Sunday, 31 January 2010

Processions!

Friday
Had ittle procession with me on walker, folllowed closely by mlh on wheelchair only pushing into the backs of my heels only once. He walks behind to stop me from verbalancing!

Saturday, 30 January 2010

Walking back to Happiness

Thursday
Walked into the conservatory for the first time. Instead of being wheeled in. One small step for man,,, …. I designed the conservatory when I couldn't see properly and then when it was finished could not walk properly so it gives me very great pleasure to walk into it sit surrounded by the the promise of spring in the garden I hope tohave a resurgence like all the greenery outside!I
Friday
We were second at bridge last night so my cognitive powers are still OK. One of Mlh's granddaughters is coming to see us at the weekend so that should be wonderful and exhausting. All four grandchildren have justaccepted that I cannot walk properly and use the walker as one of their toys and to tried to walk with my stick when I used one. I try to tell myself that it must be good for them to see disability at an early age, So I am a useful resource (not a drag)!

Friday, 29 January 2010

Wednesday
It was very encouraging at hospital yesterday/, as I walked quite a bit in the parallel bars and a little with a walker Although proress has been very slow, my mobility has not got worse.
The physio wphysio warmed me up and then I wemt on to parallel bars.

As I talk about the parallel bars I think of a gymnast standing poised in the bars before leaping into the air yo perform amazing bodily contortions. A I can't really regret that I am not that gymnast as I was never any good at gym at school. Our gym teacher subscibed to the new style of teaching in the 50s where the student was allowed to do what they wanted. Not knowing how tperform even the simplest of feats made one's choice difficult.

After walking between the bars yesterday, the physio encouraged me to walk with a frame. (More or less the same sort of stuff my old gym teacher would have been good at) Anyway I was thrilled with my achievement The masseuse from the ms centre came to my home afterwards and brought her music with her, All therapists play music while they are working but it isn't proper music – just running water or pan pipes with a slightly mystic feel. I would have asked her not to play it but I suspect it helps her to know how much time she has spent massaging my legs without being as obvious as looking at her watch

Wednesday, 27 January 2010

Tuesday
Mlh has just been unpacking some more heavy instruments in the lounge. I should really get to the bottom of what they are and why he needs all seven but a) I don't know whether I can concentrate long enough to listen ( 3 minutes is about my my maximum) and b) mlh is not very good at explaining things unless the person he is explaining to is already conversant with the problem. This of coourse defeats the whole object of the explanation.
Sometimes I simply do not have the vocabulary I ned to understand what he is saying . It is is like when I as doing technical translations from German I lacked the scientific vocabulary in English. The translations were acually \aaccomplished more easily by the scientist who wanted me do them as scientific English and German are similar ) Flushed with this knowledge my husband once made the mistake of telephoning Germany What does 'bitte warten' mean?, he asked me, his discarded translator. Although unable to help him much with his work, I was able to let him know that he had been chatting with the answerphone or 10 minutes.
Monday 25
We went back to the bridge club as I can see the cards now. It is great to be back as it provides the backbone of our social life. It is easy for me because we meet in a Cheshire Home and it is geared up for the disabled. Although most bridge players have Aspergers to some degree (they prefer to analyse the last hand to the nth degree rather than saying hallo),but we do get a degree of social intercourse, good bridge and last but not last coffe and a biscuit.

Monday, 25 January 2010

January 25
I have been somewhat discouraged from writing by the adverse reactions of mlh and my daughter (mld). Mlh's reluctance to praisecan perhaps be explained by his lack of desire to be publicly outed as an abuser (see previous blogs). Mld could be getting her own back for my propensity when she was a schoolgirl to criticize the medium and not the message of her work. I'll try and get back in the swing tomorrow.

