My Life with MS – Week 1

Week ending 30 September 2018

In this blog I have been sharing parts of my life, and how I am living with multiple sclerosis and chronic pain. Concentrating on a specific event that has happened in my week has been the fuel for my writing. For the next few weeks I will try something new. It is an experiment, and it might interesting, or it might fail, but I have to try it.
I will divide the posts into sections to share what has happened in the week, and also what I am planning for the next week. In some way I will become accountable to the blog, and this will keep me moving in the right direction, I hope.

Exercise

At the MS conference last week one key point was the importance of exercise in managing MS. Faster blood flow would have the effect of increasing the amount of oxygen that would be available for my brain and nervous system to use. I hope that my body would find a way of bypassing the damaged nerves caused by MS and perhaps the damage caused by my car accident.
The goal is to exercise again. This will involve a physical cost as I get fit as I will have more pain and extra fatigue. These costs will be ok as long as there is benefit at the end. So I swam on Tuesday and Thursday last week. 378 metres on Tuesday, and 486 on Thursday. The focus was on my arms, and also I would swim one length (18 metres) as fast as I could. HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) once a week an aid you in improving fitness, but my current attempt doesn’t qualify as HIIT, yet.
I was thrilled with this start, and over the next weeks I would like to increase this to 3 days in the week, with one day incorporating HIIT as part of the swim.

Diet

This has been week two of my new diet, the Autoimmune Protocol Diet (AIP). It has been a mixed week with one dinner I prepared with a new slow cooker was a disaster. I had onion and carrot, topped by sweet potato stewing for 8 hours. The carrots didn’t cook well, and it was a tasteless empty meal. I prepared something like this before, but baked it, and it also had potato (I cannot eat these anymore). My partner got a pizza, and I had eggs and smoked salmon after to fill the gnawing void ???.
I prepared some nice meals. One of chicken with a coconut and ginger sauce. A tray of baked vegetables (carrot, onion, broccoli, sweet potato, mushrooms and asparagus accompanied this. It was delicious, and kept to the golden rule, 75% veg on the plate as a minimum.
My partner made some delicious blueberry muffins and apple muffins (almond and coconut flour). It is important to have sweet food too. I had tried to make yogurt for my granola from hemp seeds and I failed. It was more like a fermented milk. The taste is different and will take time for my brain to adjust to it. As I failed, my partner stepped into the breech and is now trying to make the yoghurt. In time we will get there.

Activity/Work

The looming prospect of my survey work finishing has been a source of concern The extra income that this generated has made life a little easier, but it will stop this week. So I have been trying over the last few months to find something I can do, physically and mentally, to replace it. This is important as it is a focus in my week and the cash it generates helps.
So far I have been trying to find freelance work on the Internet that I will do. Transcription is one that can give me a few euros, and I have a couple of other things I will be trying. Once I have found something I will let you know.
I will also have to get back to the Clifden Writers group, but it meets on a Monday and I am exhausted after doing my work on a Sunday. Now that this work has finished I will get back writing for this, and also my book.

The week ahead.

On Tuesday I will attend my first FES physiotherapy session. The plan is to do two per week for 8-10 weeks. This should strengthen the muscles in my right leg, and might have bladder benefits too.
I will also see my psychologist on Friday. This will allow me to do a brain dump of all the things I have entered in my journal over the last few months.