2019 – start of a new year – take 2

EDITED; my lack of computer skills meant I struggled with the new editor and captions. Text is all the same as the first posting and hopefully it looks a lot better …

It’s now the end of the first week of 2019. There are no new photographs as it’s been a few days of tidying up from the annual Walpole pilgrimage and various health professional visits. Now I’m sitting quietly on the sofa listening to whatever Spotify sends me and I have to say, it’s getting my taste pretty accurately defined. While I have my hesitations about aspects of social media, I do love streaming services and the communication offered by platforms like Facebook. FaceBook – well that’s a whole discussion I’ve entered into before, but as purely a public communication platform, it offers great features. Just don’t ever trust it with anything confidential or important.

Real life intrudes ! Seriously, after a week of camping, lights walks and kayaking, the laundry is overwhelming

I digress … it’s the start of a New Year, and real life is starting, albeit in a very part time way. I start work on Monday, 15-20 hours a week for the next couple of months. I am glad to be going back to work. While being at home has been lovely and I have enjoyed just having a lot of quiet time, I do enjoy the social aspects of work, and using my brain. Also, they are paying me and it’s time to start delivering again.

Gradually, my walking is getting better. I went to an exercise physiologist on Tuesday who is familiar with MS. He’s given me a number of exercises, to strengthen my core, on the basis that, without a strong core, various other muscle groups are working overtime to compensate. Also, getting the core strong and doing repetitive exercises will improve the neural pathways which are damaged by my MS, and he’s highlighted the major neural pathways which are impacted. I’ll report back in a few weeks, but already I’m noticing very small improvements. These exercises complement the MSGym work I do, and the swimming, walking etc of everyday life.

Going back to an analogy I used a while ago, it’s the downwards path but still winding, ups and downs, obstacles and a long way to go.

Speaking of which, my haematologist has advised that I can now swim in the sea, and swimming pools early in the day when no children are likely to be there, and can eat pretty much everything as long as it’s fresh and good quality ! Damn that’ll be hard … so no fast food or dodgy cafes with no turnover, but those are restrictions I can live with no problem.

Possibly too much information, it appears that I have gone into early menopause. That’s not unexpected and is a known after-effect of the chemotherapy, and my blood results are pointing that way. I have been, and still am, processing that outcome which was not expected. However I cannot help but feel that, at my age, menopause is a small price to pay for halting progression of the MS, and potentially gaining some functionality back.