Hello and welcome back. Here we are again.
Well, today we're sort of going right back old school.
Because listening back to some of the old podcasts I've been doing using the laptop,
I'm really not happy with the sound quality. I'm going to be honest, really not happy at all.
It was like this humming noise in the background, which, yeah, I didn't like it. Couldn't figure it out.
So here we are. We're back. We're using the phone and we are back carrying on as usual.
Well, today there's a few bits I'm going to talk about today.
One of the main ones, and I'm going to say it, is probably not something I've said today.
I want to talk about how much of an absolute head-messer MS actually is.
Now, I think any of us that are going through this kind of understand the sort of thing that MS does and whatever else.
But it really does play with your head. It really does mess with your brain on quite a big level.
And I'll explain a little story. A couple of little stories actually.
The first one was a few days ago now. And I went to get in the bath.
And run the bath, not really thought anything of it, not a problem. You know, it was perfect, not an issue.
Normally I'd dip a hand in just to check, make sure it's not too hot or whatever else.
Well, I didn't do that this time. And I just put my foot straight in the bath.
And I'm thinking, there's nothing wrong with that, that's all right.
I couldn't have been much further wrong. Put my second foot, leg in, got myself in the bath, sat down, as you do.
And my word that bath was hot. It was literally melting the flesh off me.
It was absolutely red hot. But my legs, they felt comfortable. It didn't feel hot at all.
But it was absolutely ridiculous. The heat was shocking.
And I'm thinking to myself, how can my legs be so comfortable in that bath?
It doesn't feel hot at all, which feels just right. But actually everywhere else, it's like it's trying to boil me alive.
It was ridiculous. And I'm thinking to myself, thanks very much for that.
Yeah, I really appreciate that. It's lovely, it's nice of you to do that.
But yeah, I mean, I couldn't believe it.
And then it was only a couple of days ago from now where I got in the shower.
And everything is as it normally is. I got in the shower, I'm leaning up against the wall to keep myself OK, not a problem.
Got myself all washed and sorted. And I got out of the shower.
And I put my right foot on the floor. And there was this just moment of complete shock.
Because for the first time in a very, very long time, I had absolute complete feeling in my right leg.
And I mean, literally, it was ridiculous. Like I've never had a problem with that right leg at all.
And still foot drop. That was still there. I tried to walk from the bathroom to the bedroom.
Foot still dragging across the floor. I'll tell you that because I could feel my foot.
It was actually really, really quite... It was nice. I could actually feel my leg. I could feel everything.
I will say my foot dragging on the floor was hurting a little bit. But you know, at least I could feel something.
But within 10 minutes, boom. Back to how it always is. Couldn't feel a thing.
What a game player. Genuinely. MS. Seriously. Make a decision, stick to it and let's crack on.
You know, why do we need to keep doing all the silly stuff? Absolutely ridiculous. Genuinely can't believe it.
I mean, it is just... There is a word I really want to use. And I'm trying very hard not to.
And it is... These last two things, them, that I've just talked about, is an absolute head.
And the next word begins with the letter F. That's where I'm going to leave that.
Because if I open that door and start talking about it in that manner, I promise you that door is never going to close.
So, I will leave that right there at my thought process of what an absolute, yeah, game player MS actually is.
Because it is. It is. Yeah.
But yeah, just again, just in general with myself, overnight I had a few issues, going back a little bit,
where I was having quite a lot of pain and discomfort in both my legs.
And it was making getting comfortable in bed quite difficult.
I actually put it up on my Facebook page, on my MS Journey Facebook page.
And there was another MSO who's an influencer, made a comment on it.
And I was given some advice, and this advice, absolutely superb. Brilliant bit of advice.
And I was advised to use Vicks VapoRub on the areas that are being painful, discomfort, all that sort of stuff.
And genuinely I'm thinking to myself, is that a thing? Is that something we actually do?
You know, I didn't really know what to think about it.
But from my point of view, if a fellow MSO tells me, actually for me this works,
I'm giving it a go, because let's be fair, there's nobody that can give better advice on this sort of stuff
than us that are going through it.
