“Today was a Difficult Day,” said Pooh.

There was a pause.

“Do you want to talk about it?” asked Piglet.

“No,” said Pooh after a bit. “No, I don’t think I do.”

“That’s okay,” said Piglet, and he came and sat beside his friend.

“What are you doing?” asked Pooh.

“Nothing, really,” said Piglet. “Only, I know what Difficult Days are like. I quite often don’t feel like talking about it on my Difficult Days either.

“But goodness,” continued Piglet, “Difficult Days are so much easier when you know you’ve got someone there for you. And I’ll always be here for you, Pooh.”

And as Pooh sat there, working through in his head his Difficult Day, while the solid, reliable Piglet sat next to him quietly, swinging his little legs…he thought that his best friend had never been more right.”
A.A. Milne

🧡🧡🧡🧡🧡🧡🧡🧡🧡🧡

From time to time, my mood dips and it’s usually triggered by a flare up in MS symptoms. Go figure.

This last week I’ve been feeling so extremely tired and in quite a bit of discomfort, particularly in my legs and hips. It’s not fun, but it’s my reality.

I don’t like to allow myself to feel too sorry for myself though – after all, there are plenty of other MSers who have it worse. But the reality is, there’s millions of other people who DON’T have MS. So I’m totally allowed to feel bloody miserable from time to time. And that’s ok. The big thing is how I recover from that, which I always do.

In the past few days, I’ve been feeling extreme amounts of gratitude. Particularly towards Dave. Some people would say it goes without saying and if the shoe was on the other foot, I would do exactly what he’s done, but it blows my mind that he’s stuck by me through this. The fact that I’m rarely up for a night out and would rather sleep doesn’t seem to bother him at all. And that deep realisation of just how much someone must love you is enough to move you to tears.

Unfortunately, in the many Facebook support groups I’m a part of, I often see that it’s all too common for the diagnosis and having a disabled partner to be too much. The other partner leaves. And it’s so easy to say that if someone leaves you in the face of your disability that you’re better off without them, but the truth is, we all need our Piglet.

Piglet and Pooh’s story is about me and every single person in my life who let me have my bad days thanks to the psychological impact of MS. I have been in awe as I’ve come to the realisation over the last week or so how many amazing people have my back. Especially when I’m having a Difficult Day.

Thank you for being my Piglets.