Well hello and welcome back to my next show. This is the 30th show that I've done. That
time really has flown past. Massive welcome back to you all. Thank you for joining us.
What I will say today, there's a few little bits and pieces I want to talk about, but
I think the first thing I've really got to do and I would like to do is give a massive
shout out to Multiple Sclerosis News today. They ran a story on myself, on all of their
channels, networks, website, the whole thing for their 31 days of MS, for 31 days of the
month of March. They made a point of 31 people's stories being told and I'm absolutely honoured
for the fact that I was one of those 31. Day 4, they ran my story and honestly I'm incredibly
grateful to them. Incredibly grateful. The opportunity to get my story out there and
really just sort of try to help people understand what I've got going on, what I've had going
on and hopefully that can help others that might be going through similar things, just
to hear that they're not on their own. It's not so much of you're going through it, you're
on your own because you're not. Alright, we don't go through everything exactly the same
but what we do for me is work as a team, we talk about things, we explain things to each
other, just on the off chance that actually you kind of think, oh I've got similar to
that, I'm going through similar to that. So MS News today, thank you, genuinely thank
you for running my story. I'm incredibly honoured and I have noticed over the last couple of
days we seem to have gained an awful lot of new followers. So to all of you that are new,
welcome. It's an absolute pleasure to be talking to you and hopefully I can sort of say the
odd bit from time to time that might help with you or might resonate with you or might
just entertain you because again, that's something I'm here for. Yeah, I've got MS and yeah,
I do a lot of talking about MS, I'm going to. This is based around my story and my journey
with MS but I'm also going to try and entertain you, make you laugh and whatever else because
let's be fair, there's a lot of things in life but actually one of the best things in
life is fun, comedy and just trying to smile and trying to be that little bit happy in
times when happiness isn't always obvious. But I try my best, I'm always going to try
my best, try and show that I'm actually quite a happy person. I'm going to explain the fact
that I've had quite a bad week, I'm going to be honest with you, in terms of memory.
My memory's been absolutely awful this week, I've got to say it, it really hasn't been
good at all and I have got a lot of stresses going on in my personal life. I can't go into
too much detail at the moment but I'm going to say I'm not going to sort of hide it away
anymore. It is work related, that's pretty much all I can say at the current time but
when the time is right I will explain. But yeah, it's causing me a few issues, I've
got to say it. In terms of the sort of pains and things, yeah, my legs especially, I've
really been struggling with pains in my legs. My lower back has been pretty awful, I've
got to say that, it really hasn't been great at all. But what I am noticing is certainly
around the house, not going out of the house, I mean going out of the house I still need
to use at least one stick, let's be honest, it's two, I've got to use both sticks, 95%
of the time, just in terms of my own safety. But around the house I'm sort of finding ways
of coping without using my stick, I mean there's walls. It's not as if I'm walking around
comfortably or anything like that, there's walls. I'm sort of finding ways of mooching
about the house, being out of grab hold of a wall when I'm feeling not quite so right,
because the legs are a bit jellified, but I'm finding a way to live with it. I'm finding
a way of, I'm going to use the term fighting back, because I want to, while I've still
got the ability to move around under my own steam, I'm going to do it. I'm going to do
it. I know I've used this before, I know I've said this before, I will say it again, I will
say it again. I have got MS. MS, it doesn't have me, it doesn't have my, it's not taken
away my passion for life, it's not taken away my want to be free, it's not taken away my
want to be independent. And I've got to be honest, at times I try to be a little bit
too independent, I really do. But that is what it is, that's never going to change,
I'm happy trying to be Mr. Independent, because that's the life I want to lead. Don't get
me wrong, I totally understand, there's probably going to be a future where independence isn't
quite so easy. Well at this stage, it might not be quite so easy, but I'm still going
to be independent. Today, today's Sunday, we had some family over, it was brilliant,
I'll be honest with you, I've had a great day, genuinely, I've really enjoyed it. It's
been great spending time with everyone, all of that sort of stuff, it's been great. But
we needed to get the bits of shopping in for everyone to be able to have some lunch. So
I jumped on Eleanor, to all of my new listeners, Eleanor, that's the name for my mobility scooter,
if you know, you know, gone in 60 seconds. Yes, I guess that might be where the name
came from. Anyway, I jumped on Eleanor, I went up to our local shop, I got the bits
and pieces in, and I forgot to get salad. We do get salad, we do like salad. Although
for some reason, not much of it got eaten. But yeah, I went back out to go and get the
salad. And Lisa, she said to me, she said, take one of the kids with you, because you've
already been out once, carried a basket around the first shop and whatever else. Me? Being
me? No, no, no, I can do it on my own, it's not a problem. And yeah, I did do it on my
own, that's not an issue. But wow, did I struggle. It was not easy at all, I really did struggle.