Saturday, 23 January 2010

engineers and Mrs Gaskell

Hallo! Here I am again!
I've just come down for coffee (10 a.m.) having spent the first hour of the day in my study sorting out the bridge club accounts. I am treasurer. Eerything taks me so much longer now and at times I feel like giving it up, but so what if it does take longer?
Yesterday was interesting. My lovely husband(mlh) has got a VERY IMPORTANT JOB and this involves among other things the collection of many expensive and usually large and often unwieldy pieces of equipment. He has a study where he should unpack and keep his equipment. However, since my last relapse (caused by the flu jab and temporary I hope) he has decided to do his work in the sitting room to keep me company (temporary I hope). He sits there surrounded by discarded sturdy brown wrapping paper, attache cases with foam in for sending off instruments, books, old post and assorted stationery. (statinnary car – as we were taught at school as a means of remembering which stationery is the clutter).
Me So how are you?
Him No reply
Me Are you OK?
Him No repy
Me What are you doing?
Him sorry I'm just reading the instruction manual
The latest is that he cannot see well enough to do his work, and read his instruction manuals. This is because of the conservatory adjoining.. I thinkhe is angling to set up shop in the conservatory as I have banned him from cluttering that up as well
Now, he is on the phone making enquiries about tasteful fluorescent lights! Hasn't he heard of subdued lighting? Fluorescent lighting Over my dead body (which those of you who have been reading this blog may think could be a possibility given the number of 'accidents' that occur'
He said 'I think you are writing about me in your blog aren't you Later having read it he said 'I'm going to have to watch what I say and do aren't I? I'll have to be nice to you. Reading between the lines he means he'll have to stop tipping me out of the wheelchair and leaving me out in the rain now it is it in the public domain.
I have been listening to Mrs Gaskell's North and South. I treated myself to the DVD of the TV series which I watched a few years ago. I missed so much then. The way the programme makers jump sbout and don't explain things is quite alarmng and I only know what is going on because I am listening to the book. Mrs Gaskell's stories and method of expression are as good as Jane Austen and Thomas Hardyand I wonder why they are not as widely read and studied. They tell so much about our agricltural background and the influence of the industrial reolution. North and South ! is a love story (a genre I like) However there is much more to it than that)) The two main characters represent the industrial working class north and the rural middle class south. The protagonists have irreconcilable differences to start with but as every good romantic fiction writer knows conflict and its resolution is a requisite part of the plot development. I seem to remember this resolution takes place on a station platform with the hero and heroine going in opposite dirctions and meeting by chance at night and the whole thing was so romantic and well done that Richard Armitage (the hero) achieved a following as great as Colin Firth pin the persona of Mr Darcy (in the wet shirt.
My dad wrote history books for secondary modern schoolchildren ( He was a teacher and we still et royalties from photocopying 30 years after his deathSadly I did not ead the books when he was alive but I often dip into them now for facts. Facts were important then in the teaching of history. From trying to help my daughter with her istory homework I realize that now opinions are all that matter which is hard to formulate wgen you don't know what happened
Having compared Elizabeth Gaskel lto Jane Austen reminds me that I bhave borrowed the wet shirt Pride and Prejudice from a friend and intend to read that again and watch it next. I love reading good books again but mlh can't understand why. Once is enough for him but he is a scientist and needs the time to unpack his big instruments.
I have to tell you as this is an MS blog and so that you will know why mlh is mlh.He has to take me to the toilet immediately every time I signal on my intercom on my sliding wheelchair that fits over the toilet. When my relapse first happened we were trying to take the ordinary wheelchair into the loob but there was no enough room cand I was trying to transfer to the toilet when I could not move my right leg. (falling over and banging my head ///fortunately one of the bricklayers who was building the conseratory helped mlh to put me on my feet, which was more than twice as easy as mlh doing it by himself (and obviating the opportunity for more surreptitious harming Anyway the occupational therapist provided us with this great piece of equipment which makes the whole experience fairly slick with the help of mlh (see I told you he wasn all bad – I've put that in in case he reads the blog again.)

Friday, 22 January 2010

differences between men and women and grocery internet shopping

Jan 22
The good news is that I have found my first blog (reproduced at end of this one ). The bad news (for me) is that the flu jab has adversely affected my mobility. However, I am improving slowly so watch this space.
Yesterday, lovely husband had to go out to do some work so cleaner/friend/carer came round to help me. Why is it that when I ask her to do a few chores she just does them whereas lovely husband can only do one thing at a time. Example I want a book taking into the other room and a cup of coffee from the kitchen. He wants to take book to its destination nd ,then report back for next instruction. If I try to save him time and effort by giving him two interconnectingbnstrucions at once he gets stressed and says 'I can only do one thing at a time. He puts it down to man's originswhere the hunter (male of course) had to remain focussed on the task in hand and not think about anything else in order to kill the next meal or avoid being killed himself. When I tell cleaner/friend/carer about his shortcomings she says resignedly 'Well what do you expect! He's a man!
Another area where men and women are at cross purposes is dealing with life problems. A woman wants talk and feedback and discussion whereas a man wants to solve the problem and go on to the next thing. Example
Woman ' I don't know whether to invite the Gibbs or the Lawrences for dinner?
Man W'hy not 'Invite them both'. And that as far as he is concerned is that, and he wants no further discussion. He has provided a simple solution and he doesn't want totalk about it any more.
Woman 'Oh no you dont1'
We need to discuss this further. 'We owe the Gibbs but the \Lawrences are much more fun. Will having them all together make the Gibbs more fun or vice versa? And shall we have that new chicken dish from The Times'
Man Whatever!
Anyway, back at the our house, the supermarket shoppiing has been delivered. A word to those of you planning to go in this direction. Make sure you click the items box and not the kilograms when ordering 5 carrots.
'Is it buy 3 get one free'said my cleaner/friend/carer rather perplexed, looking at at 4 bags of grapes.
Here is my first blog as promised-
January 19
Hallo everyone!
This is just the diary of a person with ms who is leading a normal life without concentrating too much on medication, non-existent cures or special non-tasty diets.I try to concentrate on the nice things in life like cashmere sweaters.coffee and Belgian chocolates (though I did read the other day that chocolate causes ms!)
I am challenged by ms yes but everyone is challenged by something. My mother who lived 100 years in rude health was challenged by having a nervous disposition, never having enough money and by having to livethe last 30 years of her life without her lovely husband.I have a lovely husband, a lovely house and enough money. I am not in pain and I can hear. I've just been through a phase of optic neuritis where I could not see so well but I have come out of it. And on the way I acquired a dinky gadget for listening to talking books (which I love)and a new conservatory..
We came to a decision 4 years ago not to attempt to go on holiday as my husband doesn't like keaving the house. The things I liked best about holidays was finding somewhere nice to sit with a nice book. I can do that in the conservatory with my MP3 player (sounds like Cluedo.)

