What a lovely day it is today. The sun is shining, a blue sky but it is cold. It is a walking day for some! It is reminiscence time for others. It was my mother's birthday last Sunday; she is 94 years old, which is a remarkable age. Liz made a birthday cake and we went over to Sherburn in Elmet, where she lives and which is about an hour and a half journey from us. She had lots of flowers and birthday cards and several people had popped in to wish her well. We started to talk about the past and for the first time heard about her work during the war. I knew she was a cook at Girton, an all women’s College of Cambridge University but what I didn’t know is that in the evenings she worked voluntarily for the YMCA. She also said they made bread every day at the college for the town. During that time she met my father who was a theology student at Queens College and a fire watcher at night. It is interesting that she started to talk about the past as she has always been a live for today person. When I was recounting this to a friend on the way to the gym she said that after her mother's death she had realised that there were lots of gaps in her family’s knowledge about her mother’s life and work. She regretted not taking more time to encourage her mother to talk about her past. What's this got to do with MSA you might ask? Well MSA is not genetic in my case. With a mother like mine life goes on with meals to prepare, the shopping to order, clothes to wash and dry, meetings and the weekly luncheon club and letters to write there’s lots to fill the day. For me there are lots of things I want to but can't now do and the gradual loss of control undermines my confidence.
I think it is to do with timescales; I am time-limited whereas my relatives and friends are not. I think that leads to different priorities, taking advantage of the mobility I still have left for as long as possible is my priority. I have no idea when MSA is going to strike another blow it has already done a pretty effective job with for example; not being able to reach the telephone in time before it stops ringing and making sure my voice is not working when I need a conversation. The most recent challenge has been to do with my feet and toes. Apart from being cold, which is to do with low blood pressure, I have recently had almost continual dull pain in my left foot toes and they are sensitive. To make life more complicated, my toes are changing shape and as a result my shoes no longer fit me. So I have been donating the old ones to Oxfam and bought myself a new pair of Loakes leather slip-ons. They are smart, stylish, and comfortable and I can put them on myself!
On a positive note, my oldest friend from school days has been in touch. He lives in Sydney, Australia, and runs his own business very successfully selling second-hand laboratory equipment. Per and I go back a long way and have managed to stay in touch since leaving school a long time ago. I probably have not seen him for around six years now. The good news is that Per is planning to come to the UK at the end of August with his two daughters. He will be followed by my brother Pete and Angela so it looks like it’s going to be an Australian autumn, it will be very nice to see them all.
Some other news is that I have a new specialist physio based at the local hospital and she thinks my regime is okay. She gave me a couple of new exercises to do. One is using a gigantic, rubber band! More importantly, she has agreed to talk to my trainer at the Devonshire Arms Health Spa to revise my gym programme. I've been doing the same thing there for about 6 to 8 months now and bored to death so that will be a good thing.
P.S. No change in scores on the doors with regard to our four legged small friends.
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