Monthly Archives: December 2012

Dec 17 2012
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My Ramblings

The Future’s Bright?

I have had a very frustrating weekend. MS has been messing with my hands again – coffee grains have been flying, cups dropping from my hands and I just can’t get my eyeliner on straight. The foot drop is back too and  it looks like I’m doing a hoedown dance when I’m walking down the street. Most inelegant.

So when my friend mentioned that a good friend of hers was visiting, I jumped at the chance to pop over. Why? Well, he’s brilliant at reading tarot cards. Normally I take things like that with a hefty pinch of salt. Sure, I read my horoscope, and on the whole it’s quite accurate. But then I do a little test and read a different sign and that’s just as accurate too. Apparently this guy really is very good though. He is a professional businessman who just happens to have an extraordinary talent.

I was willing to give it a go. What questions would I want answered? Probably the same as everyone else – family, health and future prospects. I shuffled the pack, selected some cards and sat back. I won’t bore you with the finer points, but there are four separate readings with a different number of cards,  and the final reading is just a single card. One card came up in all four of my readings – the card of devastating transformation. Oh.

All the structures in my life have crumbled and fallen, there has been absolute chaos, fear and uncertainty. Life as I knew it is gone forever and it is up to me to rebuild it in a new way. Wow. He asked me if this meant anything to me. Er, yes? He also went into some detail which was quite astounding and not even my friend could have forewarned him, as I had never discussed those things with her. Spooky. All the hairs on the back of my neck were standing up and my hands were shaking more than usual.

I didn’t ask about my MS in the end. I don’t want to know how it’s going to progress, or not. Sometimes ignorance really is bliss. I’m still a skeptic, but I’m mulling over what he told me. On the way home, I bought a scratchcard for luck. Did I win? Nope, not a bean….

 

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Dec 15 2012
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Blogging

Shhh….Silent Sundays….

I love the blogging trend of Silent Sundays. You post a picture with no text, summing up your week. You have to take the picture yourself. But where would I begin??

So, from tomorrow, I won’t be posting a blog on Sundays. Not because I’m lazy (well, maybe a little), but the weekends with The Teenager are just too darned busy. I’m a taxi driver, cheerleader, chief cook and bottle washer all rolled into one. I’m trapped between the washing machine and my cooker, with The Teenager yelling football scores at me every ten minutes. There’s rugby mud all over the kitchen floor and music blasting from his bedroom. I love Madness as much as the next person, but all evening?

I would love to post a picture that neatly depicts the week I’ve had, but I just couldn’t fit all the wine bottles into one frame…..and anyhow, you’d probably laugh at my awful photography skills. Please enjoy the break from my ramblings and I’ll see you all on Monday.

Happy weekend!  Now, where’s that corkscrew?

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Dec 15 2012
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Media

DLA – A Bit of Breathing Space

Good(ish) news – the process of forcing all those claiming Disability Living Allowance DLA) to undertake new assessments in order to be eligible for the new benefit, Personal Independence Payments (PIP) has been slowed down. Esther McVey, a works and pensions minister has confirmed that all those with an indefinite award will not be reassessed until October 2015 at the earliest, after the next general election (read more about this here).

Most MSers claiming DLA have indefinite awards. Unless the Department for Work and Pensions knows something we don’t, MS lasts for life. So why reassess people with MS at all? It is a degenerative neurological illness and it is not, as yet, reversible. There are thousands of people who fear that losing this benefit will have a devastating impact on their lives. Having the higher rate of mobility allowance also automatically makes you eligible for the Motability scheme and a blue badge, so if people were to lose their benefit, or have them downgraded, they would also lose these components.

Is this what the government wants? To shove disabled people back into their homes, without means to live independently, travel independently and take part in society? A lot of us MSers work, study and contribute, despite the problems MS brings and we are proud to do so.  I have friends who tell me that their DLA means the difference between just about surviving and sinking way below the poverty line.

