Tag Archives: bruising

Livin’ La Vida Sofa…

livin' la vida sofaSince my spectacular fall last Thursday, I have been hobbling around at home going stir crazy.

I made a break for freedom on Sunday when a friend enticed me outside with the offer of brunch and some retail therapy. He quickly walked ahead of me as I yelled, ‘Hello trees! Hello shops! I’m out!’ and grinned manically at everyone I passed in the street.

Two hours later he dropped me back home, full of coffee but exhausted. My leg was throbbing and as I peeled my jeans off the bruise spread even further. Oops.

I have a sinking feeling the injury will take a lot longer to heal than I first thought. I’m not going anywhere this week, so I skulk around the house and spend far too much time on my sofa.

When The Teenager comes home from school, I bribe him with cake in the vain hope he will sit down long enough to tell me what it’s like in the outside world but all he wants to do is have another look at my bruise before heading upstairs to tweet and get up to the next level of Candy Crush (no idea).

I have set up a Command Centre from my sofa – everything I need is within reach. Remote control, magazines, mobile phone, Bacon Bites. I have watched every programme on my Sky Planner and now have to resort to watching Catherine Cookson adaptations and angry people shouting at each other on Jeremy Kyle.

Friends and family have been brilliant. My mum comes round every day with gossip and my latest batch of laundry. A friend dropped off a huge Victoria sponge on Saturday. Even the cat is behaving, although we argue over duvet rights on the sofa.

My days are punctuated by painkillers and chocolate (it’s medicinal). I really should get cracking on my next essay. I need to put an online shopping order in. My bank statements are staring at me from my desk. The dust balls are having a party and my garden is sadly neglected. Life is on hold.

I remain optimistic though. MS has taught me to expect the unexpected. Soon enough, things will return to normal. In the meantime, a friend is coming over soon with the new issue of Grazia and I’m going to chuck the cat off my duvet. Again.

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Stumbling In Crutches

imageI am feeling rather sorry for myself. As I write, there is a pair of crutches next to me and I am floating among pink, fluffy clouds thanks to the strong painkillers.

Yesterday I fell quite badly, and to be fair, it wasn’t due to the MS, it was me not looking where I was going.

Unfortunately though, my MS treatment has left me with a tendency to have out-of-proportion bruising, so my leg is now a fabulous riot of colours and has swollen so much I can’t get my jeans on. To top it off, I think the shock of it has increased my nerve pain temporarily so I’m buzzing and tingling all over.

The bruising must be impressive as The Teenager keeps wanting a look at it, saying ‘ewwwwwww’ before taking another look.

All in all, not the best of days. Thank goodness for family and friends. My partner-in-crime at the museum trip (see post below) came up trumps and after making numerous phone calls, tracked down a pair of crutches I can borrow. My mum is carting away loads of laundry for me and drops round food supplies, flowers and news of the outside world.

So, yet again, I am whiling away the hours at home, not studying, not writing up my essay notes and chomping obscene amounts of Maltesers and Bacon Bites. Ho hum. I have worked out how to switch on the fire with a crutch without getting off the sofa, I count down the hours to my next lot of painkillers and The Teenager has had two takeaways in a row.

I’d like to say I have learnt something from this experience, that I will never, ever take my health for granted, but hey, didn’t I just go through all this recently with the whole MS saga? I don’t need any more time out to re-evaluate the direction of my life. Been there, done that, drowned my sorrows.

So I’m off to have another pity party and pop more painkillers. My mum is at the supermarket buying me a tub of prunes. Life goes on…

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