Lady of the Lake

Hi! All!

Spring is just around the corner for us - hope you're all as well as you can be! I'm now fine and Prozac is my friend - props me up just enough to be me!

Thought I'd tell you about my Occupational Therapist (OT), Sally, who is a darling! Gentle and softly spoken and giggles like a drain! She comes to our home when we need her and this time she came three weeks running with 'aids' to help me in the home!

I already have a bathmaster seat which allows me to lower myself electronically into lots of silky bubbles and once I'm finished, I rise from the water like the 'Lady of the Lake' holding aloft my loofah! It's a relaxed affair, with Arf washing my back and then enfolding me in a warm fluffy towel - gets better by the minute! Well, this time she brought some soft rubbery, glittery caps!

Yeah! I know what you're thinking!

Plus ribbed rubber tubing (now come on, wait for it)! And what looked like a dolly's plastic toilet which turned out to be a device to help tip your kettle! We have a tall chrome kettle and this made it even taller! After she'd put the thing on backwards ('cos she couldn't stop giggling) we finally arrived at the finished product and I flatly said, "NO! NEVER!". The rubbery caps were for helping get tight jar lids off and the tubing was for putting on the ends of cutlery to help with your grip - I just couldn't use it without thinking of condoms!

Sally then brought out what looked like a piece of white hose with a hole in the middle! I thought "Crikey - not colonic irrigation!". She cut off about 12 inches (Arf thought it looked about right!). Then we divided it into three and each piece fits on the end of your knife, etc., or even your toothbrush! We had to pay for the 'caps' - which were very inviting to play with - but nothing else! Sally had a coughing fit through laughing; I had an 'accident' because of her laughing, and Arf just looked bemused! The most human thing about this lovely girl was when she took her shoes off (it was VERY wet out!) - she had holes in her socks!

Now that's the National Health Service for you, the poor girl couldn't even afford new socks! She said her daughter 'borrowed' all her nice ones and she was left with nothing! We left each other still giggling and I hugged her to death because despite my initial wariness of all things 'to help', she managed to make the whole thing a joy and I shall miss her until we need something else.

I started off dreading Sally's visit, another reminder of MS. I always try to do things myself first, and if I can't do the job, then I use an appropriate aid to help. This way, 'failure' is not a word, just a state of mind! I've banned it!

See you all next month!

Love Sandie. xx