If there’s one thing I know about the MS community, is that when the chips are down, we all pull together.
And never more so than now.
If I’m honest, it’s strange to be doling out advice to normally-healthy people stuck at home, climbing the walls.
Yup, I’m the one now doing the ‘sad face tilt’, murmuring gentle ‘hmm hmm’s’ and suggesting ways to keep engaged and less isolated. Except now, it’s all of us in the same boat, an entire country, a huge swathe of the world.
It’s heartening to see a veritable outpouring of resources previously inaccessible to us – working and studying from home, celebrities bringing us everything from cello lessons to live work-outs and dreadful song compilations – Gal Gadot, I’m looking at you.
New programmes devised and on our telly within days. Tips and hints for staying at home are abundant, a flood of all the resources we have campaigned for over the years. Can’t get to the theatre or ballet? It’ll come to you. Same for the museums of the world, the cinema, online learning where you can pick up wood-whittling amongst many other things. Newspapers are now full of great ideas for lessening the isolation, and not before time.
Are we all disabled now, in some way?
Opinion columns are full of shocked and stunned op-ed writers aghast at being without a cleaner, a playgroup, a holiday, their Boden order. Ok. I feel your pain, although somewhat ironically.
Back to MS, and it’s awe-inspiring to see how our community has come together to keep us informed. From the MS Society, MS Trust and Shift-MS, to the Bart’s Blog, we are kept right up to date. And this is despite a truly dreadful time for charities.
I had my shielding letter on Friday, followed by a letter from my MS team yesterday. I feel cared for and protected. However, my landlord may not feel the same way, which is why I have to continue to work, with only one other person, the long-suffering Boss, as long as I can.
It’s not ideal. I miss my son terribly, and my partner. Me and The Boss are looking at each other and thinking, ‘really?’ Are we the two people we’re going to see for the next few months? I feel more sorry for him, to be honest.
I listen to his Sky TV Planner list, he listens to me wittering on about medical humanities. He wants a Baby Yoda for his birthday and I don’t quite know what to say, always aware that we are in this for the long haul, Baby Yoda or not.