breaking news

Good news:
FINALLY made contact with some occupational therapists that I'd found on a website. One of them actually pointed me in the direction of my local PCT (Primary Care Trust), which was very cool. Especially considering the fact that the PCT will be free.
I've had a couple of chats with them and they've had some experience of working with people with MS. I've asked my GP to refer me to them, so we'll have to see what happens next. Hopefully they'll see me at work AND at home. I'll keep you posted.
BAD NEWS:
I had a check-up with the MS Nurses at the QMC a couple of weeks ago. They were really pleased with my progress - apparently most people that have relapses like the one I had in May can take up to 9 months to recover; at that point I felt 60-75% better.
Well, the next few weeks were spent doing the marketing for Derby Festé, a 3-day arts festival which took place between 4 and 6 September. Pretty hard work, and I had to spend quite a bit of time at the events that weekend. The Thursday after, my leg started dragging, fatigue set in, and now the whole of my left-side (arm and leg) is like a gigantic side of beef that I'm carrying around with me.
You find me on day 5 of what almost certainly appears to be a full-on relapse. Or at the very least, Relapse '09 Part Two.
Because of a theory that one of the MS Nurses came up with, for a surreal couple of days we actually found ourselves praying for a urinary infection; the logic ran that my dose of Swine Flu might have extended my relapse from May, and made me easy prey for anything going around. But I got the results back today and they came back negative.
I'm going to see the Nurses for an assesment on Monday, maybe for another round of steroids, maybe to talk about starting a course of disease-modifying drugs and daily injections.
Also, I guess there's a chance that my condition could be up/down-graded to secondary progressive. But we'll cross that bridge as-and-when.
AND FINALLY:
It really IS a shit business.

Sent from Steve's iPod