Thursday, 21 January 2010

Jan 19




Hallo everyone!



This is just the diary of a person with ms who is leading a normal life without concentrating too much on medication, non-existent cures or special non-tasty diets.I try to concentrate on the nice things in life like cashmere sweaters.coffee and Belgian chocolates (though I did read the other day that chocolate causes ms!)



I am challenged by ms yes but everyone is challenged by something. My mother who lived 100 years in rude health was challenged by having a nervous disposition, never having enough money and by having to livethe last 30 years of her life without her lovely husband.



I have a lovely husband, a lovely house and enough money. I am not in pain and I can hear. I've just been through a phase of optic neuritis where I could not see so well but I have come out of it. And on the way I acquired a dinky gadget for listening to talking books (which I love)and a new conservatory..We came to a decision 4 years ago not to attempt to go on holiday as my husband doesn't like keaving the house. The things I liked best about holidays was finding somewhere nice to sit with a nice book. I can do that in the conservatory with my MP3 player (sounds like Cluedo.)
January 21

Hallo again

I am gutted! My very first day's blog has disappeared into thin air. In Tuesdays blog I explained a bit about myself so here goes again.

I'm Selina (Well no I'm not (she explained frankly and confusingly That's not what my parents christened me but they should have or should of as tin common parlnce) It's the name of my granny, and much nicer than mine.

I am an ms sufferer and I want to tell you about my life, and how I cope rather than telling you not to eat chocolate (one of the main causes of ms I read recently), or recommending a daily vitamin intake or going to a healer You can read about these things elsewhere. I'll just tell you what works for me (almost everybody who crosses my path actually .

To help formulate my thoughts, last night I started to watch a programme about diarists . What I really wanted to see was the Samuel Pepys programme but I seem to have deleted that along with the first page of my blog.?

I must just remind those of you who are older about the Benny Hill sketch which consisted of a load of innuendo about maids undressing and showing their milky white breasts (our Gok would be in his element)sung to a jaunty ballad-type song each verse culminating in he line 'Bu-ut naughty Sumuel peeps!

The next programme was about Virginia Woolf who was a great diarist and had an entry about an unsuitable hat! Adrian Mole was quoted as saying said that he was going to write about his life as that way it might seem more interesting. Inspired by Virginia and Adrian I shall continue with my story.

Yesterday morning I had to get up bathed and hair washed in order to go to hospital early for physio. As I was lying in .my delicious bath with loads of hot water, , I recalled .that time in France where I had forced myself to go for a long swim on a cold day in summer ( summer? France​?).The ubiquitous and enthusiast campsite owner (who wanted to practise English as I wanted to practice French, leapt out from behind a bush as I was stuggling back to our pitch with my walking stick and invited me to use the disabled shower . (at least I think she did) (Madame you like to use the room for incapacities?) What bliss! Instead of a concrete floor, lukewarm water and no space swing a cat, I showered in a warm space l with hooks for towels and clothes and delicious hot water. The only thing not provided was the the cat.I hadn't realized how privileged handicapped people were. Now I have lovely hot w\ater every day and a lovely husband dancing attendance..

Said lovely husband took me out to the car half an hour later to go to the hospital only to find or rather not find that his car keys were not in his pocket. It started to rain a bit to add to his grumpiness.. ' I'll just leave you here' he threw over his shoulder, as he escaped into the house leaving me stranded on the drive 'you like the rain dont you? What he doesnt realize is that there is a whole lot of difference between sitting in the conservtory and listening to the rain pattering gently on the roof or being on the croquet lawn fully waterproofed playing your heart out secure in the knowledge that a no=one wants to watch in the rain.

