Sunday 20 December 2009

My (insensitive) Left Foot

Back to Clinical Research for the quaterly check up. The usual selection of hop, skip and jump. The walk up and down Whitechappel was brisk and cold but proved that I can still walk. My eyes which were 20:20 two weeks ago at the local opticians became a blurred mess for precisely the lengh of the eye examination (for reasons best known to my optic nerves). I couldn't tell the T's from the Y's and then they turned out to be 7's anyway.

The balancing test is always an each way bet with me. Balance has never been my strong point...sober, drunk, pre or post MS...I've never got the hang of it. I am quite capable of falling off the floor, so what chance do I have with eyes shut, standing on one leg with a doctor pushing me?

Down to the hitting me with a hammer (reflexes fine) and then the stabbing me with a needle..ouch-ometer is fine, yes it hurts...except...there's a pause from the Doctor...my left foot is "not behaving"...it doesn't hurt...several stabbings later and my foot is "not reacting correctly". It has less feeling than last time and is marked down on my chart. So next time I put my foot in it remember, it's insensitive.

Tuesday 15 December 2009

Half hour call

Such is the lot of the theatre pit muso that the half hour call means half an hour to inbibe a quick drink before treading the path of least resistance to the band pit. The pit in our theatre is marooned from an exit. The only way out when you're in is through the audience or across the stage. Neither of which is desirable in the middle of a show. It means a certain amount of forthought.

1) Never fill your bladder beyond the length of the first half.
2) Never contract food poisoning before entering the pit

Added to this has been a most unwelcome bout of IBS, which anagramatically combined to give me BIMSS. And that is quite descriptive of how my stomach has felt. My Doctor said it was stress related...have you experienced any life changing events in the last year, eighteen months? Well yes, if you remember you diagnosed me with Multiple Sclerosis. Ah, yes. That's stressful enough.

So now you see the relevance and indeed fear of a no escape pit. But I have found that just the right amount of red wine combined with just the right amount of gaviscon does the job quite succesfully. We've just had our 5 minute call....last chance for the loo.

Sunday 6 December 2009

Symantics

Struggling to write anything interesting. Felt shit for two weeks now which is dull reading. Ill's not funny. That's different from I'll not be funny. What a difference three letters and an apostrophe placement make. One's a choice, one's a pain.
There we go...I'll be smiling tomorrow. Which is different from I'll be milling tomorrow.