with MS and I was in the emergency room for some reason. I can’t remember, (this was 18 years ago). I sat on table and was kicking my legs back and forth out of boredom. It must’ve been summer because I remember being bare foot.
I remember a young intern came in and had a clipboard in his hands. He asked me a bunch of questions and wrote down my answers. I continued swinging my legs, unconcerned. I will never forget that he held the clipboard closer to and just about in front of his face. He peered at me and asked me very seriously what happened to my shins.
As soon as he asked me this, I stopped swinging my legs and raised both of my bare feet so I could look at my shins. I told him that I didn’t know in an unconcerned voice and continued swinging my legs. It wasn’t until after he left that I realized he must have thought that I was being abused! Pregnant and being abused! That was just terrible!
When my Mom asked me about the bruise I have today, I have no idea how I got it and I was reminded of these two instances when I had large bruises down both of my shins. Why were both of my shins full of bruises?! One time, it was just before I was diagnosed and the second time, it was just after I was diagnosed. There must be some kind of correlation there! My Mom and I examined my left shin once she took my sock off and there were no bruises. I just had the one.
I told my Mom to remember this the next time she changes my socks to see if more bruises are showing up (I know that with my MS brain, I will forget!). If they are, I will definitely have to go in to see my neurologist or go to the ER. I am sure they are MS related! If not, I guess I must have hit my leg on something. I’m just not sure what I would have hit it on though.
When I thought about writing this blog post, a Train song popped into my head from Wayback in 2013. I remember it being spring time and driving to work then. This song is why I named this blog post what I did. The song is STILL in my head! I chose this version of the song because I didn’t like the video that popped up on YouTube.