There is something about starting a job, working hard, and ending with a completely different looking room at the end. The fact that my dog, Sadie, seems to wonder at her master’s ability to change the color of our world with the simple waving of my hand makes the process fun as well. But painting, like living with the incurable disease we share, is about more than just one thing.
Preparation Is More Than Half the Battle
To enjoy the process as much as possible and come closer to ensuring a quality outcome, a good deal of inglorious preparations must be made. Be it sanding, washing, and masking a wall or studying medication options and finding a work schedule that is suitable, you can’t expect to have an easy go of either a paint job or finding your way through the multiple sclerosis (MS) minefield if you haven’t done the prep work. The body of MS knowledge is constantly growing. There are new drugs, better research, evolving theories all the time. Not that long ago, exercise was discouraged for people with MS. Now we know there are benefits to exercising regularly, and the evidence that those benefits could be life- and disease-changing are growing. Life with MS is harder than life without the disease. I have found that there is more preparation required to live it well.
Be Willing to Try New Ways of Doing Things
I remember painting a whole houseful of rooms with my soon-to-be wife, Caryn, before moving into our first house. We let the place a month before we were to move in so that we could freshen the whole thing before we called it our home. A dear friend, who also happens to be a professional painter and wallpaper hanger, called in to check up on our progress. When she saw me cutting in corners and edges with my favorite 2-inch sash brush before we broke out the rollers for the walls, she had a fit! I love a 2-inch sash brush. It feels right in my hand, it is of comfortable size and weight. It allows for a level of precision when applying paint in tight spots — there are loads of reasons I love them. The thing is, my go-to wasn’t suited for the job I was now using it to complete. My painter friend noted how much time, paint, and energy I was wasting as I used my brush. I was cutting in several inches of wall space that would have been easier to cover with a roller. The tools and techniques we are used to employing — and likely worked for us quite well — before multiple sclerosis can be burdensome and outmoded once we recover from the shock of diagnosis and try to find our way in this new world. Simply doing what worked before and expecting it to continue to be of the best service to this new situation isn’t likely the best way of coping.
Do the Easy Things First
There is an old managerial saying that you should do the hard parts of the task list first, rather than the easy stuff. Get the ball rolling, and you can coast through the easy stuff, I guess. In painting and in living with MS, I find it quite the opposite. Owing to my lesson from the painter friend, I now roll paint on the walls and get as close to the well-masked edges (see “preparation”) as possible. It’s easier to cover more area, the roller covers better than a brush, and it uses less paint and energy than doing it in reverse. Do the easy things that have to be done first. You can always get help with the intricate details of the tough stuff. It will also allow for a good sense of satisfaction in actually getting something completed. There is something to be said for ticking things off the list. Even the simple stuff!
Make Sure You’re Ready Before You Start
Finally, when doing the tough stuff, don’t forget to load up your brush with paint. That’s to say, make sure that you’ve the tools, time, and energy to fulfill the task. If you’re not rested, if you’re not taking care of your whole self — that’s MS and all — it can be hard to find yourself with the wherewithal to do a task at all, let alone do it well. “Mind yourself,” as they’d say here. As a bonus point about life with MS from the painting analogy: You can always find someone to help you, or to do the job for you if it’s simply beyond your scope. P.S. It’s not perfect, but the room does look nice. Wishing you and your family the best of health. Cheers, Trevis