Because if things work for us, actually there's a small chance they might work for at least one other person.
So, Lisa bought me some Vicks VapoRub, and the next night that I was having discomfort and pain and whatever else,
I slapped a load of this Vicks VapoRub on. My word, it actually worked.
It worked and a treat. It was fantastic. Within no time at all after putting it on.
Don't get me wrong, I could still feel there was bits there, but it was nowhere near as bad.
Not even close. And it actually left me in a position where I could get comfortable.
And I was comfortable. And because of that, I managed to get me nut down and I had a great night's sleep.
I had a really, really good night's sleep. It was brilliant.
And the next night, same again. I had pains, discomfort, all that sort of stuff.
I slapped a load of this on. I got comfortable.
Now, to me, that is an unbelievable thing to have suggested and actually work.
So, yeah. Again, for me personally, if somebody else is going through what we're going through, gives me advice like that,
I'm going to take that advice because, again, it's one thing what the doctors know.
It's another thing what we know that we're going through.
And actually we try things that a doctor might not actually think about suggesting.
You know, coming back to it, it was suggested to me a good while ago now when on Instagram,
I put on there about my memory issues and my memory being absolutely awful.
And it was suggested to me to take Lion's Mane mushroom tablets or supplements or whatever else.
And I did buy some and I spoke to my doctor about whether they're OK to take alongside my pain killing tablets and whatever else.
My doctor's reply was, we can't comment on that sort of thing.
Just take it for a certain amount of time and if it works, great. Keep taking. If it don't work, stop.
Right, OK. So I started taking them.
And I've got to be honest, I'm probably on a little over a week now that I've been taking them.
My short term memory has improved quite a bit in a week to the point myself and Lisa,
we had to go and fill in some quite important forms.
And part of those forms was remembering bits of information.
I'm not going to go into what information it was, but bits of information.
And I'll be totally straight, in the past, there's not a chance I would have remembered that information.
Because any time I've ever had to remember it in such a short moment or what's this,
I've always had to refer back to Lisa or whatever else because I just can't remember them.
When I sat there, I filled out that form because I remembered that information in a second.
Literally in a second. Didn't bat an eyelid.
I'm sitting there and I'm thinking to myself, hang on a minute, I'm not going to make a big deal of this,
but do you know what? That's incredible. I've actually remembered that and I got so proud it's unreal.
I was buzzing. I'll be totally honest, I was absolutely buzzing.
And I know I've mentioned that previously on a podcast, but what I'm trying to get at is actually since then,
I've had it again and again and again.
My short-term memory seems to be improving and I am not going to sit here and say it's perfect,
but it never has been in my entire life. My short-term memory's not been perfect.
But it's always been good. I mean, doing the job I did, you know, working in security for 20 years.
I had to remember information short-term because I've got, whether it's relaying back descriptions or car number plates,
anything like that, what's happened in an incident, some short-term memory in that respect had to be acceptable.
Over the last few months, it had got to the point where it was nothing short of awful.
But taking these tablets now, and I don't know whether it's maybe having a psychological effect,
it's making me sit and think, actually I'm taking these, my memory's got to be better.
And that maybe is kick-starting something in my brain to remember stuff. I don't know. I don't know.
Or whether it actually is the tablets themselves that are making a difference.
I'd like to think maybe a bit of both. Because a bit of both, yeah, that would be nice. That really would be nice.
But again, it's a piece of information that I've been given, it's been passed on to me,
that I've taken on board and used. And do you know what? I am over the moon with it. Absolutely over the moon with it.
I mean, at times, at minutes, and again I know I'll keep going on about memory, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Well, I can actually remember what I'm talking about. Semi-impressive.
But, yeah, I mean, there's been times where I've been having conversations or whatever.
And I can actually relay that conversation to a good standard, which I couldn't do previously.
Fantastic. Genuinely, genuinely fantastic. Honestly, I was kind of wondering, is it worth taking these pills?