We reached the hospital eventually. I must say I am an ardent advocate of physio even if it is only the white coat effect which enables you to put your best foot forward for the physio,watched by the jaundiced eye of your carer who had no idea you could walk/tranfer/bungay jump so well.
Tomorrow I will explain to you how I come to be spending most of my time in a wheelchair, when I was walking around on crutches in November.
January 21
Hallo again
I am gutted! Well and truly. My very first day's blog has disappeared into thin air. (what a silly expression – I'll have to set up a cliché watch)Anyway.In Tuesdays blog I explained a bit about myself so Here goes.


I'm Selina (Well no I'm not m not (she explained frankly and confusingly That's not what my parents christened me but they should have or should of as they say\) It's the name of my granny and seeing as she is dead (aged 99) and my mother too (aged 100) and I will be the next granny I think I qualify to change my name. (is that falso logic or what?)



I am an ms sufferer and I fwant to tell you about my life, and how I cope rather than telling you not to eat chocolate (one of the main causes of ms I read recently), or recommending a daily vitamin intake or going to a healer You can read about these things elsewhere. I'll just tell you what works for me (almost everybody who crosses my path actually .)
To help me formulate my thoughts, last night I watched a programme about diarists . What Ireally wanted to see was the Samuel Pepys programme but I seem to have deleted that along with the first page of my blog.



Digression allert)I must just remind those of you who are older about the Benny Hill sketch which consisted of a load of innuendo about maids undressing sung to a jaunty ballad-type song each verse culminating in he line 'Bu-ut naughty Sumuel peeps!


Virginia Woolf who was a great diarist had an entry about an unsuitable hat! Adrian Mole was also quoted as saying said that he was going to write his life down as that way it might seem more interesting. Inspired by Virginia and Adrian I shall continue with my story.


Yesterday morning I had to get up bathed and hair washed in order to go to hospital early for a physio session. As I had my delicious bath with loads of hot water and prepared myself for exerise, I was reminded of that time in France where I had forced myself to go for a long swim on a cold day in summer ( summer? France​?).The ubiquitous and enthusiast campsite owner (who wanted to practise her English as much as I wanted to practice my /French so it was a constant battle of wills) leapt out from behind a bush as I was stuggling back to our pitch with my walking stick and invited me to use the disabled shower . (at least I think she id) (Madame you like to use the room for incapacities?) What bliss! Instead of a concrete floor, lukewarm water and no space swing a cat (cliché alert !!!)a I showered in a warm space l with hooks for towels and clothes and delicious hot water. The only thing not provided was the the cat.I hadn't realized how privileged handicapped people were. Now I have lovely hot w\ater every day and a lovely husband dancing attendance..


Said loely husband took me out to the car half an hour later to go to the hospital only to find or rather not find his car keys were not in his pocket. It started to rain a bit to add to his consternation.. 'I'll just leave you here' he threw over his shoulder, as he escaped into the house leaving me stranded on the drive 'you like the rain dont you? he shouted from the porch What he doesnt realize is that there is a whole lot of difference between sitting in the conservtory and listening to the rain gently pattering on the roof or playing croquet fully waterproofed playing your heart out secure in the knowledge that no=one wants to watch in the rain.


We reached the hospital eventually. I must say I am an advocate of physio even if it is only the white coat effect which enables you to do all sorts of things watched by the somewhat jaundiced eye of your ever-lovimg carer who has never seen the like before.and cannot understand where your new skills come from. By now you must be wondering about the care I am receiving but honestly he does his best and it could happen to anyone.

Wednesday, 20 January 2010

wheelchair accidents

Jan 20
Yesterday was pretty exciting My lovely husband inadvertently( I hope) tipped me out of my wheelchair when he was pulling me out of the lift. The best part of the experience was unsurprisingly being able to haul myself up into the wheelchair without his helpful though painful assistance. Can you crack s rib by holding someone too tight? ) I remembered to put the brakes of the chair on (which he doesn't always remember to do with interesting results). My potentiality for falling is the equivalent of white water rafting, or mountaineering. People who are fit and healthy subject their bodies to stress so why shouldn't I?Last night on television GokWan was highlighting fashion for the disabled. Customized wheelchair co-ordination is something I don't think I personally would ever want to strive for, although I am obsessive about colour co-ordination. When I was walking with a stick I admit to buying a brown marled one that went with my outfits but I draw the line at co-ordinating with a machine! Gok was snogging and hugging and feeling bazookas.or with gay abandon It would be really funny if he turned out to be heterosexual!


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