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

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

Making lemonade #2

Way back when I started secondary school, a rumour went around that all the boys would need a medical during the first term. This would involve a procedure where a nurse would hold our testicles while we coughed. This never happened, of course, but a part of me believed it. It made the eleven year

Making lemonade

“To make lemonade out of the lemons life throws at you, you sometimes have to strangle kittens.” Somebody tweeted that recently. Oh wait!… It was me! I tweeted it! Why? Because to aid a restful night’s sleep and to stop myself getting urinary infections, I will now have to self-catheterise every day, at least once

Back to Blighty blues

I’m just back in the UK after a fabulous trip to Australia and Singapore. I don’t normally do this, but while I was away, I re-evaluated things a little. What I should be doing to make myself happier, more comfortable and healthier. The thing about Australia is that there are so many similarities to home

As if by magic, a support network appeared

Two items of fantastic news here in North Derbyshire. Firstly, our wonderful MS nurse has teamed up with the local MS Society branch to organise a series of weekly talks/discussions/lectures titled “Getting to grips with MS” for the newly diagnosed. Topics are to include exercise, benefits, developments in treatments, coming to terms with the diagnosis,

Health talk online

Even with all the support in the world, diagnosis of a chronic illness can be a dreadfully lonely experience. While the MS Society and the MS Trust and the nurse assigned to me were all utterly wonderful when I was diagnosed, I think what I needed (need) more than anything was to connect with other

One year on …

Today is the first anniversary of my diagnosis (see MS History – part two). Health professional bodycount so far. Starting with the first GP visit last year, the bodycount is as follows GPs 4 Practice Nurses 2 MS nurse 1 Ward nurse 1 Occupational Health nurse 1 Phlebotomists 6 (estimate) Physiotherapists 1 Neurologists 5 Neuro-psychologists

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,

Health Professional Body-count

With my long-awaited referral to a neuropsychologist finally coming through and my work leave sheet bursting with hospital and GP appointments, I thought it might be amusing to tot up the number of health professionals I have met regarding my MS since last summer. Phlebotomists – 5 Neurologists – 4 General Practitioners – 4 Radiologists