Hello and welcome back, I hope you've all had a good week, mine's not been too bad
this week I'm going to be honest with you, there's a few little bits and pieces that
I want to talk about this week. I'm going to start with the first thing and I hope you've
all had a really good Easter, if you've been celebrating Easter at all, whatever you've
been up to I hope you've enjoyed it, fingers crossed there's been lots of chocolate and
that sort of stuff floating about for you. Me, actually, I've not had an Easter egg at
all this year, I know, me, me not in, no Easter egg, how, how does that happen? I'm not at
all jealous of those that have had Easter eggs, honestly, yeah I'm lying, I wanted
an Easter egg, you know, just saying, just floating that one out there. But, what I do
want to do is talk about what we've been up to over Easter, because Friday we had some
family over, a suggestion got made Friday morning while I'm getting myself ready about
potentially having a barbecue. Now I rejected that suggestion straight away, I was like
no, no, no, no, not today, not today. And then I looked at the weather, I looked outside
and it was glorious sunshine, and I mean it was beautiful out there. So, I gave Lisa a
shout and I said, so I said, right, okay, I said, let's do it, let's have a barbecue.
So, we had some family over on Friday, we grilled up some burgers, we grilled up some
sausage and some chops and we had a barbecue, we sat out in the sun, it was lovely, it was
a really, really nice day, it was beautiful weather. I probably should have put my baseball
cap on because I did get a little bit red around the top of my head, I don't know how,
because there's plenty of hair on my head to stop that happening. Yeah, yeah, there
is, honestly, there's loads of the stuff, I mean, I'm lying, I've not had hair on the
top of my head in many, many years, I don't know why, I don't know where it's all gone.
It'd be nice if it comes back one day. Yeah, yeah, anyway, I mean, I'm dreaming there,
aren't I? Let's be totally honest. I've got no hair on my head, I'm going a bit, a bit
thin on top, but you know, it would have been nice because then I wouldn't have got sunburn
on my head, but such is life, we live and learn. But yeah, I mean, it was really, really
good. I felt like it would have been rude not to do something in the sunshine actually,
because really, it's the first really nice day we've had of the year. Don't get me wrong,
there's been sunny days and whatever else. But this was the first sunny and warm day
where we've had the opportunity. So opportunity got taken, thoroughly enjoyed, really good,
would definitely do it again. Will do it again. Probably not too far in the future, it's gonna
happen again. Just saying, just floating that one out there so it doesn't come as a surprise
to anyone when I'm next talking about another barbecue. Because I do like a burger and a
sausage cooked on the barbecue. Bit of a fan of a lump of steak as well, but that's for
another day. No, it really is. I mean, I'm gonna jump down on a lump of steak that's
been cooked on the barbecue at some point in the not so distant future, just saying.
But on Saturday we had some family pop over as well. Really good, wasn't quite an outdoors
kind of day. But yeah, we just sat around having a chat. Really, really good, thoroughly
enjoyed it. It's nice to spend a bit of time with family. Yeah, I mean, it's necessary.
Let's be honest, it's the sort of thing that I enjoy. I like it. I like being surrounded
by people, I like having people around, having a laugh, having a joke and whatever else.
So yeah, thoroughly enjoyed it. Really did enjoy it. So if you're listening to those
that came, thanks very much. Will do it again soon. See you soon. Just gonna give you just
a little bit of an update on how things have been with me. What I will say is since having
my first round of Okraverse, I'm not having, at this point, I'm not having anything new
flag up to me. There's nothing, nothing jumping out as brand new, oh this is gonna be a problem,
blah, blah, blah, nothing like that. I am still having issues with the old stuff. That
was always gonna be the case. And don't get me wrong, I know full well going forward,
there is gonna be new stuff. You know, the condition is progressive. But if, if that
Okraverse has slowed the roll like I hoped it would, and that's a term I do use a bit.
If it has slowed things down, so I'm not gonna constantly keep getting this and that new
thing. Yeah I'm chuffed. I'm really happy. I'm genuinely really pleased about it. Because
it got to a point where new stuff was, every couple of days there was something new just
jumping out and causing an issue. You all know that. I've talked about it. But I'm
at a point where things seem to be staying at a level. I'll take that. That's what I
said all along. Get me on the treatment, keep me at a level, I'll be happy. Not lying, meant
what I said. I'm happy with that. I'm very happy. What I will say, in terms of the older
issues that are still there, at times they are feeling worse than they did previously.
What I will say is, the types of issues that I'm having is, as I've mentioned previously,
electric shock type feelings that go all over the body. They start in one place and just
ping around. And yeah, I get it. That's gonna happen. A central nervous system is a little
bit damaged. Should we say it's a bit damaged. And that damage is progressing. So I've got
to expect that. That's fine. That is what it is. I'll grudgingly accept it. Not happy
with it, but such is life. Still getting that water drop type feeling on the top of my head.
