World MS Day. Celebrating my Multiple Sclerosis?

So today is World MS Day. It's been trending on twitter, hurrah! It's also World Otter Day, and now that's trending. Sounds much more fun. Hip hip hurrah and a round of applause!! And since I know of no cases of otters with MS, I can happily mark both without compromising my beliefs.

I'm glad awareness of MS seems to be on the rise and I try to do my bit. I'm blogging here after all, I've had a wee waffle and the odd exchange on twitter. I've updated my professional LinkedIn Profile with the new skills 'nodding off' and 'pretending I'm ok'. Unfortunately I haven't come up with a genius idea like the Ice Bucket Challenge, which did so much to raise awareness for Motor Neurone Disease. Maybe next year.

So today, to celebrate MS Day I welcomed a specialist nurse into my home. You'll find no 'young Swedish uniformed blonde' jokes here whatsoever. Rather grimly she visited to re-educate me about self-catheterisation - which I have to do three or four times a day - after my latest bad infection had me in hospital and on morphine for the second time in just over a year. Turns out I am doing everything right and maybe I'm just prone. Bah! She left me after just half an hour with a whole set of new-to-the-market catheters to try. How exciting is that? Up there with our 12 year-old's latest video games probably.

And to see in World MS Day early - because it's so exciting obviously - I spent yesterday evening in moments of excruciating pain while my nerves played havoc for a couple of hours with the inner workings of my left thigh. I can best describe it as intense electric shocks, or perhaps red hot fireworks, shooting down my leg at random intervals. Sometimes seconds apart, sometimes a minute or three's respite. Ouchy anyway, and given it was nerve pain, not a lot that drugs can do. C'est la MS vie.

So, am I celebrating today? Not really. I'm tired. Knackered. Looking at catheter brochures. Good news is, tomorrow's another day, and hopefully I'll sleep like this baby otter tonight. Happy otter day each and every one of you!