I spent most of yesterday sitting on a toilet in work. Ok, it was unplumbed, yet strangely comfortable. We are in the middle of fitting two bathrooms and ran into some problems, so a lot of the time we were hanging around discussing how best to fit the pipes.
This was quite handy as I had yet another one of those out-of-the-blue MS crashing waves of tiredness and wasn’t fit for much else, bar a gentle spot of sweeping up, resting my elbows now and again on the handle, head to one side.
Typically, I was full of energy the day before, and was whizzing round the shops with my mum, stocking up on sausages, body spray (an absolute essential for building work) and printer ink.
And that’s the really annoying thing about MS – the sheer unpredictability of it. It’s just so darned inconsiderate. MS has appalling manners. There’s no point booking anything in advance as you haven’t got the foggiest clue how you’ll feel on the day. My most common phrase is, ‘can I let you know?’
If I arrange to meet a friend for coffee, I pray the night before that I will wake up with some energy. I can’t remember the last time I went out with friends on a Friday night and at our age, it’s so hard to do anything spontaneously, when I do have the energy – babysitting, work, lack of money, can’t be bothered, etc.
So yesterday, the wave hit me around midday and I could pretty much write off the rest the day. I know the score. Get home, rustle up some dinner for The Teenager, quickly wash the dishes and lie on the sofa for the evening. Boring. If I’m lucky, I’ll have a few magic pockets of energy where I’ll suddenly leap from the sofa and dash round the house doing as much as possible in the least amount of time before crashing again.
Anyway, this job should be wrapped up by early next week, then it’s on to the next one. Variety is the spice of life, and at least I now know how to plumb a toilet….
