I absolutely love this commercial.  It’s a catchy, high-energy advertisement for Hospital of Special Surgery (HSS).

The song takes residence in my head as I enjoy the fun, fresh moves of the actors as well as the expressions on their faces as they move.  Motion allows them to show joy, excitement, confidence, curiosity, and even aggression as they show their resiliance, dedication, determination and creativity.

“How you move is who you are, how you are and why we’re here,” they exclaim.

Exactly.

Which is why I simultaneously hate this ad because I hate how I move. The changes in my mobility have changed who I am, because it’s changed how I see myself, the choices I make and I’m pretty sure, how the world sees me.

Let me be clear. I’m not suggesting that we start a Twitter outrage campaign to defend the feelings of the physically disabled from this ad.  Nor do I feel that their tagline needs to be changed.  It’s an accurate statement.  A person’s movement can certainly affect who they are which is why there are no wheelchair bound, wind-turbine cleaners, bilateral, amputee sign-language interpreters, post stroke, hemi-paretic, loading dock workers or stilt walkers suffering from vertigo.  Take away movement and you take away opportunities.

If there’s a surgical solution to your mobility issue, I’m glad to know that the Hospital of Special Surgery is an option for you.  Although HSS can’t help solve my problems, their ad has inspired me to explore:

• Movement in general.
• How to best deal with impaired mobility?
• Is it disease progression or lack of use that ultimately takes away mobility?
• Why the hell doesn’t insurance cover long term rehabilitation services the way it covers short term yet expensive surgical solutions for mobility issues?
• If I can’t improve my mobility what’s the best way to maintain it?
• How do I live well with imperfect mobility without driving myself insane?

This is why it’s been 9 months since I’ve blogged. I’d rather discuss possible solutions than rhetorical, kinesiology questions which is why instead of writing, I’ve spent a lot of the past year trying new medicines, modifying my yoga practice, and working with 2 different physical therapists because my goal is and always will be figuring out a way to do more of this:

And less of this:

Having MS means failing quite a bit (as earlier blog posts of mine can attest to).

I find that I often need to take a break from my failures before I’m willing to re-invest time, energy and money into not only another wellness regimen but the time needed to write about it.

It’s taken years for me to find the right PTs and the best way to modify my yoga practice.

I’ve been blessed with dear friends with their own mobility issues that are willing to modify their yoga with me weekly along with a new version of yoga therapy being offered in my town.  I even got a sweet physical therapy bar that has allowed me to move my arm in ways I haven’t experienced in years!

You’d think that I’d be jumping for joy!

Unfortunately just when I thought I was figuring things out and making gains regarding my range of motion, this happened:

Which is why my current version of movement is simply this today:

I hope as you do your thing, you have better results than I did today.  But if you don’t, feel free to move your fingers any damn way you please.

Photo credits: Andrew Hunter, Hailey Kean, Edu Lauton, & Hybrid

Song credit: “Do Your Thing” by Basement Jaxx