Hello, I hope everyone's doing okay. I hope you've had the best possible week that you
can have. Mine's been pretty good. Mine's been pretty good. A couple of things I want
to talk about today. I will get to it, but it's been my birthday this week. Yes, I've
turned 40. It happened. Didn't want it to, but it did. I will talk about that because
it's been a brilliant couple of days. I'm going to be honest with you. Absolutely fantastic.
But there's something else I really want to talk about today. And it's something that's
been in my head for a little while. But it's to do with when you go and see your doctors
or you contact your doctors and things get moved from one department to another. And
I'm just going to jump straight in. I'm just going to jump straight in on it and get talking
about it. I don't understand why when you contact your doctors or whatever else, why
information isn't shared the way it could be. As I've said, I've had this meeting with
mental health charity. They've given me in writing, I'm not going to say, but they've
given me in writing what their suspicion is that the issues are. And obviously it's been
sent information has been sent back to the doctors and whatever else. But what I don't
understand is when this information is sent all over the place, why is it so difficult
for one department to pass information to another? Because although they've kind of
been in touch with the doctors, nothing really has been said. Now I'll come to the GDPR aspect
and whatever else shortly. But surely we're on the NHS. And if you've got one department
talking to another, why can that department say, for instance, my doctors, why can my
doctors not send information to a mental health charity and vice versa? And when they do,
why does it all have to be done by letter, by email or whatever else? Why can't it all
be done relatively instantaneous? We live in a world full of technology. There's databases
for all kinds of stuff. I think we're all well aware of that. Why does it have to be
so difficult? I'm not understanding why they can't sit there necessarily. I mean, from
a doctor's point of view, they've got their reception staff and whatever else. I understand
they're busy, but they've also got the back of house staff. And I'm aware of that. At
my surgery, there's back of house staff that do bits and pieces. Why can they not sit there
on a computer screen and go tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, click onto a database so that people
like for instance, mental health charity can immediately see what is on there and vice
versa. Now going to the GDPR aspect of it, It really isn't an issue because
all they need to do is ask you if you are prepared for them to share your information.
I would be and I'm confident most, not all, most would like that information to be shared
very quickly rather than waiting for constant letters or emails to be sent backwards and
forwards and vice versa. It's not necessary. Come on, we live in an age full of technology.
Information sharing is what happens on a daily basis all over the place. So why can doctors,
hospitals, mental health charities that work alongside the NHS and other bodies that work
alongside the NHS, why can they not share information? Why has it all got to be awkward?
Why has it all got to be time consuming? It shouldn't be. It really, really shouldn't
be. And I totally get you. And it probably sounds like I'm having a bit of a moan and
I am and I'm not. All I'm trying to say is I'm not understanding it because if one piece
of information needs to be shared, if it needs to be shared quickly and we've all got our
records and whatever else on certain databases, all they'd have to do is open up your details
and say, oh, actually, yeah, this is what we can see has happened on X meeting at X
date at X time. Then there would be no way in all. We can't give you this information
because we've not received it yet. It would have come through straight away. There would
be no waiting. And again, I am not the smartest guy on the planet. I'm really not. And maybe
I'm not quite wording this this correctly, but I'm giving it a go because it's a thought
that has been in my head for a little while. And again, even when you're talking internal
departments on the NHS, if one department sees you, it should be there should be no
letters being sent backwards and forwards. Even emails not necessary. All that needs
is you go into the patient file or patient database, put the information in. Yes, I fully
understand this is going to be a large database. I'm pretty sure technology can cope. But you
put the information in and all of a sudden, the very next day say should be within minutes,
honestly, but say the very next day, another department can pick that information up, go
click, click, click. Oh, blah, blah, has seen blah, blah on X date. And this is what has
been said. Not difficult in my opinion, that there's got to be ways of making this happen.
And as I say, you know, I'm not the smartest guy on on the planet. But I am somebody that's
got a little bit of Nelson. I've got thought processes that aren't awful, most of the time.
But again, surely it's something in this day and age we can look at information sharing.
All you need to do is just ask people if they are prepared to have that information shared.
