Goodbye shoes

Sometimes it happens that when you have felt alright for a while you forget to take it easy and you forget that there are things that you cannot really do. Yesterday was one of those days. I was going to a garden party in the afternoon and decided that for a couple of hours I could wear my 'movie-star' shoes. Usually I wear flats as it is easier for me to keep my balance and makes my feet and legs hurt less... but I figured a couple of hours standing around and talking, what harm could it do?

The afternoon started badly as I was leaving my parents house and fell over coming out of the front door - bruising my hand, grazing my knee and making an unfortunate hole in my trousers with the heel of my shoes. A sensible person would have had emergency shoes in the car, given up and changed at that point. I did not.

After several hours of small talk and chatter, and wandering round the garden party my legs and feet were giving out. The last walk back to the car was almost impossible and driving home that evening was sheer hell. By the time I'd had a nap and settled down for the evening my legs were so stiff I could hardly walk. A good night's sleep with hot water bottles for my sore legs did help a bit.

I have to accept that if I'm going to go out I'll have to find elegant 'sensible' shoes; and be kind to myself and sit down when my legs start to hurt. Good-bye my 'movie-star' shoes, it looks like we shan't be taking any more outings together.

Bad itches

Somehow, despite the fact that I filled the prescription for my anti-depressants the other week I have managed to let my prescription for the anti-histamines run out. I've never been able to figure out whether they actually stop the itching or generate a placebo effect which makes me think that the itching has stopped... either way, they work. Right now there is nothing between me and the big itch. Every bit of my body has been effected from my scalp to the soles of my feet... particularly bad are the palms of my hands and my knees (!) which I scratched so much last night I managed to draw blood. I may have to go and buy some over the counter hay-fever tablets to keep me going until the repeat prescription arrives... it's that or bathe in calamine lotion!

Even keel?

The last two weeks have flow by in a rush of chaos and fatigue. When I'm not working I'm resting and when I'm not resting I'm working. I finally have a job to fill in the hours my employer doesn't want me for... which is great for my bank account but not so good for my physical well being... I'd got rather used to my lazy Fridays and Mondays in bed.

Last night was injection night. Unfortunately I woke up at three in the morning feeling the end of the side effects... aching all over my body and chilled to the bone. Luckily Rich was still awake and got me some more hot water bottles... I put a movie on and a couple of hours later eventually fell back to sleep - not waking up again until lunch time.

I felt rather low today... definitely the worst I have felt since I started taking the anti-depressants. I saw my GP last week to refill the prescription; although my Neuro had recommended counselling my GP didn't push it and just told me to come back for a review in a month. Take it one day at a time, I guess.

The good news is that everything else is completely stable at the moment (as far as I can tell!). No new symptoms and the ones that I haven't aren't getting any worse. This leaves me in a good place as summer is about to start. I really suffer for heat exacerbating my MS problems so if I can start halfway up the hill then hopefully I won't end up at the bottom!

News - MS and Sunshine

It has been a long known fact that MS is less common in countries nearer the equator. Vitamin D (produced in response to natural sunlight) may be a factor it seems. Good excuse to sit in the sunshine, anyway!

Prescribing Sunshine For Multiple Sclerosis?

All catching up with me

It's been a few weeks since I managed to make a post. I've been horrifiyingly busy at work, sadly not the sort of busy that can be managed but a seemingly endless stream of items requiring 'urgent' attention. This has led to trying to fit a five day week into the three days that I'm in the office... result, twelve hour days. This means that by the time it gets to Friday I'm not in the mood for surfing the net or anything much apart from spending as much time in bed as possible.

Another weekend of rest and relaxation and I'm about ready to face the week. The array of medication seems to be keeping most things at bay (for now) the itching has eased off again and everything else seems pretty stable too. I think that the anti-depressants are working too, the crushing hopelessness of a few weeks ago seems to have dissipated some and I've managed to actually 'do' some things this weekend instead of just lying in bed sleeping. I'm still feeling achingly tired, but as long as I can get through the next three days I'm not complaining.