Roll’em Up

  

 

 

For anyone with multiple sclerosis, nothing, absolutely nothing strips a human being of personal pride MORE than the nine-hole peg test.

Oh, did I say “strips?”  Hmm, sorry.  That is being too kind.

I meant to say the nine-hole peg test rips dignity from the bone, while pouring acid on the open wounds of self-confidence.

Who came up with this test….Doctor Mengele?

 

Nothing makes you feel like a helpless load than trying to pick up those slippery-ass pegs and put them in the holes!

 

That is, until this week when My Odd Sock was given the chore of counting & rolling the spare change in the kids banks.

(Hey, let “Fumble-fingers” do it!)  (And when you finish, how ’bout doing some micro-surgery!)

MS has stolen quite a bit of dexterity from my hands–but I also have the most time to kill…therefore, I agreed to accept the challenge.

 

 

 

The first step in rolling coins is to lay down a newspaper to dump the filthy change onto.  That’s when I noticed the picture of my dreamy girlfriend, actress Dana Delaney.

Mustn’t cover her pretty face as I emptied the banks!

 

The two dinosaur banks were a breeze to empty.

 

 

It was the ceramic Teddy Bear bank when things got weird.

 

 

Removing the rubber stopper on the bear’s backside allowed you to pour out many of the coins.

But then, I found myself having to insert my finger to draw out the remaining coins.

In essence, I gave a teddy bear a very thorough colon-rectal exam!  (Male readers over the age of 50 will understand.)

 

 

 

 

 

Strangely, the bear didn’t seem to mind at all.

 

In fact, it smiled through the entire procedure!

 

 

 

Next, came the arduous task of sorting, counting, stacking and wrapping.  All well & good for the healthy soul.  But when you have MS, the fine-finger work can be rather difficult.

 

 

 

It felt as though I was wearing gloves!

 

I knew what I wanted the fingers to do, but do you think they would listen?….

 

 

 

 

….Heck no, they had their own agenda!

 

It was ten of them–against one of me.

So who do YOU think won the struggle?

 

 

 

 

 

My feet didn’t work much better.

Retrieving dropped coins (and there were a lot of them) required me to scoot the change with my feet to within arm’s reach.

I would have had better luck walking through a mine field!

 

 

 

 

 

Finally, hours later.  After numerous breaks, three banks, two grimey hands and one still smiling picture of Dana, I ended up with $165.50.

 

Was it worth the struggle?

 

I think so. 

 

Because sometimes with MS, you have to push yourself.  You have to do more than you thought possible.

You can’t let a nine-hole peg test…or a pile of coins beat you.  And you can’t ever let them dictate who you are–or what you can do.

 

P.S.  That damm bear is still smiling.  I told him to come back in a year for his next “check-up.”