Absolutely it is. Absolutely. I'm not going to stop taking them, seeing the effect. I'm having such a short period of time.
Because let's be fair, in a week these things shouldn't be touching at all. But they are. So that continues. That absolutely continues.
In terms of other bits and pieces, what I've got to say from my point of view,
and I'm going to do a bit of shameless self-promotion here.
Obviously, what I need to do now, I'm not actually out in the working world full-time and whatever else.
I need to start sort of assessing my life and assessing what I can actually do to provide for my family.
Now, there is quite a few bits and pieces that are out there that I can do.
And some of them actually are things that I would never even dreamed of doing previously.
But in all fairness, life changes, we change, thought processes change, all that sort of stuff.
Everything changes sometimes, nothing stays the same. So my thought process has changed quite drastically.
And I'm currently on TikTok, I'm part of that TikTok shop.
There's certain bits and pieces on there that I'm adding to my profile for people to have a look at.
I'm trying to make it stuff that actually is quite useful.
One of the things that's on there, I wasn't going to talk about today, but do you know what I'm going to,
is a little teddy bear. And it's called a worry monster.
Now, this is something we actually bought our kids years ago, absolutely years ago, just to help them in case they ever had things on their mind.
They could write this stuff down and put it in the teddy's mouth. It would go into the teddy's belly.
So their worries were being eaten up, their worries were being protected and whatever else,
so that they knew it had been written down and effectively they'd spoken to someone about it,
but at the same time speaking to someone, to an extent that worry had been, I'm not going to say removed,
but it had been made less of an issue because the teddy had eaten it up.
Now the good thing is, once it's in the teddy's belly, the kids knew that we could open that teddy up,
we could read that worry and then help them with it.
And do you know what, it worked an absolute treat. And I'm not going to go into any details about our family life or whatever else,
but what I will say is it actually helped massively, it really did.
And as soon as I saw that on there that I could promote that sort of thing, absolutely I'm going to do it.
Because quite honestly, it's something I feel quite strongly about, it's something that from my point of view is,
it's worthwhile, it's absolutely worthwhile because I'm not being funny,
anything that can help someone out, help kids out, for me that's an absolute plus.
So yeah, I mean again, if you've got the opportunity, as far as I'm aware it's just TikTok Shop UK,
but go and take a look, go and take a look, see if there's anything on there.
I mean I've got things like Ratan Garden furniture, I've got other bits and pieces on there that,
a head torch, just little bits and pieces that actually could come in a little bit handy.
So yeah, by all means pop across, go and have a look, see if there's anything you like the look of.
But again, it's something that I was never going to get into, but actually for the sake of me trying to make money,
trying to help my family in another way, because again, 20 years in one line of work,
it kind of makes it a little bit awkward to get into other things because my brain works in a certain way now,
and yeah, it's kind of difficult to go another way, but trust me when I say,
if summer comes up, certainly part-time at the moment, because I think I'd struggle full-time,
I've got to be honest with you, I really do.
If summer comes up part-time, I'm keen, I'm more than keen, in fact I jump at the chance.
But there we go, yeah, I mean again, little bits and pieces like that,
very much something that from my point of view has got to be done, because again, family always going to come first,
no matter what, family's always going to come first.
But yeah, I mean that's kind of where we are, as I say, the MS side of things.
I've had some pretty rough moments recently, I've got to say that, I've had some pretty rough moments.
One of the things I will say, on my social media accounts, I have been a little bit quiet recently,
and again, I have said this, but it's that loss of confidence that I've had,
and I am actually starting to get that confidence back, and I will be back to being me.
I want to get back to being that fun kind of person that keeps going and whatever else.
So trust me when I say to you, I'm coming back, I'm very much there,
and I'm keen to keep entertaining everyone.
But yeah, I think that will probably do for today.
What I will say is we've kind of got the carpet being put down now in the hallway, stairs and landing.
That's happening literally this second, as I'm talking to you right now that's happening.
So I cannot wait to see what that looks like, and I will talk to you all about it very, very soon.
Have a good time. Speak soon. Bye bye.