Tuesday 15 December 2009

Magical Brain has moved

This blog has a shiny new home at http://davesmagicalbrain.wordpress.com/

Hope to see you there!

Friday 11 December 2009

One year old today!

Hello!

Dave's Magical Brain (the blog, not the brain) is one year old today!

To celebrate the occasion, I would like to announce the *new* Magical Brain (again, the blog not the brain).

I am now to be found at the following URL:  http://davesmagicalbrain.wordpress.com/

The new blog has all the old posts and comments plus a few extra features.

I hope to see you there!

Thursday 10 December 2009

"Sorry, there's nothing we can do"

There is a stand up routine by Sean Lock where he recounts being told off for swearing by belligerent airport staff. His exasperated reply finishes with "This is exactly the sort of occasion swearing was f***ing invented for!"

Excuse me a moment...

a$%e!...  &u$%&!!... (%d%*!!!.... %^&*!! f&*^:~!!.... *()&*&^$%$"!!!!!!

There - out of my system...

No, wait, hang on...

%&^*£$^%$!!

There. Feel a bit better, now.

I went to see an orthoptist about my doublevision, nystagmus, intranuclear opthalmoplegia and oscillopsia the other day.

I spent about an hour undergoing various tests. I followed a torch with my eyes. I had various lenses passed in front of each of my eyes and I had to say when the image became double and single. I pointed at dots with a long stick (and missed). I looked at various patterns to find the hidden 3D shape and of course I read the all too familiar eye chart.

Things I didn't know before: I also have doublevision looking up to the right and my left eye doesn't pull in towards the nose as much as it should do.

I have been looking forward to my doublevision being sorted for the last year and a half. As I mentioned in my last post, this is the one constant symptom, the one that doesn't fade away and then come crashing back. The symptom that is constantly breathing down my shoulder reminding me I have MS and it is the symptom that spurred me on into visiting the GP in the first place.

It is also (as I screw up one eye to look at you) a symptom that makes me feel dizzy, tires me out, drags me down and makes me look like a weirdo. I was convinced that the magical people in the eye department of my local hospital would be able to build me prism lensed spectacles to straighten things out for me. Not to wear all the time, you understand, just when I'm at work, or in a meeting, or driving my car, or walking along the street. I'm not asking for much really. Just some semblance of normality.

"Sorry, there's nothing we can do..."

Apparently, they can't (or won't) correct doublevision unless it occurs in the primary position (straight ahead). Also, my eyesight is pretty good - I can read most of the bottom line on the eye chart and if I did have glasses, they would have to be plain glass and the prism lens would blur things a bit for me.

So there I was watching the orthoptist as he moved his head left and right to demonstrate how you look left and right.

Yes, I should be grateful for the fact that I can see, and yes, I should be grateful for the fact that I can see pretty well and yes, it could be a whole lot worse - a hell of a lot worse. I could have been maimed in an accident, I know. But days like this remind me that MS is a complete an utter uncurable bastard. Things will never be the same. I will never be able to look around with my eyes travelling the same speed again. I will never be able to look left and see a single image. I will never be able to look right and keep my eyes perfectly still. I will never be able to read a book without it tiring me out. Things will never be how they used to be.

So when someone tells you there is nothing they can do, that little ember of hope at the back of the hearth that you thought might be coaxed back to life with some newspaper and a bit of careful blowing, is snuffed out with a gallon of water.

And what makes it all so much worse is that I will probably look back on this day and think how lucky I was back then compared to how I am 'now'.

Doublevision is one of those symptoms that can come and go in Relapsing Remitting MS, but I'm pretty sure that after a year and a half we're not just talking about demyelination on the nerve controlling eye movement. I think there's been some permanent damage.

I have an appointment with an opthalmologist in a couple of weeks and they want to look at the back of my eyes and document the "state of things" I guess. They will probably also want to patronise me by telling me stuff I already know about nerve damage and so on.

So, having taken the knock and bottling up all the crestfallen feelings I'm back to the bustle of the hospital lobby. Past the people in Costa coffee. Skirting the guy with the mop and the couple with the walking frames. Through the automatic doors, past the A & E entrance, then the maternity wing with a handful of expectant mothers in dressing gowns, fags in hands.

Back to the car...

Negotiating the one-way system through the car parks...

Waiting for the ambulance to go past...

out onto the main road...

Whack the stereo on full blast to take my mind off things as I head back to town...

The music starts: "There's no escaping from / the man it seems that I've become..." *

... The grief.

* test your music trivia - identify the track and you may or (more likely) may not win a prize (not decided yet, but nothing big).

Monday 7 December 2009

Doublevision

Wahay! I am off to see an orthoptist tomorrow to talk doublevision.

Doublevision and eye movement problems in general have been my one constant since I had my last major relapse in 2008. My MS history is littered with symptoms and side effects that have come and gone or have fluctuated with other external factors such as stress, medication, temperature, exercise or pure bad luck. Doublevision has remained constant since the spring of 2008.

Just like the MS in general, it is a companion but not a friend. It is the doublevision that reminds me I have MS when the other symptoms are lying low for a bit. I also think I have the doublevision to thank for the diagnosis - if I didn't have it in the first place, I may not have made the fateful GP appointment. I would have probably lived with the tingling fingers, the fatigue, the occasional vertigo, even the pain for a bit longer before seeking medical advice.

Doublevision affects me only when I look left. From a single image looking straight ahead, two side-by-side images appear the instant I start looking left and the displacement increases the further I go. When I first discovered I had it, I tested it every breakfast-time by gradually looking left at two chimneys on the next street. These chimneys would eventually match up becoming one chimney with two TV aerials. It never got any worse, it never got any better. One and a half years on, it is still the same.

People ask me how I manage to drive with it. The answer is, I close one eye when looking left. Simple as that.

I find that I am constantly screwing up one eye in everyday situations, though, or I would have difficulty recognising people in the distance, crossing the road, participating in meetings and so on.

When I go out for a drink (I honestly don't drink very much), I makes me feel drunk/ill way before I should do.

It doesn't normally bother me. It's constancy means I have learned to live with it. But it does tire me out and this has an impact on my mood and fatigue levels.

There are two possible solutions. One is to wear an eye patch. The other one is to wear glasses with prism lenses. I have no idea what these spectacles look like, so I have the fear of becoming the kid with the sticking plaster holding together a pair of national health specs. But then again I don't fancy becoming Long John Silver either, therefore I have the orthoptist appointment tomorrow. It has been a long time coming and should hopefully have a positive impact on my quality of life.
A further appointment with an opthalmologist is scheduled for later this month.

Tuesday 1 December 2009

Unlike father unlike son

My Mum used to say that my Dad (a former cross-country runner) would often wake her up in the middle of the night by running in his sleep. His legs and feet going like the clappers. When woken and asked to explain he would mumble something about running across the fields and ditches of his native East Anglia.

I used to think that was quite sweet, and in the same way as my pet cat flying off to chase mice in the sky, I often hope that the afterlife for my Dad might include a few lengthy runs particularly as he isn't as mobile as he used to be.

I was woken up last night. Even though I have been taking my amitriptyline pills for neuropathic pain, my legs and feet decided to ignore them and they kept me awake for a long time in the early hours.

It's hard to describe how neuropathic pain feels, and it's different for different people. Sometimes they feel as if my legs are made of sponge and they are gradually being wrung out. Sometimes it feels as though they want to curl and shrivel up like a burning match. Sometimes it feels as though a large concrete slab is being placed on them imperceptably slowly by just a micron or two every minute or so.

Last night it felt like they just wanted to detach themselves and run away, running to catch up with my Dad on his ploughed field.