the end of my 'holiday'

Yesterday was lovely and sunny, today is classic Bank Holiday weather - chilly and overcast. I hope everyone in the UK enjoyed their summer!

Tomorrow I go back to work for the first time since the 5th of May - 3 weeks ago! Crazy. It seems like years back, but that was the day I got taxis all over the place. On the Friday of that week I saw my GP who signed me off for two weeks. The next week I was at the Queens Med in Nottingham having bags of drugs pumped into my veins.

Apologies for the radio silence since my last dose of drugs. The Steroids really did have a scarily positive effect; I felt a lot more stable after the first day, getting more strength as the week progressed. The pins & needles in my hands also seem to have backed off a little bit (they're still there but not as pronounced).

Being off work for so long only reminds me that I really am a deeply lazy man at heart. I've honestly quite enjoyed it; that is, aside from the pain, the injections and the disrupted sleep. I can't think of anything in particular that I have done - aside from listening to the cricket on the radio and a LOT of Radio 4 and Radio 7, I've been reading the D.C. Quartet series by George Pelecanos.

Which reminds me, there's an old friend of mine who lives 'round the corner from us. I've known him for years and he was actually one of the first non-family members that I told about my condition - he's also on the board of the place where I work. Me and Emma have lived in this house for the best part of two years but I never seem to manage to hook up with him socially.

Since I've been off work, he's been awesome, bringing books (the Pelecanos titles mentioned above), Tom Waits CDs and comics to keep me occupied and coming over to watch DVDs, giving Emma a much needed night off (Tom Waits is one of our regular conversation topics - he prefers the Asylum years, I prefer Tom's "mad-tramp-arguing-with-a-pump-organ-in-a-junkyard" stuff).

We both agree that it's pretty shoddy that it takes something like a major flare-up of MS to get us to spend time together, so we'll be working on that in future.

The week after the Steroids, I decided it was time to try and get fit - at Christmas we treated ourselves to a Wii-Fit. If you have MS and really don't feel like paying a monthly gym membership (or hate the idea of stumbling 'round a gym in front of complete strangers), I can really recommend them. The program focuses on Yoga, Strength Training, Aerobics and Balance Games - all the things which MSers should probably be concentrating on. It's really good fun. I can't pretend that I do it every day (and to be honest on the second day of my recent fitness splurge, I tried to do too much and knackered myself out completely) but it's definitely worth having a look at.

So tomorrow I return to work. After our little contretemps about disclosing my condition to my work colleagues, my boss has cooled off a bit - I still haven't decided what to do. I guess we'll see what happens tomorrow!