Travel.

Today is a travel day. As a sickly whatsit, I have to pack roughly double what anyone else has to think about. Its a fucking bark to do, but nowhere near as bad it would be if I forgot the stuff that I need. Job done-ish, right…?

And Relax.

Having done the MRI, had my monthly drug jacked in , and enjoyed a surprise 4 hour dental repair afternoon, this morning, I had a nice haircut, and I'm beginning to feel a bit Christmassy. A good review of Star Wars from Kermode and Mayo helped and and a really good present find, put the icing on the cake. Teeth fixed, drug in, hair done, and gift buying finished. Ah…..

Teeth Palarver.

I'm writing about my day at the dentist, whilst listening to God Speed! You Black Emperor play their We Have The Signal set. As the music builds and ebbs, pushing back and forth, with occasional dips, but no let up in tension, it soundtracks the day i just had.
I went in to get my teeth cleaned. I figured it would be a Christmas treat. It was all going well until Nicky my hygienist, took a good look on the left side of my mouth. A pained  look of,
 "Ooh, you are in trouble,"
 descended and my Christmas teeth treat became  a 4 hour emergency repair, replete with the sound and feel of drilling, and the smell of burning teeth. Sounds absolutely horrific, but I'm lucky, the people at my dentist,  Merion Village Dental are excellent, and a really good laugh. Given the Marathon Man levels of horror I was looking at, it all came out just fine. And they said I could eat whatever I like! Though I think that might be what caused todays problems……maybe an apple (dipped in chocolate…)

Junior.

Whilst doing my infusion yesterday, I was told that I had been doing it for 41 months in a row. Outside of being married to Beth, thats the most commitment I've ever shown to anything. I was quite impressed with myself, until i found out that the person sat next to me was on her 53rd infusion, and that the person sat next to them was on her 85th time. Having said that, we all paled in comparison with the person who had been in before us, 104 infusions and counting. Fucking hell….

In the infusion room.

This  is my last infusion this year, so I thought I would write something whilst it was happening.

I listening to the Sonic Youth channel streaming off of Amazon Prime. I never watch the tv in here, though there are 3 screens. I much prefer chilling out to tunes.

The line is in my left hand, and has been filling my blood with Tysabri for the last 25 minutes, the infusion takes an hour. I then stay  another hour, to make sure that things don't go tits up. 

I'm in a Comfy chair, feet up, chair leant back. All things considered, very chilled out. I don't know how long I'll be able to keep doing this, but until it gets too dangerous, I'm in.

What goes around...

I am not a hoarder, but I am a fantastic forgetter. I often find myself looking at things that I hadn't seen for years whilst muttering,
"Wow. Why did i stop using these?" I used to have an awful lot of books, DVD's and CD's. This changed when music, film and writing went digital. All of a sudden I could have whatever I liked whenever I wanted. Why get physical things when I could get everything, whilst taking up little to no space? Phones were small, the smaller the better. Then, time went on, and it slowly dawned on me that I like books, DVD's and CD's.
The reason I went to the kindle is that I couldn't physically hold a book for any length of time, or read very well as my MS roamed around, shutting things down at will. It was awful, as I have always been a voracious reader. I'd moved to listening to books on tape, and then the Kindle turned up.
"Its light, you can store hundreds of books, and you can increase the text size? What kind of black magic witchery is this?!" I went back to reading, score. But now, my  MS is now being held back, my eyes are doing a lot better, and my hands can hold the books. I use my kindle for English newspapers, and some books, but I much prefer holding a book.
I like streaming films and TV, but I do order DVD's from England that will never come over here like Detectorists, and I look out for special box sets from companies like Criterion.
Music: I like streaming using Amazon prime, but I want to get a CD player so I can play all my old CD's, where the sound is less compressed. Of course vinyl is the warmest, but I don't have a record player, or any patience.

4 cup Tipping point.

This morning, Beth made a big pot of coffee. she then went out, and I drank all that was left. I know that my tipping point with coffee is when I start the third cup. I'm always quietly amazed when I see americans who drink coffee constantly, and I suspect may have a drip by their bed, so that the caffeine can fuel their dreams.  These are dreams of success! And a lot of running, running from things that they can't quite see, but they know are very bad. I think that the shadow figures may be their nervous system calling out to them.
"For fuck's sake, give us a break! Water please, no junk."
Coffee has taken off in England, but we come from a nice cup of tea, with toast, some jam, and a nice chat. People make cups of tea for each other,
 "D'ya fancy a brew?"
From this small nicety, pints of tea can end up being consumed. This is just as excessive as the American coffee blight, but you do get roast, and a nice eclair, if there's one going...

MRI Results

I woke up today to find the results of the MRI I did yesterday in my inbox. Its an interesting read, including the bit about extensive periventricular and subcortical site matter lesions which are noted, including a few lesions of the cerebellar hemispheres, which appear to be unchanged. Its a Sci-fi tastic romp, which looks terrifying, but ends up saying exactly what I thought it would.

"You're fucked, but in a relatively stable way."

Post

MRI done. I have one a year, so I tend to forget how much I hate doing it. The people doing it are great, the 26inch wide and 17inch tall hole you go into ? Horrific.  The thing that freaked me out the first time I did it, was the plastic shell, that looked like a hockey goalie mask, that sat less than a inch above my head. You cannot move when you are in there, it's like being in a paralyzed version of Friday the 13th. 

Having said that, all done. I now have another year to forget, until Jason comes around again....

Pre.

I'm about 2 hours from having my yearly MRI. It always comes mid December, and it usually serves as my last MS medical stop for the year. This year is a little different, as my last infusion for this year is next Wednesday.
The MRI always gives me pause for thought. The first time I was ever put in one, in 1992, I freaked and had to be taken out. The machine was in a dark, clammy room, which poured out my worst nightmares as it clanked into life. This was during my hospital stay at The National Hospital For Neurology and Neurosurgery in Queen Square in London, when my MS was diagnosed. They got me back into the machine a day later, and I haven't freaked out since. To be honest the worst thing they did was the Spinal Tap, which I still wince about to this day.
The reason the MRI is freaky is that you are told going in that you cannot get out of the machine yourself. I had an MRI in LA years ago, and spent the entire time thinking,
"What if there's an earthquake?"
I kind of know what the result is going to be.
"Well it hasn't got any/much worse."
A nice game you can play is trying to get the people taking the MRI to tell you what they think.
"You've been watching, what d'ya reckon?"
They are not allowed to tell you, though you can get them to cough appropriately as you run though the options.
Ah well, time for a coffin kip.