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A Dollar Tree Battery

I love the Dollar Tree store. They sell food to table settings, craft supplies to toilet cleaner, picture frames to name-brand batteries.

The thing about these 8-pack batteries is that only a couple of them actually work. We all know it - but, c'mon! 8-pack batteries for a buck!? It's irresistible. Until you need to use them and need to figure out which two have energy, or which combination will work.

When the spoon theory, I was still working, and a colleague told me about it. "Is that what it's like for you?," he asked. Well, no, I said. Spoons have nothing to do with it (my MS brain can be quite literal at times, you see). But what I was able to come up with was my own analogy:

Pre-MS, I was just like you - my body was a rechargeable battery, recharging throughout the day. Now I have x amount of batteries, sometimes more, sometimes less, depending on what's going on. I have to choose wisely how I'll use that battery power: do I put on makeup or eat breakfast? Breakfast won. And so it goes on. Even though I'm no longer working, I still have to choose what my batteries will be used on.

Recently, I had a particularly physically and emotionally demanding time of it. I literally collapsed and was housebound for a few days because I overdid it. My dearest sister, the one who shares my sense of humour, said, "Well, love, you're not only NOT a rechargeable battery, you're a dollar tree battery."

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