You find me today in a somewhat unravelled state.
Don’t worry, I’m not talking on the clothing front. No, I’m suitably decent and inoffensive in my appearance (well, as inoffensive as I get, anyway).I’m more talking on the mental side of things.
A Fine MS
Those of you who have had the dubious honour of following these poor scribblings or any length of time (and I first started this blog way back in 2015, I’ve just checked) will know I suffer from Multiple Sclerosis or MS (well, Tina my beloved other half would say I have it and she suffers, but, you know).
It means that doing too much has its price and ‘too much’ is a relative term that has come to be redefined more than a few times.
Take Monday, a wonderful day that saw Tina and me drive the 16 mile trip to my sister’s to help celebrate my niece’s birthday.
Red Light/Green Light
It’s not all that strange a trip, my sister living a stone’s throw from my mum and dad, and not all that far away from my other sister, either, but on this occasion it took that little bit longer and was that little bit more stressful.
For a start, there were the roadworks. As we career toward the end of the tax year and the various council authorities are faced with a ‘use it or lose it’ policy on their budgets these are something that crops up more and more. On this particular journey I counted three sets of temporary traffic lights and the associated hold-ups that went with them.
And then there was the accident.
Territorial Barmy
It appeared there’d just, (and I mean ‘just’) been a major coming together on the route we usually follow. As we approached the road we needed, the police were busy cordoning it off and waving traffic to continue down the road leading to it. It meant I was faced with slightly unfamiliar territory.
Not that it necessarily should have been. After all, I’m a Leeds lad, born and raised, but I haven’t lived there for some thirteen years, and even when I did, I was one for sticking to the tried and the tested. In the end we found our way back to known roads, but the stress of lateness and uncertainty were not helpful to my overall mental state.
Still, we managed to overcome this admittedly minor difficulty and got to the gathering no more than slightly unfashionably late.
Take Monday, a wonderful day that saw Tina and me drive the 16 mile trip to my sister’s to help celebrate my niece’s birthday.
Red Light/Green Light
It’s not all that strange a trip, my sister living a stone’s throw from my mum and dad, and not all that far away from my other sister, either, but on this occasion it took that little bit longer and was that little bit more stressful.
For a start, there were the roadworks. As we career toward the end of the tax year and the various council authorities are faced with a ‘use it or lose it’ policy on their budgets these are something that crops up more and more. On this particular journey I counted three sets of temporary traffic lights and the associated hold-ups that went with them.
And then there was the accident.
Territorial Barmy
It appeared there’d just, (and I mean ‘just’) been a major coming together on the route we usually follow. As we approached the road we needed, the police were busy cordoning it off and waving traffic to continue down the road leading to it. It meant I was faced with slightly unfamiliar territory.
Not that it necessarily should have been. After all, I’m a Leeds lad, born and raised, but I haven’t lived there for some thirteen years, and even when I did, I was one for sticking to the tried and the tested. In the end we found our way back to known roads, but the stress of lateness and uncertainty were not helpful to my overall mental state.
Still, we managed to overcome this admittedly minor difficulty and got to the gathering no more than slightly unfashionably late.
Wipe Out
The rest of the day was fun, although with pretty much my entire immediate family present, some ten people, all in all, and conversations running across and over each other, it was somewhat of an effort to keep up with everything for the full three hours we were there.
For the drive home, we avoided the black spot that had caused us to be diverted on the way there. This, along with the aforementioned temporary traffic lights, and the growing dark, made for an artificially lengthy trip that required all my attention and saw me get home ten minutes late for the footy and wiped out to a degree that only magnified as the night went on. An effect which seems to have lingered slightly this week.
The Concentration Game
I’ve blogged about my MS fatigue before, I know I have but once again it was remarkable just how swiftly and how hard it hits me. It doesn’t happen all the time, but, as my familiarity with the disease grows so does my tolerance for ‘overdoing it’ shrink. In short, as the years pass it seems that it takes less and less to be ‘done’. That, especially when it comes to things that require concentration over a prolonged period, my limits are shrinking.
Going forward, this is something that’s going to need to be monitored, but even then I think ‘ a little and often’ are useful watchwords to bear in mind.
Until next time.
#
Hey, there! If you enjoyed reading any of the above, why not take a look at some of my published work? Below you’ll find links to a number of short stories I’m lucky enough to have included in anthologies. I’d love to know what you think.
New Tales Of Old
Death Ship
Pestilence: Drabbles 1
Reaperman: Drabbles 3
The Musketeers Vs Cthulhu
Eldritch Investigations
The Concentration Game
I’ve blogged about my MS fatigue before, I know I have but once again it was remarkable just how swiftly and how hard it hits me. It doesn’t happen all the time, but, as my familiarity with the disease grows so does my tolerance for ‘overdoing it’ shrink. In short, as the years pass it seems that it takes less and less to be ‘done’. That, especially when it comes to things that require concentration over a prolonged period, my limits are shrinking.
Going forward, this is something that’s going to need to be monitored, but even then I think ‘ a little and often’ are useful watchwords to bear in mind.
Until next time.
#
Hey, there! If you enjoyed reading any of the above, why not take a look at some of my published work? Below you’ll find links to a number of short stories I’m lucky enough to have included in anthologies. I’d love to know what you think.
New Tales Of Old
Death Ship
Pestilence: Drabbles 1
Reaperman: Drabbles 3
The Musketeers Vs Cthulhu
Eldritch Investigations
No comments:
Post a Comment