My partner not only has to imagine what it’s like each day for me to deal with pins and needles, numbness, shooting pain, aching, dizziness, nausea, and overwhelming fatigue, but he also has to live with the same uncertainty of waking up each day and not knowing if we can do the things that we had planned. he is the only one that truly understands how I can look so good on the outside and feel so miserable on the inside. He gets it when I have to cancel plans because I did too much the day before.

Thanks to MS, I’ve learned to truly take one day at a time. I wake up grateful for each day that I can walk, but I also wake up grateful that I have someone in my life that will stand by me no matter what. It would do us all good if we remembered to let our significant others know how much we appreciate all that they have done for us by sharing in living with the uncertainty of life with MS.

Being diagnosed with a label that carries so many connotations means you are often met with “that look”.  You know the look, the one that screams pity.  Well my dogs don’t feel sorry for me, they don’t get angry with me when I have mood swings or forget things.   They don’t judge me if I lie on the sofa all day, they just burrow under the blanket and join me.  If I’m sad and a tear falls from my cheek, one of them will rest their head on my shoulder or their paw on my lap, no words are spoken but comfort surrounds me.  It doesn’t matter what I can or cannot do, my dogs are always there, just happy to be with me.  I believe that kind of love is known as unconditional.