I have nothing particular to say - but I'm going to say it anyway!

After my blog earlier in the week - "Standing up solutions" - I've had an incredible response from people wishing me well with the new wheelchair, and especially from people eager to see a video of me using it.

 

Hopefully, I'll get the new wheelchair sometime in the middle of September and I'll post video's shortly afterwards.

 

I've not done much this week.  Monday was a bank holiday here in the UK - as someone gleefully reminded me, "the last one before Christmas" - so there wasn't much going on.

 

On Tuesday, I went to the Douglas Brunton Centre in the morning and spent 3 hours teaching people how to use the computers.  One of the ladies who has been coming to me for sometime, finished this week.  Its always a shame when someone finishes, but satisfying that I've been able to help them, to the point that they have the confidence to go off and use the computers on their own.  The good thing is that I'll have a new person come along next week, to start teaching.

 

When I got home in the afternoon, I was completely shattered and just got in my armchair and went to sleep.

 

On Wednesday, I had an appointment to see the nurse to dress my big toe.  About 4 weeks ago when my carer came to get me out of bed in the morning, she noticed that I had blood on the big toe of my left foot.  Since then I have been going to have the toe dressed by the nurse at my GP's practice.

 

Having Raynauds, Dermatomyosiitis with Scleraderma overlap, Inclusion Body Myositis, Diabetes, Lymphodema, Lipodermatosclerosis - among others -  and being in a wheelchair means that my circulation is very bad and this means that even relatively minor cuts on my feet are a source for concern, and take ages to clear up.  Although its a bit of a pain to keep having to go down the surgery to get it dressed, it really is much better than leaving it to my carers to look after, and hopefully if it gets infected, the nurses will pick it up very much quicker.

 

The nurses have a new dressing to go directly onto the wound, which looks a little like mustard powder when its sprinkled on, but forms a protective gel over the cut on the toe and should help speed up the healing process.  The nurse uses this and then gets a bit enthusiastic with the bandages, which means that my toes looks far worse now than it actually is.

My heavily bandaged toe! Yes that is only one toe bandaged.

 

Hopefully, when I get the new wheelchair and can stand up on a more regular basis, this will help to improve my circulation, and therefore reduce the time that small wounds like this take to heal.

 

Thursday, I had my physio come for our regular bi-weekly appointment.  This involves her moving my legs and arms, and exercising my joints, and stretching my muscles.  This helps to maintain the range of movement I have, and also helps keep my condition from deteriorating.

 

After an hour of being pulled about, I am worn out.

 

Today I have another appointment to have my toe dressed again.  I wasn't expecting to go but received a text reminder from the practice of an appointment.  I know there is another David Wood who is a patient at the practice, so I just hope it isn't his appointment and I end up having some horrible procedure performed on me!

 

I between times I have been working on something here which at present I don't want to say to much about for now.  However, in doing this work I have been in contact with quite a few fellow Myositis friends here in the UK.  It has been great to get to video talk, on Skype, with people who up to now I have only corresponded with on Facebook.  It has been particularly exciting to have picked the phone up this week and firstly to find myself chatting with Joy Walker, and then only this morning, to chat with Frank Smith.

 

I have also been inspired by the recent posts by Lesley Coleby, about her son, Tom's, bicycle ride from John O'Groats to Lands End.  It is a fantastic effort by a young man showing support for his mother in raising funds for a Charity here in the UK.  Not only is he putting in a massive physical effort but he has already raised a fantastic sum of money. 

 

Lesley, you should be very proud of your son, and Tom, thank you for your incredible effort.

 

This has got me thinking, what could I do to raise money?  Being in a wheelchair, and not having great movement or strength, I'm struggling to come up with any ideas, but wonder if any of you could think of something that I might be able to do to raise funds.

 

Before any comedians suggest pie eating - that would obviously be too easy and perhaps not ideal given my already expanding waste line.

 

So there you are.  I said I had nothing particular to say, but seemed to be able to string it out quite a bit.

 

I'm out at various appointments Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday next week, so I doubt that I'll be blogging again until the end of next week.  So in the meantime look after yourselves.