Traveling isn’t always glamorous. Especially when you travel with Multiple Sclerosis. Sure, I can post the most beautiful pictures on social media. But that doesn’t indicate how I’m really feeling.
On May 20, 2021, I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. Three years ago today. I had no idea. I thought the lack of sensation in my left hand was from an archaeological dig. I thought it was a pinched nerve. I thought I was just clumsy. I’m from the USA, everyone complains about being tired. All. The. Time. I thought my fatigue was normal.
The multiple scars on my brain and the couple on my spinal cord said otherwise. Everything started to make sense. My body wasn’t always sore from exercise. It was the MS. I wasn’t always drunk, I just stumble a lot. I don’t have a pinched nerve, but the nerves are damaged.
I wasn’t going to let this diagnosis stop me from doing what I love most. Which is traveling.
Traveling looks a lot different after my diagnosis. Sometimes it’s really hard. For example, I just wrote a series of posts about my travels to Greece.
The morning we departed for Athens, I was so tired. Walking to the metro that morning with my luggage was so difficult. I looked drunk walking down the street because I couldn’t walk in a straight line. Luckily, my husband carried my luggage down the metro stairs because Paris is SO NOT handicap friendly.
Compare this to the metro in Athens which had escalators going up and down. I was so thankful for that. I could barely get myself down the stairs, let alone myself plus my luggage. And I am so grateful for my husband.
Paris has all this money to make all these bike lanes, but says screw you to handicap people. That makes me really angry. So if you too are handicapped, I recommend going to Athens and not to Paris.
I wrote another blog post about traveling with MS, you can read it here with tips and tricks to make traveling easier.
On our latest trip to Greece, we were going from Athens to the island of Égina. Read the posts here, here, and here. We spent the night in Athens so we didn’t rush the next day. We also spent the night in Athens before flying back to Paris.
No stress traveling is how I like to travel now. And my husband understands this. He knows one museum in a day is enough for me. He knows my slow walking pace.
This past weekend was a three day weekend in France. We visited three castles. It was a lot for me. But lots of castles (and museums !) offer seats that you can carry with you. These are not heavy and very manageable. This seat was so useful and stopped me from falling over from fatigue.
Also, many places offer free or reduced admission to those with a handicap card. It’s something small that is offered for those who have to suffer a handicap.
So, there is hope. If you too suffer from MS, there are things you can do while traveling to make your life easier.
Read more of my blogs about travel with Multiple Sclerosis :
Budgeting Your Energy while Traveling – Travel Blog (sarahallisonwonderland.com)