If they've signed a piece of paper to say yes, go ahead and do so. Share away. It just
makes more sense. Because from my point of view, there was a piece of information that
was being waited for and waited for and waited for when it could have just been there visible
on a computer screen job done. Thank you very much. Let's move on to something a bit more
interesting. Again, just my thoughts on it. Again, there's probably somebody smarter than
me out there that can go actually, you're really incorrect on that. It can't happen,
blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Fine. Not a problem. I would fully accept that. But until
that happens, and I've got a reasonable response as to to why it can't happen, that's the thought
that's going to continue going through my head. Kind of rant over. Not quite a rant.
Was it a rant? Not entirely sure. Not entirely sure. Thought process over. Right. Now on
to the fun stuff. I want to talk about my birthday. I've done a lot of that. My birthday.
It was absolutely superb. It really was fantastic. Before I go much further, I want to thank
my family for it because it was just incredible. It was absolutely fantastic. We wondered whether
to go out for a bit of lunch. But then I had the thought process instead of going out for
lunch, why don't we go and do some a bit fun, some that we haven't done for a while, a very
long while, we'll go bowling, 10 pin bowling. And we all agreed. And yes, we went bowling.
I put my FPS machine on because I just had a thought that actually this might be quite
difficult to do. A foot drop when I'm walking up with a bowling ball in my hand and trying
to lob the bowling ball down the alley. It may not work particularly well. But with the
FPS, I was actually able to bowl. And don't get me wrong, it was not massively comfortable.
But I was able to do it and I was able to do it while enjoying it. So I did. We had
one game and yeah, I didn't do particularly great in the first game. I'll be totally honest.
I think the elements were against me. Because every time I bowl a decent one down the alley
and take out say nine pins, there's always one pin left stood. And I just couldn't get
that pin. Just couldn't get it. No matter what I tried, I just could not get it. And
then it was very much a case of if maybe I got seven pins and I got a pin sat there waiting
for the spare. I did a couple and there'd still be one pin left over. It made no sense.
Honestly, it was like it was glued or like whatever to the ground. It just would not
go down. No matter how hard I tried it wouldn't go down. But it was great fun. Really, really
good fun. Everyone enjoyed themselves. There was some good bowling done by others. But
I enjoyed it too much. We was only supposed to stay for one game, but I kept bleating
on this would be amazing to have a second game. It'd be brilliant. Yeah, it's so much
fun. So we stayed for a second game.
That was very worthwhile. During the second game, I actually got over a hundred pins in
all. Not in one go. There's only ten pins on the line at one go. Anyway, so I ended
up on a hundred and fourteen on the second go. I think it was eighty one on the first
round. But I managed to get two spares and two strikes. Yeah, it was fantastic. I'll
be honest, I felt very, very lucky because it was almost like the super glue on the bottom
of the pins had worn off for the second game. I mean, it just proves one just isn't enough.
