I first suspected something was amiss when I noticed loss of colour definition in my left eye, an occasional bout of double vision and an unusual tingling in my arms during a hot shower after squash. I went to the reference library and convinced myself that I was experiencing the onset of MS. But I insisted on a referral to a higher authority……. Your specialist hopefully communicates and empathises with you. He was completely insensitive. To make matters worse, Sue my wife, was not around at that crucial moment.
At times like this, what we need is immediate communication with specialists and loved ones to help us cope with the panic and to focus. If you have just been diagnosed or have just become disabled, things will possibly not change or deteriorate straight away.
It is important to speak to your specialist, your GP, your local nurse, your loved ones or even someone like me, if only because I and thousands of others have been through what you are experiencing. Look forward positively to the hundreds of things you will be able to do. Focus on your new, realistic aims and visualise yourself succeeding. If I have to get from my study to the lounge I focus then visualise getting there with my walking frame. In the meantime, while Sue and our kids, Ellie and Alex, go off to play badminton, I will focus on this autobiography and visualise myself completing it then you reading it.
Chapter One. I was born in Edinburgh in and started my education at the RoyalHighPrimary School on the other side of town to where we lived. This was the feeder primary school for the RoyalHighSeniorSchool which my parents wanted me to attend eventually. Dad worked at Bruce-Peebles engineering and Mum was Mum so, where the money was to come from, God only knows.
At primary school I never opened a book. Enid Blyton? But I had a wonderful time playing rugby and soccer. The only sisters I stretched to were the Beverley Sisters on the newly-invented TV; the eldest of the three was married to Billie Wright of Wolverhampton Wanderers and England caps and my Dad fancied one of the younger twins.