So yeah, I'll be honest, I sort of cut my nose off to spite my face a little bit, I
probably should have taken one of the kids with me just for a bit of moral support. Worst
case, Lisa was happy to come with me. But I was being a little bit too independent on
that one, I've got to say it. So that's kind of a bit of a learning curve for me to start
thinking, yeah, okay, I do want to do stuff on my own, but actually, sometimes I've got
to accept, I need a little bit of help. And I need to accept the help. I mean, there's
little bits and pieces tomorrow, Monday, which as this podcast gets released, I actually
have my next half a bag of okravis. And I have to say, after the first one, I'm really
not that nervous. Really not that nervous at all. I'm going to be taking the laptop
with me. What I will say is I actually went and bought a laptop the other day. Only a
secondhand one. I didn't want to go and spend too much money, didn't want to go crazy. But
I bought one because I am going to attempt to learn how to edit these podcasts and make
them a bit more professional and a bit better for you all to listen to. Because you all
take the time to listen to me chatting away. So I think it's only right I try and give
you the best possible listening experience. So I'm going to have a go. I'm going to have
a go. I'm going to try. It could take a bit of time. I'm not going to say when I will
start publishing edited podcasts, because it might take me a bit of time to get used
to it. But yeah, I'm going to take that laptop with me for my treatment. And I will, like
I did with the first one, I'm going to blog from my treatment chair. So feel free to pop
across to my website, because the blogs will be there tomorrow. Again, I'll give you the
web address. It is really simple. It's Mike's MS journey.com. So pop across at some point
tomorrow and you will see blogs from my treatment chair. There's going to be at least one I
will maybe look to do too. We'll just see how the day goes. Because you never know.
You never know. It might well be that actually I might get more done. But you're just going
to have to wait and see. I will try my best. I will try my best. Because I must admit,
I actually quite enjoy the blogging. I really do. I try and get a couple done a week. And
I must admit, I did one the other day and it's the first one I've done for a week. Because
as I say, I have had a lot going on, a lot in my mind. Because again, the work issue
really is causing me a bit of a problem. But I don't want that to cause any issues for
what I'm doing with my other bits and pieces. Because again, I quite enjoy talking to you
all. Whether that's on this podcast, whether that's on Instagram, whether that's on TikTok,
whether it's on YouTube. Speaking of YouTube, I was actually playing Fortnite the other
night and I got this really good kill. Absolutely brilliant it was. And I did a little video
for it and put it on my YouTube channel. I can't believe how many views it got. Literally
north of 500 views for a computer game video. Unreal. Unreal. I just, I really can't believe
that. I only play that game for a bit of fun. Blimey. It is literally just a bit of fun.
Yeah, the views went mental. It really did. It went crazy. So yeah, there might be the
odd little one of those that creeps its way onto the YouTube channel. You never know.
We'll have to wait and see on that one. But if people want to see things, I will provide
them. Not a problem. Well, I think that will pretty much do for today. I don't want to
keep you too long. As I've said, a massive thank you to you all. Whether you're somebody
that's been listening to me for a long time or whether you are a new listener. Thank you.
Because again, without you all, there'd be no point me coming on here and spilling my
guts and getting things off my brain. So I appreciate everything you're doing for me.
And I just hope even if one of you enjoys what you're listening to, then I'm doing
what I'm doing for the right reasons. Well, I will speak to you all again very, very soon.
Have a good week. Bye bye.