To My Partner Who Supports Me Through My Battle With MS

It takes more energy than you think to date someone like me. I have multiple sclerosis, anxiety, ADHD, OCD and chronic fatigue.

Some days I’m too tired to get out of bed. Some days I drop everything I pick up. Some days I struggle to remember simple words and phrases, blend words together or somehow manage to do both. Some days my anxiety gets the best of me.

Cameron came into my life when it was falling apart. Well, we were friends/mutual Twitter followers (so I guess we technically met on the internet – such millennials) for two years before we decided to give us a shot.

Since my official multiple sclerosis diagnosis in December of 2008, I have had other relationships. Some good, some bad. Some I ended, some I was dumped. Some understood my MS, some thought I was “overreacting,” some couldn’t stand my depression as a 17-year-old who just got diagnosed with a potentially debilitating illness.

But Cam “gets” it, for the most part. Does anyone really “get” something they don’t actually have?

Probably not. I mean, if we’re being honest, I don’t really even “get” my MS.

He “gets” that some days I just can’t wake up. He “gets” that some days I get tired from walking up and down a flight of stairs. He “gets” that some days I am more needy for attention and reassurance of everything.

He asks me 685 times a day if I am OK (alright, maybe that’s a rough estimate). 95 percent of the time, I am OK. It’s the 5 percent of the time when I’m not OK that I can tell how much he cares. Cam is there no matter what. He carries my bags when I’m too weak to carry them myself. He lets me cry when I don’t even know why I’m crying. He, as a fellow homebody, understands those days when I just don’t want to do anything but Netflix and chill (which actually consists of either watching the same six television series over and over or him playing video games while I color).

I can never repay him enough for all he does for me when it comes to my MS. I am eternally grateful for the love and support he gives me. The best I can do is love him back and, well, that’s all either of us can ask for.

When I am with him, I am OK.

This post originally appeared on Verbal Remedy.

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Thinkstock photo via VladislavStarozhilov.