Turn it off. Then turn it back on again.
Hello Everybody. I hope you’re not busy because I’ve got a lot to say. So get a nice cup of tea, sit comfortably and I’ll begin.
I joined the forum recently and posted a few thoughts about Multiple Sclerosis and its effect on my life and that of my lovely, caring, patient, towering, exceptional, extraordinary, magnificent, outstanding, pre-eminent, rare, remarkable, singular, unique, best friend, lover, carer, and all round heroine; and she’s my wife! And she’s only 5’2".
Which just goes to show that you don’t have to be big to achieve extraordinary things or that a small event can’t have a huge impact. Think of the Butterfly Effect. If you don’t know it, look it up - I haven’t the time to do everything for you. My brain completes about 70,000,000 calculations a second. (I think I read that somewhere. If it’s not true it should be).
Anyway, so the human brain is an extraordinary organ. So when I was diagnosed with PPMS in 2010 I thought, “Hello? I’m not having that ‘thing’ occupying my body”.
Flashback (to 2008)
… It started with optic neuritis (which I found bizarre, but interesting), followed by foot drop which was irritating. I tripped up on a step in our B&B, broke my fall with my nose, bent my glasses, two Full English Breakfasts for guests went flying and Gill had to fry more eggs! …
End of flashback.
Anywho. More of that later.
Last year, as my symptoms began to pile up, one by one, I asked my MS Nurse (who, incidentally, is in the same class a Gill, but I’m not allowed to marry her) if she could recommend a lumbar support, as I was having difficulty standing at the kitchen worktop to butter some bread or make a cup of tea.
MS Nurse (who shall remain anonymous to protect the innocent) told me, “Exercise, Anthony. If you put a support on you’ll come to rely on it instead of your own muscles. Do you have the exercises that Physio gave you last year?”
“I lost ‘em”
“I’ll email them to you. And do it properly this time.” (Lovely woman, but don’t get on the wrong side of her).
I did the whole regime for two months. I designed a calendar (because I used to be a designer) so I could show her that I’d done it. (See Fig 1.*) It didn’t make one iota of difference.
After that, I lost interest, but I thought,
“Hang on. Doing this is rather mindless; I wonder if I should be trying to connect my brain with my body. If my body is like a computer, then my brain is the CPU”,
(I’ll help you out with this one, as it’s you; it’s the Central Processing Unit),
“and the limbs, fingers, eyes, tongue, ears and everything else** are like the peripherals; then I should check all the plugs to make sure that they’re properly connected”.
“How (the hell; (edit. stet.)) do I do that when all the plugs are invisible?”
And I don’t know where the idea came from but I thought I’d try Tai Chi.
Now; go to Neil Webster’s Facebook site. Not now. Wait 'til I’ve finished; (tisk). He took some videos of me shortly after I’d joined his kwoon*** and a couple of times later on, to show how I’d come along. He admitted later on (last week, actually) that when I first arrived that he had no idea how it was going to work. He was astonished, (as are several other people; except my wife (see above)) - for some reason) at the results.
We both know that this is only the start of a journey. It’s going to be a long one and I’m going to have to work very hard. But, as some bloke once said to me, “If it’s easy, it’s not worth doing” (It took me a while for that to sink in, but he’s right).
So, if your interested, join me on a journey. I don’t know where it will take us, or how long it’s going to take, but I think it’s going to be very, very interesting. And a damn site better that daytime TV.
Ready? Good. Right answer.
I am.
Dedication:
Thank you to: Snow Leopard, JackieVanilla, Ben, Hillbilly, Ninagrace7, Min, trish444 and Anne48 who seemed interested with what I had to say in the first place. So if anyone’s got a complaint, you know who to blame. I know I do. Their nom-de-plumes are playing merry hell with my spellcheck. See you around guys.
*There is no Fig 1. I spent hours writing this. What do you want? Blood?
**The five senses.
*** A Chinese gym or area for martial arts and exercise. No I’d never heard of it either.
