Under the radar

When I reached the age of thirty, I was helping my father-in-law do some gardening when I bent over to pick up a leaf and I felt a twang somewhere in my lumbar region. This twang put me completely out-of-action for a week or so afterwards. My GP had simply smiled and said, “welcome to

The Magical Brain

Blimey, this feels a bit like a newsletter, but I think there’s a few updates and loose ends on recent posts to tie up, so here goes: Fampridine I have my first official batch of fampridine to help with my mobility. As mentioned before, I hadn’t really noticed how much it was helping me walk

Postcard from Osteoporopolis

Warning: Tired travel analogies may continue to be employed in this post. “I know the C word and the F word. The C word is cor blimey, and the F word is flippin’ ‘eck” – Rat, lead singer of Chesterfield based punk band The Bland on stage at the Take Two club, Attercliffe c.1988 It’s

A postcard from Limboland

A month ago, if you asked me how tall I was, I’d say I was a six footer. It seems I’m not. I’m a five-foot-ten-and-a-half short-arse apparently, so essentially I’ve lost an inch and a half (4cm) in height. Even if you consider I may have always rounded up by half an inch, and I

Gloves off

Well, I knew I’d be tempting fate to say that I was feeling fitter and more mobile. It seems that the old MonSter has found a chink in the armour and has left its footprint behind in the form of a few new spots on the MRI. My neurologist has decided to advise exactly what

Feeling the heat

Well, last week was a scorcher. So much so, that I gave up on Fathers’ Day activities halfway through the afternoon and went to bed for a bit. The following day, I dressed for work, drove my youngest to school, and then turned round and headed back home I felt so rough. Again, I had

Divots

Well, I’m currently considering my medication options… Copaxone is the front runner at the moment. Mainly because the other meds available have unpalatable side effects for not much gain, it seems. They might repress the immune system too much as well. I don’t think killing off all my white cells is an option when I

My MS History – Part Five

Between visiting the two consultants, I needed to do my research and also go for a lumbar puncture. I hated the steroids, they had the dual effect of causing severe heartburn, while simultaneously making me incredibly hungry. At the time it seemed that they didn’t do me any good. Particularly as in the following weeks,

My MS History – Part Three

I was now on the books of a consultant neurologist. With my stomach tying itself in knots, I re-capped my symptoms with one of his grim-faced registrars. I spent 45 minutes undergoing the usual tests. I did my trick of not being able to walk heel to toe. I watched a pen travel in front