MS Awareness week 2014

Apparently it's MS week here in the UK.

As many of my regular readers know, I have Relapsing Remitting Multiple Sclerosis. You wouldn't necessarily know to look at me (unless I have a bad spasm or walk into a wall) as it's an invisible disease.

Symptoms I have include doublevision, fatigue, short term memory loss, bladder problems, pain, muscle spasms, vertigo and things that can loosely be termed as "weird shit" to name but a few. I work reduced hours so I can retain work-life balance and I inject myself with some pretty serious drugs three times a week, but I do try and keep myself as medication-free as possible to counteract the inevitable side-effects.

When I publish my e-chapbooks, you can download them for free, but I do give you the option to donate money to the MS Society in the UK.

I have written a haiku sequence: 'Limboland' inspired by my diagnosis in 2008. It was first published on the MS Society website and later in Lynx. I have a copy to download from my Issuu account.

I have also written one of my few long poems "Tulips and Roses" (which is cockney rhyming slang for MS).

I also keep a largely upbeat blog about MS: Dave's Magical Brain. I recommend you seek out my MS History posts to give you an idea of what it's like to be diagnosed with a chronic illness.

Anyway, that's all. As there are only 100,000 MSers in the UK, research into our disease doesn't get the government funding that other more high profile diseases do. At the moment, we don't know what causes MS and we don't have a cure. High profile MSers include Jack Osbourne, Montel Williams, Richard Pryor and a personal hero: Don van Vliet aka Captain Beefheart.

Thanks for your time.