Chronic Illness
I work (for now), I love, I live, I have fun. Just with wheelchairs and drugs and spasms and stuff...
6 September 2018
“Life is good, just different”, is my oft-repeated mantra. And it’s usually true, honestly. Nothing Multiple Sclerosis has thrown at us has got me down for long. Well, maybe the excruciating nerve pain, a bit. And the phase when I was self-injecting every other day, each time basically giving myself the flu for 24 hours. Meh! I have a loving and much-loved family, a loyal, funny and indulgent set of close friends, and dashing good looks. Maybe not the last bit. At least my funky red wheelchair turns heads. Right now I’m in a bit of a wobbly phase. I am yawning my way through bouts of fatigue, increasing nerve pain attacks and a more-rubbish-than-ever bladder. The less said about […]
27 April 2018
Of course I bloody can and of course I will! Stupid, slightly clickbaity question. We’re just back from two splendid weeks in Cyprus. Hugely stressful in so many ways. And utterly exhausting. Holidays shouldn’t be stressful or exhausting, but Multiple Sclerosis dictates that it will always be that way for me, with the stress bit rubbing off on Mrs W too. BUT, and a big, ouzo-flavoured, suntan-oiled, feta-cheesed BUT: the fun and the love and the relaxation and the adventure and the splashing and the laughter totally outweigh that teeny bit of stress and fatigue I mentioned. Why was it so tough? Finding a resort (and a room) in the first place that could handle my level of disability and […]
3 April 2018
So I’ve got this fantastic new wheelchair, see. And it’s red and funky and off-road and crowdfunded, see. And even though the weather has been ‘beige’ and soggy at best, the mile-wide grin on my face each time we’ve ventured out, has kinda sizzled its way through the mist. Beamed out like a new lighthouse for the South Coast. Though lighthouses don’t shout for joy much. Or travel at four miles per hour. Or take selfies. Or go home after a jolly good trip out. Bad analogy. Even making tentative steps, so to speak, I’ve already managed ecstatic bundles of ‘first time in years’ moments. A snowball fight (see previous blog for a thrilling blow by blow account); a muddy […]
19 March 2018
A challenging few days in the Webb household. As if most of them are straightforward… Eldest son on crutches with tendonitis. Borrowing an old pair of mine. Ah, those halcyon, dreamy days of still getting round on crutches! Mrs W pain-killered up to the eyeballs with two slipped discs after a relatively innocuous-seeming tumble down four or five stairs. Me ok (well, just the pesky Multiple Sclerosis). Younger son ok (well just the chocolate mess on his face and the traditional meltdown over English homework). Sunday – yesterday as I write – started very very badly for me. 4am alarm to get a boy on crutches ready for a school trip setting off at 5.20am sharp. The sort of chore […]