All posts by Russ

Happy new year.

A Christmas with my ole Mum and Dad.
Big love to them for coming. A Xmas Eve fancy lunch out and then an M&S Xmas dinner in a box on the big day. Not exactly stick in the microwave, but it wasn’t that hard to out. Don’t think my dad has ever made anything other than a corned beef sandwich, so I’m glad lunch wasn’t left to him.
Not that I don’t like corned beef.
Obvs.

Xmas telly and Bananagrams and Scrabble.
We did watch a film or two. Saltburn might have been the best one but after the gay sex and the bloody period scene… I paused it.

Shame tho! The second half is cracking… but watched by just myself later on. What a plot twist.

Thanks to Gina G in particular for looking after me of course. She’s my Christmas helper Elf, I’ve decided. Next year I’ll make her wear the outfit.

Have to say my Mojo is under a bloody rock somewhere but I’m looking for the f***er and I’ll find it eventually!

Bladder Botox was quite an ordeal.
Christ they first manoeuvred my legs into stirrups and then he stuck this foot long metal rod with a camera on the end into my ‘ organ’ and did it all on a video screen
If I could feel it, it would have been horrendous, I’m sure.
It takes 2 weeks… to take effect. Perhaps then my bloody legs will be less stiff?
I’ve had 2 nights of decent sleep as well. That’s been a bloody novelty.

Saw a band on Saturday night- Leftfield- in Kentish Town. Never seen a venue more packed. Who’d have thought they were still that popular?
Dick Whittington in Richmond theatre was very good! Thanks to Esme for coming on both Saturday and Sunday.

And also saw A Christmas Carol at the Old Vic on Friday with a special young lady.

And fresh outta Botox surgery I’m going to the theatre tonight to see The Book of Mormon. I saw it in 2014, while still in Stoke Mandeville hospital. I couldn’t even bring myself to smile back then, so I don’t remember any of it. Tonight should be better!

And lovely to see some very close friends on Monday at mine, as well as half the Toulon 12 cyclists last Thursday.
It’s been pretty busy then! When I was living on 3 hours sleep, that wasn’t helping much.
Now ( perhaps) that isn’t going to be the case going forward. I don’t know!

Skin lesions not cancerous either.
I live to fight another day then.
🤷🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

Despite doing quite a lot.. I just can’t sleep.

A gig on Saturday.. Leftfield
Christmas Theatre at the Old Vic on Friday
Football and then Dick Whittington yesterday.

Still I get 3 hours, sometimes 4 of sleep.
I’m exercising as well.

Bloody hell im tired.
My legs, although bloody stiff and unbending aren’t spasming anywhere near as much, but I wake and cannot sleep again.
It’s bizarre.

:(

My legs are even more rigid than before.
Baclofen, the antispasmodic drug, possibly makes me worse. Hard to fathom but I’ll come off it and see.
Hospital today for Botox injections inside my bladder.
I spend All of my time trying to suppress and deal with my leg rigidity and my medical appointments, yet thus far there hasn’t been improvements of real significance.
That makes me very unusual in the paralysis world.

Jesus.

At least some distraction this week. Tried to stack my diary with stuff to bloody do.

December

Well a more consistent sleep pattern now. Four hours, sometimes more. That’s enough to survive on.

At least it enables me to function a bit.

Now as though things aren’t already a little problematic… I’ve now got 2 very dodgy looking moles appeared that need urgent inspection… so waiting for that.
Also I now have a strange persistent cough and a weird taste when I do. Hmmm , what can I say.

Aside from that life is a little better. I still don’t understand football but I’m still going to Brentford today to watch them vs the ( kinda ) illustrious Luton. Theoretically we ought win.
My social life is limited, dictated by spasms and whatever is happening in my ‘ insides’. Thats a euphemism for the unsavoury things.

Friends have been very helpful recently, I have to say, and I’m very glad I have them.
Gina has been a superstar of course, having spent far more time with me than ever before, and big love to my mum and dad. They have been awesome tbh.

And a special mention to my friend Ali.
X

Nearly December.

Four hours sleep is far better than one hour.
Just can’t seem to exceed 4. I wake up at 4 am or so and that’s it.
Sure, I’m spasming away still, not as badly as before ( well some of the time it is really bad ) but I ought to sleep through it as I’m blimmin tired… but I don’t. Weird.

Grimsky, innit.

I can’t bloody go online dating when I’m in this mess, and single life is a bit lacking.
I’m not good at being single!

Progress…

Well now I’m on 2 drugs. One is to target bladder sensitivity and spasms.
The other is a general antispasmodic.

Thus far it’s made a lot of difference ( tho at this very moment my right leg is VERY jerky)

I’ve been getting 5 hours a night sleep for 3nights. That’s with a powerful sleeping tablet on top of the antispasmodics, so it’s not like I’m out of the woods..
but it’s better.
I’ve managed to get out and not be so bloody tired that I can’t function once there.
Thanks to Leigh and Bev for Richmond Theatre and Gina came to watch Brentford lose to Arsenal. Beyond that I’ve done very little, which is not how I try to live my life..

Just stop

My right leg jerked hard ( a sequence of around 10 hard jerks ) every 20 seconds, from 11am until 11pm. At 11pm it just stopped. Why? No idea.
I did sleep. I had 5 hours.

At 8.30am today my right leg started again. Same spasm sequence.
I live In fear and dread of my spasms. They are so mentally debilitating.
I can’t function anymore.
I’m taking medications, supplements, doing everything I can think of to stop it happening, but nothing stops it.

Life is intolerable.

Groundhog Day

Whilst I have had sleep, my days are Groundhog Day.
I spasm pretty much all day long, every day, with the odd period when they stop. The jerks are hard and it’s impossible to think about anything else.
Mercifully the last 3 nights have been ok. I don’t know why / how.

Today all day it’s been just awful. To say I’m falling apart would be an understatement.

🤷

My urologist told me to get home uti dipstick tests.
I did and on day 3 of my antibiotics the markers are still maximum ( nitrates and leucocytes ).

I slept well ( for me ) last night however, so that’s a positive
For once my legs in bed were calmer than they are once in my wheelchair.
Hard to understand what’s going on, isn’t it?
Awaiting the GP urine analysis tests still.
Often they come back as negative? If the home one is crazy positive, it’s hard to understand how the proper one can be negative?! Anyway let’s see.