It doesn't happen that often. But it is really disconcerting when it happens because I'll
be sitting indoors. And it feels like it's raining. Not absolutely pouring down, just
like little drops, little droplets on the top of my head. Obviously there's nothing
there because I'm sat indoors. But yeah, I mean that's the sort of thing that is still
going on. It's still happening. But again, kind of expected it to. I'll be honest, I
kind of expected it to. But you know, hopefully one day that will become less of an issue.
Things like the numbness in my feet and the weak legs. Again, it's not gone anywhere.
Again when I'm having a good day. And I'm going to be honest, the last couple of days
have actually been good days. Don't get me wrong, the foot drop's still been there. My
toes are dragging across the floor. But actually in the grand scheme it's not been too bad.
I've not been too bad. I felt pretty good in myself. So yeah, I mean that has actually
been really really good. And what I will say, and this is sort of me on a personal note,
I've got to learn when I'm on a good day, don't push myself too hard. Don't overdo it.
Accept I'm on a good day. Be grateful for that good day. But don't get too cocky with
it. Because in all truth, something I actually do is when I'm on a good day, I think ah great
here we go, everything's going to be fine. And I overdo it and then for the next couple
of days after, I feel absolutely awful. Really really bad. So that's something for me I've
got to learn. I know I shouldn't overdo it and I know that overdoing it is the wrong
thing for me to be doing. I can't help it. So it's a learning curve that I suppose. It's
one thing that, excuse me, it's one thing that I've got to kind of push away from myself
a little bit. Because it's something that I should help. Those of you watching me on
YouTube, I've just picked up my cup with water in it. My cup is green. Now because I've got
the green screen on and I've got a picture behind me, my cup looks like it's missing.
It's just little bits of green just floating about. That's brilliant. It looks like my
hand is holding the River Thames. That's amazing. Sorry, I was just going to float that one
out here. I was just having a sip of my water. It tickled me a little bit. I've got to say
that was brilliant. Back to the important stuff. That's pretty much where I am in terms
of VMS itself. It's a learning thing for me. It's something I've got to get used to. I've
said this so many times in the past and I've had so many people say it to me. Because let's
be fair, the people around me are very, very intelligent. They're very wise people. When
I'm overdoing it and they're telling me I'm overdoing it, I kind of feel like I've got
to prove them wrong. I shouldn't have to do that. I shouldn't do it. That's me being a
little bit silly. I've got to say that. That's me being a little bit silly. Because I don't
have to prove anything to any of them. I don't have to prove anything to anyone. Not myself,
not no one. I just need to be me. That's something I would say to people in all truth. Never
feel like you've got to prove anything to anyone. As long as you're happy with what
you're doing, as long as you're content and you're able to continue on and do what you
need to do, there's nothing to prove. There's literally nothing to prove. Again, I've gone
back to this show, I've gone back to scripting the episode. Because I'll be honest with you,
yesterday I had so many things in my head that I wanted to talk about. I should have
sat and recorded yesterday. But I didn't. And I left it to today and actually I didn't
have a clue. I came out and I'll be honest, I've probably been out in the studio. It's
a shed. Studio, shed, studio. No it's a shed. Let's be fair, it's a shed. But I'm out here
now and if it wasn't for the fact I'd written down what I was going to talk about, I'd actually
be struggling because again something that is causing me an issue is brain fog. Now we
talk about brain fog and to be honest it's never really been something I understand.
But I'm starting to. Because quite regularly and especially at the moment, I don't know
why, I can be having a conversation and I will totally forget what things are called,
I will forget what I'm talking about and all sorts. Even to the point, I mean just the
most basic thing, I can look at it and I know what it's called. But actually I'm looking
at it and it probably takes me a good few seconds at best to actually remember what
the word is that I need to use to explain what I'm talking about or what I'm looking
at. And I will say it's actually very upsetting because without realising it, I could be mid
conversation and somebody sort of finishes what I'm saying because I can't. And like
I've always said, I'm a laugher and a joker and I will always be a laugher and a joker.
But actually it's something that's a bit upsetting, it's a bit heartbreaking, I will say that.
