I am a fiercely independent woman. Most of the time, I'm also extremely impatient. So rather than ask for help, I just do it myself. However, I learned that I was doing myself and those in my life an injustice by not asking for help.

For example, I remember when I bought a new house. Of course with any new home there were many things that needed to be completed. One of the biggest things was painting as much of the new home as I could before I moved in. This is a large task for anyone, much less someone suffering from MS-related fatigue. It was also going to be very expensive to have someone come in and do it for me. So I thought of the advice that I received from a very wise friend. He said that sometimes our family and friends want to help us.

If you think about it, many of our friends and family aren't sure how to deal with us having MS. For many of them, offering us help is their way of dealing with our MS. So I asked my parents if they would be available to help me paint and they were so excited to help!

We took our time and spent three days painting my new home. I moved out of my parents home many years ago so the best part of the whole deal was just getting to spend time with them. Getting my house painted was just an added bonus.

This was the first step to me learning to ask others for help.