So I haven’t been on here as of late, and I wish I could keep up with the writings, but my MSW program is creaming me! Seriously: I am so glad to be going to graduate school for social work and to prepare to work with others who have MS or any of a myriad of other issues. However, I feel so absolutely drained these past few years. (The program is four years part-time but it sure feels FULL-TIME. LOL) And since my 10th wedding anniversary was this weekend, I thought of how multiple sclerosis has affected my marriage and my definition of “in sickness and in health.”
I hafta admit that certain periods have been rough. I am currently doing well and working part-time as a mental health peer, sharing my knowledge and support to other mental health consumers in an intensive outpatient program. And I’ve also been doing this grad program. But there was a time when I was barely working and I was not earning social security benefits. My husband and I were really struggling financially, and that can take a toll on any marriage. So can being depressed because of that lack of work. But with a lot of good luck I was able to secure some part-time meaningful employment, helping my depression and anxiety.
More recently I had to say goodbye to a five-hour-a-week job helping a senior citizen. It was only one day a week, but it reminded me, again, of my physical limitations and my uncertainty about staying gainfully employed. It was my husband who had to remind me of how far we’ve come and how I still work 18 hours a week at a less physically demanding counseling job….So we toil again to make ends meet and we always worry about our outrageous health insurance costs (nearly a grand a month for the two of us!), but we seem to bolster each other up during rough times and remind one another of that vow uttered ten years ago: “In sickness and in health.”
