Infirm Of Body Does Not Equal Infirm Of Mind

Today while grocery shopping my legs felt as weak as a newborn calf's (and probably looked it too). I was having a problem with stiffness and the ever present stagger that gives my gimp status away every time. Like most people with MS I have good days and bad days--today was just somewhere in-between--and I have noticed that people treat me much differently the worse I am. Not just like someone who has physical problems, but like someone with profound mental problems too. People take care to talk slow and loudly at me and mothers loudly say to their children, "She hurt her leg, huh?" If I do speak to someone I am treated like a child, smiled and nodded at, and any slight joke I make is sure to be met with too much fake laughter. If I say something that gives away the fact that I haven't been eating the lead paint off the house, I get shocked laughter that shows they didn't know I was so with it. I hate when people are surprised that I can say something funny once in awhile, or when I do see the surprise and see them do a double take at me when I say something above a 3rd grade level. On my list of T-shirts that I am going to make for myself I am going to put at the top the title of this post. I get tired of being treated like a simpleton who is as infirm in mind as they are in body.