Smiling through life with MS
The seventies, when I was born, is an almost unrecognisable place. Back then, even into the eighties, attitudes in Britain towards people of non-white ethnicity, non-British origins, non-heterosexual orientation, or disabled people were largely acceptably offensive by today's standards. Terms that are now understood to be deeply insulting were an unremarkable part of the everyday… Continue reading Labels
Oh dear. I've left it rather a long time to blog about day five of Lemtrada - I'm now over nine weeks since I was discharged from hospital. I don't really have an excuse for the lateness of this post - for the first week or so I didn't feel up to much, and then… Continue reading Lemtrada: round one, day five
It's day four of Lemtrada, I have one more night in hospital and one more night of treatment, and the rash is here! I currently look like I have the neck of a 16-year old boy after his first experiment with his dad's razor. It started with itchy arms when I woke up this morning,… Continue reading Lemtrada: round one, day four
It's getting a bit like Groundhog Day in here. I woke up at 4.30 this morning and just couldn't get back to sleep, I think thanks to the steroids rather than any disturbance on the ward. I put my Calm app on my phone and listened to a story about the Nordland Express in Norway,… Continue reading Lemtrada: round one, day three
My last two entries were quite short and I didn't go into much detail because I was tired and a bit too spaced-out to get my thoughts in order. So I'm writing this a bit earlier in the day, and hopefully I will remember all the things I meant to say! I'm now hooked up… Continue reading Lemtrada: round one, day two
At last it is the first day of Lemtrada, and it was another day of waiting - I had to give up the room I'd been allocated on my own, and move to a four-bedded bay as there were no free beds for a man who was moving into the ward - all the bays… Continue reading Lemtrada: round one, day one
It's been a long time coming, nine months to be exact, but finally I am here in hospital ready to start Lemtrada tomorrow. It's not lost on me that I could have gestated a baby in the time I've waited for my lymphocytes to recover from the bashing that two and a half years of… Continue reading The last wait
I had a notion that I was going to write a series of blog posts about 101 ways to stay happy in the face of whatever life throws at you, but after my first post on the subject (101 Ways to be Happy #1: five days on the Jurassic Coast), other stuff has got in… Continue reading 101 Ways to be Happy #2: thinking of spring
November already, 2018 has nearly been and gone, and I'm not at all where I thought I'd be. Back in May, when I stopped taking Tecfidera, I thought I'd have treatment with Lemtrada in June, and be back at work - a better, non-relapsing version of myself - by the end of summer. But I'm… Continue reading Limbo-land
I try to be positive about my life, I try to tell myself I have worth despite my illness, but sometimes things come at me out of left field that make me question whether I should bother. Yesterday I read a story in the news about Michael Forsyth, who is being asked to repay all… Continue reading Four things I’ve learned about the welfare state
Falling & Laughing 