You've got to always do two. There's no alternatives. Got to be two. But anyway, I still didn't
win. I got absolutely annihilated all in all, but my team won the second game and we won
overall. Go team, go team. Woohoo! But yeah, I got carried by the rest of the team to be
fair. I really did get carried. But it was well worth it. It was absolutely superb. Those
of you that are viewing this on YouTube, you will see there is a canvas behind me. It's
got all of my social media details on it and a bit of branding. Absolutely fantastic. It's
just what the boys got me for my birthday. For those that are not on YouTube and actually
are just listening to my voice, you're the heroes. Genuine heroes. Same branding as you're
looking at on my site. It's just got my Mike's MS Journey podcast with the nice MS flag banner
type thing. And then it's just got all of the links on it to my social medias. It's
lovely. Really nice. Thoroughly, thoroughly enjoying having it sat there. I got a nice
shirt from the girls. Lovely card from the eldest. Cards from Lisa. Nice cards from my
dad and my brother. No, genuinely it was absolutely fantastic. Family have made it a brilliant
day. It really was fantastic. And then came the Saturday. The Saturday we had a few more
family come up as a bit of a celebration. It was really good to see. Really good to
see everyone. Don't get me wrong, there wasn't the entire family but we had a decent number
come up and loved every minute. It really was so nice to see everyone laughing, joking,
into singing, watching little bits of dancing. Not by me. I can promise you now I wasn't
dancing. Maybe little shuffles in my chair. But yeah, no I wasn't dancing. But yeah, no
it was absolutely superb. I'm going to be honest, it was brilliant. Thoroughly, thoroughly
enjoyed it. Again, everyone that came, thank you. You made it fantastic. What I will say
is there was a really nice, it was like a picture wall that my dad and Lisa did for
me. And there were some pictures there. Genuinely, I did not even know existed. I mean I was
really little in some of them. There's even a picture of me, there's actually two but
there's one in particular, there's a picture of me asleep. As a youngster, I'm not going
to put an age on it but I was quite young, cuddling a teddy with another teddy beside
me and clearly had a walkman on. So music made me go to sleep. I'm quite sure I know
what music it would have been. In those days I absolutely was not a rock and metal fan,
that's for sure. But yeah, there was that picture. There's a lovely picture of me in
our old back garden when I was growing up. And I had our cat, Bubbles, in me arms. Oh,
she was lovely. Black and white cat she was. Absolutely fantastic. She was a little legend.
I used to love that cat. She was a star. So yeah, that was nice seeing that picture. There's
a picture of me in a swimming pool, holding a ball as a float. I don't quite know why.
I'm pretty confident back then I could swim. He says now I'm not being entirely confident.
But again, I was having a good attempt. Yeah, I mean there was a photo there of me on this
really old tractor. That was back in the day. I was really little. Really little. There
was an old like a little ride on train thing that I had that actually once sent me to the
hospital because I was messing about on it and I fell off and cut my head. My fault.
Shouldn't have been messing about. But again, it was so nice to see. Honestly, it was fantastic
to see some of those pictures that genuinely I had no clue. Some of them I knew existed.
Some not a clue. So yeah, it was lovely. And again, it just sort of topped things off a
little bit. As I say, my actual birthday itself was brilliant. And then to have everyone over
on Saturday, we had a nice big double takeaway. Again, I won't name the takeaways on here,
but there was two types of food and they were really nice. Really edible. So again, it was
just that sort of thing. I mean, it made it brilliant. As I say, I've always been a bit
sort of 40 years old. Really? Me? I don't want to turn 40. I've got to turn 40, but
I don't want to turn it. And it was just made to be absolutely superb. Can't fault it at
all. There's nothing else really that could have happened that would have been amazing
short of a lottery win. If I'd have won the lottery, believe me, I'd have been quite pleased.
That might have topped it off just that last little bit. I mean, we're talking the cherry
on the icing on the cake with the hundreds and thousands on the cake and a bit of custard.
Anything like that really, just to kind of make it really obvious that winning the lottery
would have just been yes. There would have been no part of no. It would have just been
yes. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. So anyway, back in the real world. Yeah, I mean, it was just,
yeah, there's not a lot more I can say apart from again, thank you to everyone involved.
You made it a superb birthday. You really did. I'm incredibly grateful and genuinely
it was it was what it was. And now I've got the thought process in 10 years. I turned
it off. Yeah, OK. I'm just going to sort of lock that little thought process in a tiny,
tiny little box like that. There we go. Locked, locked away, locked away for a problem for
10 years time. Yeah, yeah. OK. Anyway, yeah, I mean, other than that, my week has been
it's been OK. I'll be honest. It's been OK. It's not been too bad. I don't want to
dwell on negatives and whatever else, because do you know what? I did that for too long.
I've said that I did dwell on negatives for too long. Have I been having issues with MS?
Absolutely. I really, really have that. They've been there. They've been problems, lots and
lots of pain. I'm going to be honest with you. Lots and lots of pain. But you know what?