Having a disability like MS brings extra, often unforeseen costs, so the revised timetable is good news. The MS Society and many other pressure groups are urging the government to look again at the need to reassess MSers. 63,000 people with MS, an irreversible condition, claim DLA. But then so do  21,000 people with drug and alcohol problems. Go figure…

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Dec 14 2012
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Daily Life

Retail Therapy

Another day on the MS rollercoaster. To add to the long list of weird and wonderful symptoms MS has given me, I have just experienced vertigo for the first time. It started two days ago and I still have it, but I had to go Christmas shopping with my mum yesterday.

I finally decided against wearing black to the Christmas Day lunch (see December 13th post!), so I thought a cheery, berry red sparkly top would be perfect and we went to town to find one. First mistake was getting a bus. When you can’t move your head without it spinning, it’s hard to sit still on a packed bus as it bounced over every pothole, swung sharply round corners and took a roundabout at top speed. Second mistake was assuming that as it was Christmas, the shops would be filled with cheery, berry red sparkly tops.

There were lots and lots of black tops, black sparkly tops and black lacy tops. Lots of hideous prints. No velvet tops, which was odd. The only red tops I could find were either prim, buttoned-up cardigans or sheer, floaty ones. Nothing cheery and sparkling. We went in and out most of the shops on the high street and eventually I found a cream sparkly top. Result! I also treated myself to a necklace with a single silver star on it. Now I’m all ready for the big day, but the jury’s still out on whether I should accessorise with reindeer antlers or flashing Christmas tree earrings.

My mum bought me a Sarah Lund-ish  jumper for Christmas (yay!) and I cheered myself up with some goodies from Waitrose, then a stroke of luck as we were headed back to the bus stop, laden down with bags. My builder friend was working nearby and offered us a lift home. We must have looked a right pair, cramming my mum’s shopping trolley and four large carrier bags into the back of his van but we managed it.

Anyway, the vertigo is still here and it’s the oddest thing. Everything spins and I feel constantly dizzy and ill. The only way I can get any relief is to lie down, but that’s not really practical when I’ve still got work to do, but I’ve been bravely battling on. If I can just put in another few hours, I have a huge bag of chocolate toffees to chomp on later. And I can definitely eat them lying  down, with my eyes closed…

 

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Dec 13 2012
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Daily Life

Guess What We’re Doing Christmas Day?

Every Christmas Day, me and The Teenager head up to my mum’s house and spend the day there and it’s wonderful, but this year we’re shaking things up a little.

As he’s getting older, I worry The Teenager perhaps isn’t understanding the whole meaning of Christmas, so we are going to help serve Christmas Lunch to forty-five pensioners. You can imagine how that little conversation went. After I managed to lure him from behind his slammed bedroom door with the promise of pizza, we sat down and had a chat.

I told him that over half a million pensioners spend the whole of Christmas day alone in this country, with only the television for company. Would it really be so hard to give up three or four hours to make some people smile? I found out about the event as an MS support group I sometimes go to is held in the same church hall. I’m not a do-gooder by any stretch of the imagination, but when I heard they were looking for volunteers, especially younger ones, I jumped at the chance. A lot of foreign students at the University who can’t get home for Christmas help out too. It’s a two-way process – me and The Teenager will benefit just as  much as neither of us has any elderly relatives nearby.

Fair play to The Teenager, he came round to the idea pretty quickly. The plan is to spend the morning in our own house, then head up to the hall just before noon, maybe picking up some people on the way if they need a lift. We’ll have some carol singing (gulp) and lunch will be served at 1pm. It’s all wrapped up after the Queen’s speech, then it’s back home for an hour or so before going to my mum’s for a lovely long evening of food, wine and chilling.

As the time draws closer, I’m a little nervous though. Will The Teenager behave? Will he be too shy? I really want to show him that life is about more than just looking out for Number One. Anyway, the big dilemma we have now is what to wear. My Christmas Day outfit, planned before we signed up for this is all black. Too….funereal? Too sombre? It’s got lots of sparkly bits on it – too nightclub-ish?  And should I wear flashing Christmas earrings or is that too tacky? A Santa hat? Any advice gratefully received….

 

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