Unbelievably I am still locked out of my Twitter account, despite contacting their support team nearly 24 hrs ago. On the good side although I can’t interact with my followers or return the follow of my new followers, I am still able to send out everything through the scheduler, so to the majority it will look just the same as usual with none of my normal content missing, but I hate not being able to not interact even by clicking the “favourite” button. Despite getting wound up about it for the first half hour, I then just told myself there was nothing I can do but wait and wait is what I have done, plus send another email to them this morning to let them know it still isn’t working.
I was supposed to be at the dental hospital this morning, but for once, one of my minor wishes has come true. Thursday morning was the last time I had any pus on the back of my throat when I woke up, after that it was dry, there was still a tiny white dot there on Thursday but the swelling was going down and things did look better. Yesterday afternoon, I declared the ‘Thing’ dead! Two days of nothing bad happening and the fact that although I can still feel some tiny lumps, scar tissue, they are actually so small that I can’t actually see them. I decided that I was going to look really stupid turning up to show them nothing and that the best thing to do was just cancel the appointment and the ambulance. I actually cancelled that yesterday, as I expected with it being a Sunday I simply got an answer machine and a load of buttons to push just to get there. Adam was here and he said that it was the same when he booked it, clearly it is a new system that has been set up in the 18 months since I last used it, but I can’t help thinking that it is a really bad thing. I know from my job, as I was responsible for the programming of the switch, that the use of these selection menus is great for call centres as it means people get to the right person and the time being spent passing customers around it reduces most customers stress levels, especially useful with it is someone who wants customer services. Where it falls down is with the elderly, many find them difficult to listen too, due to lack of concentration and poor hearing, they also are inclined to panic about hitting the wrong button, then do. The patients transport service is set up to take people to appointments who are unable to get there any other way, like me, I need a stair-climber to get down to street level and in some places to get me into the building where my appointment is. The majority of their passengers are the elderly, the very people who find the whole thing too difficult, I have to say that my concentration problems does at times mean I find them just too difficult and hang up, there could all too easily fall through the net and not attend the appointments they need to.
Our phone just rang, I was shocked to see the display saying it was my doctor calling, the hospital had phoned him as I had cancelled the appointment, they seem to have decided between themselves that I need to be seen. He put it along the line that since I hadn’t been to a dentist since I have been housebound, that it might be a good idea to at least go for a dental check-up, I did feel rather ganged-up upon, so I have agreed to go but it needs to be in a couple of weeks time so that we can make proper arrangement with Adams work and so on, rather than this rushed last minute affair. I guess I should have just gone today, but I still think it will be a waste of everyone’s time as there is virtually nothing to see any longer, I do have to agree that I need my teeth seen to, as I have managed to break two in the last seven years and I know that one at least will land up being pulled as there isn’t much there for anyone to work on. I guess this weekend was doomed to be one of those things, just not going the way that I expect them to go.
It is one of the odd things that I have noticed since I have been ill, I no longer deal well in any way with being told what to do, even if it is done nicely. I know that could be for several reason, firstly and most likely due to the damage to my frontal lobe, that causes you to react to things in ways you would never have done before, it controls personality expression and our responses to any situation that might appear, along with our ability to make good decisions, as in not putting ourselves in danger. It is also the place where both our long and short-term memories are stored, well more lost than stored these days, it is our centre of reasoning and without all these things working correctly or not at all at times, it is easy to see why life is difficult. My sudden desire to start crying as I put the phone down, was clearly not in my control and it was also something I wouldn’t have even felt years ago. I suppose it could also be argued that it may well have been behind my cancelling the appointment as clearly neither my doctor or the hospital think it is a good idea not to go, they seem to think it needs to be seen, so was I making a bad decision?
The second reason is even simpler, I have lost so much control over my life, that anyone trying to get me to do something I don’t want to, feels like I am losing even more, control. As an adult we are expected to be in control of our own lives, not having others making decisions without our input, or our input being run over totally and ignored or manipulated. I suppose there could be a mix of all those things, but the result is a desperate need to understand why and what is happening. I can have all the facts laid out in front of me, just as I have laid them out for you and I can apply all the logic I want to situations like this, but it doesn’t change how I feel. When there are alien emotions and feelings, that you know are wrong without being able to put your finger on them, you do really feel like you are going mad, another part of loosing control.
I guess I have spent far too much of my time in the past few years trying to get to grips with the things that are happening to me mentally. It is nothing like the physical changes, those are easy to understand they are real, tangible and can be documented in ways others can understand. The loss of your own mind, your own abilities and capabilities, well they are so different and so fine that explaining them, is like trying to catch a bubble, I can see it, run my hand around it, but just as I touch it, it vanishes and I am left struggling to find the next word or sentence that anyone would make sense of in any way. Our minds are us, it’s a simple concept, one we all understand, but when parts of it fail us, then who are we? I haven’t vanished, physically I am still here, mentally there is less and less of me as a person, I am loosing me. I may be able to write, to reason and to sound like a person with everything intact, but the truth is, I am not who I once was and it’s scary being inside watching it happen with no way out or of putting on the brakes.
Please read my blog from 2 years ago today – 20/10/12 – Touching the floor
Two Rooms Plus Utilities 