Please take a one-two-three count before you enjoy this rehash My Odd Sock…

One

Two

Three

This may be the count of kids playing “Hide-N-Seek.”

Or, someone trying to keep their cool in a stressful situation.

But in this case, it’s neither.

Here I’m referring to the “One-Two-Three Mississippi” lag time it takes one with MS to go from being seated-to standing-to walking….

…That wonderful period of adjustment for your head & your body to get on the same page before moving.

And “three Mississippi’s” is being polite.

As my multiple sclerosis progresses, I find it’s usually a generous “three Mississippi’s” along with a “Louisiana,” a couple of “Alabama’s” and the whole damn Mississippi River Delta before I get my mojo in gogo!

An observer may wonder what’s our hold up.  But any MSer knows he or she has a lot going on in that crucial three to five seconds.

An MSer has signals flying from the brain to the feet…the feet to the brain…balance is telling the arms to steady itself…the hips try to maintain a center of gravity…all along an orange-barrel construction zone of myelin-damaged nerves stretching for miles inside the body.

That explains why those with MS have more delays than American Airlines.

Taylor Swift can start & end a relationship in the time it takes one with MS to get moving.

Have you noticed your own “three Mississippi” delay in the transition between sitting-to standing-to moving?

Do others notice your dawdle?  Are you use to it by now?

I’ve grown accustomed to my period of adjustment.

It reminds me of times before a baby takes its first steps.

The wavering.  The unsteadiness.

And, like a baby, I realize too if I don’t get it in gear quickly—I’m gonna go right in my pants!