Wednesday 2nd December 2009

Hi Folks,

How time flies at the moment. No sooner have I made a blog post than I am suddenly overdue for my next - sorry if I worry you with my absence, but thanks also for those reminders!

Quite a tough week with lack of energy - I'm losing the desire to get out and about so much and am preferring to rest at home as much as I can. I did get out last Friday to meet some mates I used to work with, and it was great to see everyone again, but tinged with a bit of sadness that it would usually be our annual drinking reunion, and I was unable to partake and could only last about an hour and a half.

I also decided earlier in the week that I was no longer up for doing the gig on Saturday, so got my stand-in to play instead. I had planned to go over and see the first part of the show, but again I felt too tired to go out twice in a row, so I ended up staying in. Although I clearly wasn't up to the gig, it is a big shame because that probably sees the end of my gigging days, and after nearly 30 years, that is quite a wrench. However, it has definitely got to the point where the early start, late finish, humping of gear, strain of the gig itself and the associated waiting around has surpassed the fun factor that I used to get, so I guess now is the right time to pack it in. Maybe I'll be able to do one farewell gig at some point - we'll see.

On the health front, not much changes - I had my second session of acupuncture and the jury is still out. I think it would be easier to tell if I was having it for pain relief as the effects would be more obvious, but for nausea and breathlessness its much harder to spot any immediate benefit. I'll keep going though, in the interests of experimentation if nothing else.

On a reduced dose of the steroids now, so I'm not getting much benefit from them, and I'm not sure the effects of the Citalopram anti-depressants have kicked in yet (although some of the side effects like involuntary leg movements have). I'm told it takes a few weeks, but that's three weeks now with no discernible difference - again, I'll have to wait and see.

Other news is that I got my blue disabled badge today, so I am officially disabled and allowed to park for up to 3 hours on double yellow lines, as well as get free parking at lots of places like hospitals etc. I'm thinking of getting the Ferrari in a couple of weeks time if I feel up to it, and I plan to have fun parking it in disabled bays and waiting for people to start having a go at me until I show them my badge! Who says us disabled folks can't have fun? :)

Anyway, that's it for now - need to get back to the sofa for a rest.

As usual I will make a feeble and hollow promise to be more active on the blog in future, but if I fail it is because I have either little to say or little energy to say it, so bear with me :)

Cheers,

Col x