You know what’s weird? Finding photos on your picturemakingdevice that you have no recollection of taking.
do not drink
I mean, I know I took this – that’s me in the crappy mirror. Was I just amused at the missing sink with the “Do Not Drink” sign? Where the hell was I?
These are from my red phone, which I had to abandon when I moved here because this place is like a damn cave and if you want to take calls indoors you need a smartphone which can ride the waves of your WIFI.
weighing/waiting
I suspect the top one might have been somewhere in Whitechapel Hospital, because this one definitely is. It’s from when I had umpty bloody appointments for my is it cancer?no it isn’t-well, it might be scare. I think they like to bore you into being less frightened. In the event I had a dermoid cyst removed at Barts because these effers cancelled on me twice. Also? Turns out they are never cancerous, they just “like to” take them out.
So, what else is there in this folder… lemme look…
Here’s Poppet in her Easywalk harness. I don’t know if Easywalk is any easier than any other harness, but they all do seem to help a bit. She’s a puller. I take her out on a collar, but Ten never does.
i can haz my ball
In reality, she has two balls there. You can’t play with just one with a staffie, it’s a hiding to nothing.
Here’s one of me.
My hair is almost as long as that again now. I had it cut the summer before last because I was taking Topiramate, which was making my hair fall out and my neuro wanted me to ramp up the doses.
This is one I took in Cornwall when I went on holiday by myself. You may consider this an odd thing to do, but it was nice. It was November, not swimming weather, though there were surfers, but very very cheap, and I went over the full moon and went moonlit walks on my own. It was from before I got Poppet.
we’re going to bri-ghton! we’re going to bri-ghton!
we were going to wales, but i got an appointment at the migraine clinic bang in the middle of our proposed travelly time, and had to cancel. wales is too far to go for less than a week. brighton, on the other hand, isn’t. in m’previous post i linked to a little tumblr i made with the purpose of fishing for holiday swapsies. i didn’t get the swap i constructed the thing for, but it occurred to me to show it around to brighton peeps, and one such friend actually happened to need a dog/house sitter for the latter half of this very week.
so excited. the doggy we are visiting is the one who inspired me to adopt a staffie. she is an old girl now, but i’ve known her since she was a pup, and she’s a lovely girl.
do not fear. THERE WILL BE PHOTOS. oh yes.
i don’t know if we will see everyone this time round, but i do know there will be group dog walks. that’s it. i don’t know anything else.
we will go look at the sea, too. but i don’t know the summer dog on beach rules, so we will have to find out about all that.
and, “hollybags”? don’t ask me. i think it was one of the kirsties who coined it. or at least, passed it on to me. for safekeeping, like.
***
the national migraine centre is a private charity, not part of the NHS. it’s been run by a famous Dr, Anne MacGregor, who has dedicated herself to researching the part hormones play in migraine. when i went to see my neuro at whitechapel last year, for what i assumed would be the last time because i was moving out of the borough it turned out that he was moving on, too. Dr MacGregor is off to concentrate on research at barts, and he, Dr Giles Elrington, is taking over at the migraine clinic. I’d stopped going there because being a chronic, paying every visit wasn’t an option. He told me he would waive the fee for me, though.
giles. he’s so posh he really does wear a bow tie.
the suggested donation is currently £100. so, not inconsiderable. what i will be happy to pay for, though, is the botox treatment. this is his hobby horse. it’s been approved by NICE (national institute for clinical excellence – our FDA) but the NHS trusts all have to decide whether to bank roll it, and they are taking their sweet time.
at £600 a time it’s not cheap (which i don’t really understand, since botox is actually not expensive in itself) but if you are a chronic like me then neither is almost daily use of triptans, and in a more general way, an inability to do a day’s work. i think i cost the state a good deal more than £600 a quarter.
IF he can whip out the needle on tuesday i will be very pleased. i have had botox before and it worked really well. apparently you need to give it a couple of goes to see if it’s not just a placebo effect, but it could become cost effective if it meant i could work. what i would work at is a whole other question. of course, i have the fibro to contend with as well. my attempt to swim myself well not only sparked more migraines than i could cope with, but also quite a bit of IBS related flare ups. and then there was the fatigue… so it’s not a cut and dried situation, but bloody hell, i am sick and tired of being sick and tired, so lets give it a whirl.
***
i’m slightly weeing myself with excitement over what possible escapades protesters might get up to during the olympics. people are being arrested for the slightest thing at the moment, though, so they’ll have to be smart. i’ve written a whole waffle about it, but it’s not been posted yet.
and, speaking of waffling, you may note that i am writing like a normal person over there. i felt it was the way to go. trouble is, now i am all sixes and sevens about capitalization. what do YOU think?
Elaine Axten - Writer 