This basic thought has been bothering me all week but it’s such a fundamental “a-ha” moment for me, I feel compelled to record my discovery.

It’s so simple it’s kind of annoying. I’m talking about the simple fact that we live in an “and” society but thanks to multiple sclerosis I am quite firmly becoming an “or” girl. I used to be an And Girl. I was trained from a very young age to do this and that. Go here and there. See that person and this person. Have this job and this social life. I was taught to believe that I could have it all – everything I wanted – if only I worked hard enough and gave my best effort at everything I did.

It worked. I did pretty well for myself being an “and” girl. I worked hard and I had fun. I did chores and I socialized here, there and everywhere, with this person, that person and the other person. I loved my home and I loved exploring the world. The list of places I racked up under my “been there, done that” column got to be pretty impressive. I was living that dream and enjoying (most of) it.

That’s why it’s so hard for me now to realize, like I’ve been hit by a ton of proverbial bricks,that I am now quite literally being forced to become an “or” girl. A wicked combination of a later-in-life diagnosis of multiple sclerosis, and just freaking being later in life in general, combined to create this person I have become who must choose daily, even minute-by-minute this OR that. Very rarely both.

I’ve been living in the land of denial. Complaining to friends about how pathetic it is that I get tired so easily. My daily life takes so much out of me that sometimes I find myself only out of bed an hour or two before I’ve run plum out of spoons. But I still have the rest of a long day to get through. Spoonless. It happens more than I’d like to admit.

My best friend often tells me, “Don’t be so hard on yourself. You have a reason why you feel this way. You can’t help it.”

Yeah. That doesn’t really sit so well with me. I’ve never been a person who does very well with being told I could have this or that, do one thing or the other. I wanted both. I wanted more. And goddammit, I would be the person who proved everyone wrong by doing exactly that thing people told me I couldn’t (or shouldn’t) do. I took joy in it, really. I reveled in having it all, while being on my own, and living my very best life. I felt victorious.

Imagine how I would deal with my own body forcing me to say “uh-uh you can’t do that.” You are probably imagining the very struggle I find myself in each and every day.

I can shower OR get to work before noon. I can be effective at work OR I can put my health first. I can be successful in my career and thus pay my bills OR I can have fun. I can get up early OR have a late afternoon meeting. I can’t do both. Not both of any of those things. I can put on makeup OR I can sleep longer. Guess which things I choose?

My favorite illustration of this concept is my recent experience attempting to take a business trip (and failing). I realized I could shower OR have energy to walk through two airports and get myself to our corporate “campus.” I could do my presentation and put on a good show OR I could have dinner with colleagues later that evening. I could have meetings all day long trying to be my in-charge managing director self – OR I could walk without falling. There were so many ORs that I knew would be ANDs that it overwhelmed me.

Oh wait. There was one more. I could take the drug that helps me be focused and alert for a few hours OR I could be sane and able to function. Turns out, when I take Provigil too consecutively at my full dose it does bad things to my brain. Really bad things. Color me informed.

I am getting better at accepting this. I have two 9AM meetings next week on consecutive days because, well, it should be obvious by now that if there is a god, she pretty much hates me. I know that to make this happen, I will have to be in bed by 8PM or thereabouts the night before to make sure I can be out of the house by 7:15AM (have I mentioned that my body literally doesn’t work in the morning? I need very much extra time built in for pretty much everything).

There will be no showering. I can’t shower AND get to my meetings on time. Something has to give. I have to accept that I can do basically nothing else next week. There’s the OR busting up my plans to live a full life! I can make it to two 9AM meetings on two consecutive days and perform effectively AND have two days (or more) of recovery to get back to basic functionality.

Today I allowed myself to sleep in (pretty much like I always do on weekends) but I knew I had a few chores I wanted to accomplish over this weekend. Nothing too scary! My list of things to do included:

• Go to Target for necessary supplies
• Get cat food at Petco
• Go to Giant Eagle- grocery store- for the things I can’t get at Target
• Drop off dry cleaning
• Do laundry (most of my favorite clothing, i.e. my pajamas are dirty)
• Make myself something not terrible or unhealthy to eat

It’s a reasonable list. Not very taxing. But for me, here’s how my morning went:

Get distracted by overwhelming desire to purge my life of excess stuff. Find myself organizing excess makeup into a bag for giving away. Get even more distracted pulling things out of my closet for the great clothing give away I am planning in the coming weeks. Get through fall/winter dresses and shirts, think about doing spring/summer dresses too – and stop myself knowing I am already worn out.

