On the up and up

Throw back the shoulders, let the heart sing, let the eyes flash, let the mind be lifted up, look upward and say to yourself …
nothing is impossible!
Norman Vincent Peale

I feel good, na, na, na , na, na, na, na – I knew that I would na, na, na, na, na….

Today I am feeling rather perky and full of the beans of life (hoorah!)  – Have I miraculously recovered and able to be walking about? Has the PG and Psoriasis cleared up? Have I won the lottery?  No, no and no are the answers – still bed/house bound, still a scabby, flaking, sore, blistered creature and still working for a living but doing so happy and with a sence of hey-ho, let’s just crack on then..

I’m not much of a believer in wallowing – don’t get me wrong sometimes its required and can be healthy to let it all out and is okay in a short-term to be sad  (I am not talking about actually depressed people BTW) but I do have a problem with the “oh woe is me” group of people who, I actually think, love being professionally sad and defeated. There are people (and I’ve met many) who like to play the part of victim in the play of life…”I would of done X but couldn’t because of..”, “I could have achieved X but person/company/one-legged dog wouldn’t give me the chance”, “everyone gives me a hard time..” etc. You know the types, always someone or something that is in their way. Personally, I do not believe or accept anything can stand in a person’s way except their own self!

One of my favourite quotes (apart from my mantra of there is no such thing as can’t) is – you are master of your own destiny – don’t like your life? CHANGE IT!  Don’t like your friends/boyfriend/job/house/colour of your hair? CHANGE IT or please, please stop moaning about it as you are making people’s ears bleed!!

Sometimes in this life you can not change the people you wish you could or the situations you may find yourself in BUT the one thing  you can change is your own perception of the situation or how you handle/relate to a certain individual. Why annoy yourself or live wailing of the injustice of your circumstances when with little bit of mental shifting on how you look at/or deal with something/somebody can change the whole outlook into something more bearable rather than just bleaks-ville? It’s all about the PMA baby! (Positive Mental Attitude)

I’m over my new ‘conditions’ – I have read a heap of information and will continue to educate myself on new information/drugs/tests as I come across it with my endless research but since I won’t ever be 100% and that won’t ever change or go away, I’m done being sad and weepy over my lack of perfect health and on the whole I intend to keep on keeping on….the ol’ body might not want to play nicely but my mind is stronger and my absolute stubbornness to refuse to be controlled by a disease(s) is stronger still and I will find a way to be who I want to be, scabs, scars, blisters and all!

So be happy people, rejoice in the good things you have, wallow in the love and support you have from your friends and family and switch your brain into positive mode…let’s stay on the up and up

Life has no smooth road for any of us; and in the bracing atmosphere of a high aim the very roughness stimulates the climber to steadier steps, till the legend, over steep ways to the stars, fulfills itself.
W. C. Doane

Who decides what drugs I put in my body?

This week I read a rather interesting blog post by a lady called Jackie Ward who runs a health based business called ‘Towards better living’ – http://bit.ly/d7LiDR – the post is all about the nature of consent within the medic/patient scenario. In my 10 years of being a VIP member (!) at my local hospital I have never known about this and it struck a big chord with me…

I do suggest reading the blog in full but the main point of the post is around doctors prescribing drugs if they deem the risks to be worth it….hhhmmmm who’s body are the drugs going into??

This made me think of all the different types of medication I have been on over the years and whether or not it is right (for me personally) to keep taking the prescriptions off the doctor dutifully and putting chemical after chemical into my body believing that it must be right as the doctor said so…like I’ve said before it’s the biting on the bum in 20-30-40 years time I’m not looking forward to and there has to be some comeback right?

For those who have read my blog before, you will be aware that I have recently developed Psoriasis due to being on the drug infliximab (remicade) for the treatment of a totally separate condition. I knew nothing about psoriasis other than it affects the skin and was never told at any point it was a possibility I could develop it or that I will have it always – I asked the specialist last week if they see psoriasis develop allot in infliximab patients to  which the answer was no, I was the first but it is in the text-book that it could happen – oh right, thanks for the heads up now I am  covered in psoriasis and in danger of scratching myself raw!

I am the type of person who has to know about anything that may affect me and mine, to the point I get quite obsessive sometimes – it also possibly helps me feel in control of something I have no control over (and also I honestly believe it is important to try to stay with the conversation when doctors are discussing you like you are not in the room!) In my quest for knowledge I have now read several books (currently reading “Coping successfully with psoriasis” by Christine Craggs-Hinton) found a fabulous online support group with lovely, great friendly people (www.psoriasis-help.org.uk) and found 2 groups on Twitter (@PsoriasisHelp and @Psoriasis_Line) both with great links and advice.

Armed with both my new knowledge of consent and speaking to people who have suggested different, natural remedies for treatment I am going to open my mind a tad and see what is available out there…With having a long-term illness  I am at the stage were if someone told me to dancing round naked, waving a stick and chanting the alphabet backwards would work I would give it a go…so why not other more conventional, fully clothed ways such as acupuncture or herbal remedies?

Interesting though when I Drift back to the original thought, would I have given consent for the infliximab if I had been made fully aware of any serious implications of it? To which my answer has to be who knows, the choice wasn’t given to me…