And I know other people out there have very similar issues and everyone deals with it
their own way. And I will always laugh and joke about it because again that's what I
do. But it's really quite upsetting, it's not the easiest thing in the world to deal
with. I've got to say that it's horrible, it really is horrible. But that's enough
and a negative. As I say on the whole, I'm kind of coping, I'm doing alright, I'm doing
alright and I'm kind of pleased I am. I can't say that, I'm kind of pleased I am. Going
on to the next part that I want to talk about, bear with me, I'm just going to have a sip
of my water again and I'm going to try not to get giggly, over the fact my cup's going
to get all weird. Give me a second, here we go. Again it looks like I'm drinking water
from the River Thames. I would never advise doing that, it really wouldn't be the most
sensible thing you can do. But my plan now, I want to mix it up a little bit and just
very briefly touch on something that myself and Lisa, for those that don't know Lisa,
it's my wife, my much better half, we've kind of got into a new TV show. I say new,
it's not necessarily new, it's been around for a few years now and it's designated
Survivor. Now going back a good few years ago, we used to binge watch TV shows and one
of the main ones we used to binge watch was 24. We were a big fan of Keith Sutherland
in it, he was brilliant, absolutely fantastic and the show itself was just different class,
we really did enjoy it. We'd start watching it relatively early in the evening and sometimes
we'd still be there at 1 or 2 in the morning watching it. It was not wise but we used to
do it anyway. Actually this designated Survivor, it's not far short of the same sort of thing,
obviously Keith Sutherland is in it. I'm not going to go into too much detail of the show
itself, in fact none at all because I'm actually advising you, if you've not seen it, give
it a watch. Honestly give it a watch, it is brilliant, it is so much fun. But yeah, we're
able and we do quite regularly, we'll just sit there, put that on and the kids will be
upstairs chilling out whether they're on their Xboxes, whether they're watching movies or
playing on their phones like kids do. No kids don't play, yeah they do, it's all kids ever
do these days, they play on their phones or their Xboxes. What's wrong with a park and
a football? It was great, not these days obviously. But anyway, back to designated Survivor, yeah
genuinely, myself and Lisa will sit there for hours on end watching it and we've only
recently started it and I do mean recently, we're already half way through the second
season. From what I'm understanding there's only three seasons of it, maybe we might need
to slow down a little bit otherwise we're going to end up completely finishing it and
then what do we do after? It's then a case of finding another TV show to sit and watch.
But yeah, no genuinely, absolutely fantastic. If you get the chance and it's something you
look at the trailer and think yeah I could enjoy that, my advice, give it a go. Genuinely
give it a go, brilliant program, so much fun to watch. Yeah again, I'm recommending it,
I'm recommending it really really highly. And as I say that's the sort of thing I don't
tend to talk about on this podcast so it obviously must be good, it must be and it is. Anyway,
I just thought I'd float that. What I want to do now, just very briefly, as I mentioned
previously I'm a bit of a golf fan. What happened at the Masters the other day? Them trees coming
down like that, unbelievable, absolutely unbelievable. He's really really lucky to be fair, all joking
aside, really lucky there was nobody injured because they're quite big trees and it would
have been a little bit frightening if they had of landed on someone. So yeah well done
to those that ran out of the way because I don't understand how them trees come down.
So the wind, I can't imagine it was that bad, I mean obviously I wasn't there, right there,
I wasn't there. But seeing that on TV, genuinely I'm thinking to myself, wow, health and safety.
Where were they? I mean I know their health and safety is obviously slightly different
to ours, not a problem, but you've got to imagine you'd be looking at thinking, that's
a hazard, let's check on the other trees. Just saying, just saying. But yeah, I mean
looking at the weather out there anyway in Augusta, that has looked horrible, it really
has looked grim, I'll be honest with you, that rain has not been nice. So fair play
to the players and the crowd to be out there every day doing what they're doing, absolutely
fair play, really really fair play. I can't talk about who's won or anything like that
because there's still another round to go when I've recorded this podcast. So it's
impossible for me to mention anything about winners, but no genuinely fair play to those
giving it a go out there because that weather is not nice, it's looked a bit grim. But finally,
on today's show, I just want to mention just very briefly the fact that as a family we're
having a little trip on Tuesday, we're going down to the South Coast and I have previously
mentioned that there's a potential that as a family we may well make a big cross-country
move. And the South Coast really is where we're looking at, so we're just going to
pop down there for a couple of days and just have a little look and see what's what, see
if we like the look of it. To my point, I've been down to the South Coast previously, not
to the area that we're currently looking at, but not massively far away, but most of the
rest haven't. So we'll go down, have a look, see what everyone thinks and go from there.
But yeah, I'm quite looking forward to it. What I am going to do, I am going to look
to blog and vlog some of our trip, not a massive amount because at the end of the day I'm spending
time with family, but I will blog and vlog some of it. I will post it up on my social
media accounts. The blog will be on my website, which again, website www.mikesmsjourney.com.
So by all means pop across, have a look at that because I will write up as many blogs
as I think is worth doing just to explain how things are. But yeah, I think we'll probably
call that a day for today's show. I hope you all have a really good time. What I will say
is as I say, I'm not going to be back until the back end of the week, so there wouldn't
be a lot of point me doing the second show in this coming week. But as I say, the blogs,
the vlogs, all that sort of stuff will be on my socials, it will be on my website. So
by all means take a look. Well, as I say, that will do for today. I think I've talked
long enough. Have as really good a week as you possibly can and I will speak to you all
again. Thanks for watching. Thanks for listening. Bye bye.