Brush my teeth. Scoop litter on two different levels of the house. Put on “clothes” – meaning my weekend uniform of black yoga pants and black long sleeve t-shirt. Stumble down the stairs to take morning meds. Realize I left the dry cleaning upstairs – head back up the stairs to get it. Walk out the door realizing I’ve yet to eat actual food or have any coffee. Dammit.

Drop off dry cleaning. Head to Target and spend $300 on things I definitely needed and some I probably didn’t. Drive home. Sit in the driveway for 15 minutes posting on Instagram because my legs are too tired for unloading. Realize I forgot to go to the Petco or Giant Eagle. Tell myself tomorrow is another day and unload my bags from Target. Put away kitchen supplies, begin making food. Realize I cannot stand in front of the stove, so I sit on my kitchen step stool while cooking. Stand for five minutes. Sit for five minutes. Repeat.

I had every intention of doing that laundry. But guess what? Ain’t gonna happen. I’m currently resting after enjoying my delicious (and healthy) concoction that I’m calling “fancy girl hamburger helper*.” I paid my nephew $15 to go down to the basement to scoop my litter boxes. He probably would have done it for free but I like to help a kid out, ya know?

I stand at the kitchen sink long enough to do the dishes and feed the cats when I realize I need to sit down for awhile. I decide to write this blog post while I rest, gathering up the energy required to climb the stairs to my second floor to don my pajamas (please dear god let there be one more clean pair of pajama pants in my drawers). Once that is done, I will go back downstairs to try and watch something on TV before I climb the stairs again to collapse in bed once more. I will lie there, a few minutes, and wonder what things I didn’t do today I will find the energy to do tomorrow.

I will probably read a little before falling asleep, because that is my reward for getting through a basic day. I will sleep in late tomorrow (again) and try to choose between this OR that really basic stupid chore.

I watched a video online this morning where Montel Williams (who also has MS) talked about how he has basically dedicated his life to his health, 100%. He always eats right, he always exercises, he makes sure he is always well rested and he finds the right doctors to help him. He is 100% focused on optimizing his life in such a way that MS will not destroy his happiness. It’s a full time job, said Montel, if you want to live your best life.

I found myself wondering…Hmmmmm.

I guess Montel probably doesn’t have to get himself to work every day like I do. He probably removed the things from his life that got in the way of his 100% focus on his disease. I envy him for exactly one minute then suck up a big dose of reality telling myself that this is simply not possible for a Single Spoonie such as myself. It just isn’t. So I organized more clothes for giving away and went about my daily business (see above).

It’s hard not to resent it. It’s hard not to imagine this getting really old really fast. I want to be an “and” girl again. I really loved that girl. I really loved how she found time, energy and verve to do exactly everything she wanted to do. I love how she would do nothing as often as she wanted to and enjoy it, not resenting it or feeling badly about it. I now have to choose between things that are so basic it doesn’t seem fair that I should have to choose at all! It pisses me right the hell off.

Then I remember the wise words of yet another friend…”It can always be worse.”

Holy crap. It really, really could. It really, really will probably actually BE worse at some point. I better figure out how to stop resenting this shit. I better just suck it the hell up and start choosing between this OR that and getting on with it.

I’m not Montel Williams and I can’t dedicate my life to optimizing my health. So I should probably figure out another way around all of the “ands” in my life.

They just don’t work anymore. That’s all there is to it.

*Here’s how to make Fancy Girl Hamburger Helper…Get yourself a pound of grass fed ground beef from Aldi’s for $5. Saute that in a large skillet with a bit of olive oil. Boil water for some Barilla Plus Protein elbow macaroni (both high protein and high fiber, chick pea pasta). Once ground beef is browned, add in some chopped organic green onions, salt/pepper, a dash of my mom’s secret ingredient (celery seed…sorry, Mom). Add two cans of organic, no-sugar added tomato soup. Marry the pasta with the beef by adding one can of well-salted pasta water to your beef/tomato soup mixture…Simmer for a while. Viola. This is really delicious. Not even a little bit high-brow but so tasty I will have yummy dinner for most of the week AND not kill myself doing it. Winning? Sort of. It can always be worse.