I've not been given into them like I've been doing. I've just been cracking on and try
my best to make the pains think, ah, you know what? We're wasting our time here. Because
in all fairness, I don't want to give in. I'm not going to give in. I'm absolutely not
going to. Simple as that. I knew I'd overdone it the last couple of days. So today, I stayed
in bed for quite a while. I don't think I got out of bed till about one o'clock. Just
got some rest. Feel a bit better for it. Whether or not I'm going to sleep particularly well
tonight after that amount of sleep, I don't know. But I'm going to try. And when the snoring
occurs, I don't snore. I might snore. Maybe. I get told I snore. But actually, I've never
heard me snore. So surely, it doesn't exist. If I've never heard it, it can't be true,
surely. Yeah, that's my thought and I'm going to stick to it. Because why wouldn't I? I
don't want to admit I snore. And there's nobody. I mean, I'm sat here now. I don't see anyone
saying to me, Mike, come on. You do snore like a tractor. There's no one. You can't
hear it. I can't hear it. I'm knocking my microphone over. Not smart. But there's nobody
that right now that can say you snore. So truth is, it don't happen. Anyway. Yeah, I
mean, that's how things have been, as I say. The issues have been there. But you know,
what? Couldn't care less because it's been a brilliant week in terms of birthday, seeing
family and whatever else. The coming week, I've got a few bits that actually I'm going
to start really pushing towards, really pushing towards. I've sat today and I've actually
worked out a schedule for recording things like the podcast. There is other things that
are coming in the background. So I've set myself out schedules for those in terms of
posting up videos and things on social media, because I tend to kind of put that off a little
bit because I don't want to. I don't want to bore people more than anything. But I'm
going to start posting up, even if it's just a little video, once a day. So seven days
a week on my social media, there's going to be something. I'm on other things. For instance,
YouTube, there's going to be daily uploads for gaming, whether that's for golf, whether
that's for Fortnite, whatever it's for. I'm just going to post up at least one thing on
YouTube on a short every day. It's going to be a few days a week where I'm going to jump
on and I'm going to do a little talkie, less than a minute long, just a little talkie update
on YouTube. That's going to be roughly three days a week. This podcast, I've made the executive
decision and this is an executive decision because I'm the executive. Yeah, okay. This
podcast is going to go back to right at the very start, I was releasing two podcasts a
week and I've mentioned it previously how I was thinking about going back to it. I'm
going to, we are going to have two podcasts every week. Now I will confirm scheduling.
We're going to continue on with the Monday upload, but there's going to be one other
day in the week that I'm going to upload another podcast because I might just as well. And
yes, as I've said, it's always going to be MS based, but I'm also going to discuss other
things like I've done today. I've had this thought process about how I think information
should be shared amongst NHS bodies and whatever else. There's going to be other things I'm
going to talk about as well. Just as a, for instance, I'm not going to say when this,
this conversation is going to happen. I'm going to start talking about things like cost
of living. I'm going to start talking about other bits and pieces and I'm going to try
and be as honest as I can without being controversial. But as we all know, sometimes when you float
an idea out there that is your personal idea, sometimes people get a little bit upset with
it. Well, you can't please everybody all of the time. That unfortunately is cold hard
fact. You can't do it, which is why I'm going to try and stay as far away from being controversial
as I can. But you have to understand sometimes my thought processes might not align with
your own and that's fine. I would have no issue with you saying to me, well, this is
my thought on it. Not a problem at all. Fully respect that because actually if we all thought
the same thing all the time, how boring would the world be genuinely? It really would be
the most boring place. Having differences of opinion is perfectly okay. Genuinely fine.
Well again, I'm going to confirm all of these new changes and things I'm going to do because
again, I'm going to be streaming computer games soon enough. I'm just trying to work
out the best way of doing it all properly. It's going to happen. So that will be confirmed.
TBC. Yeah, TBC. See, I'm learning. I'm learning. But once that's confirmed, I have got it all
written down on my laptop, so I am aware personally. But once I'm completely confident with it,
that's when everyone else will know. Well, I'm going to knock that on the head for today's
show. It won't be this week that we go to a second show. Maybe next. Maybe. TBC. Yeah,
I did it again. Yeah. Well, I hope you all have a great week. Thank you very much for
listening. And I look forward to talking to you all again soon. Bye bye.