I have always been proud of the fact that I am Scottish and for some reason never happier than when in my own country, today I am overjoyed that I also live in Glasgow. The why is a simple one, the temperature. Glasgow has as it almost always does, side slipped the worst and/or best of the weather. With the rest of the country having warnings about high temperatures, we have just touched into the low 20’s, more than hot enough for those of us with MS. Glasgow seems to have it’s own weather, it doesn’t matter if it is summer or winter, the weather here is always different from even those just a few miles from us. I still find it hard to accept that I have lived here for over 25 years, as I was so reluctant to move to the Scottish west coast when my first husband informed me we were leaving Plymouth, the only place outside Scotland that I ever fell in love with. A handful of years later and I was single and moving voluntarily to Glasgow, a city I didn’t know at all. If anyone was to ask me how I would describe the weather in Glasgow, I would have to say it is bland. We don’t get the great snow they do just 20 miles away in the winter and the sunshine in the summer somehow is never as hot either, but I eventually did fall in love with my adopted city, even though most Glaswegian’s constantly accused me of being English, not my fault, just down to my Scottish east coast education. I doubt there is actually a better place in Scotland as far as the weather goes for someone with MS to live. None of us seems to do well when we are forced into the extremes, something that I personally haven’t put to the test since my diagnosis. Yes, we have gone through spells of weather that have knocked me flat but they never last too long.

Adam was off work yesterday as we were expecting a delivery of something that I was quite clearly not going to be able to help the driver deliver to us, a new mattress. When we bought this house money was tight and we bought a bed that we liked the look off but was cheap. I knew that meant that the mattress wasn’t going to be the best, but it really wasn’t bad. With the addition of a pressure mattress a few years ago and all the toppers that I added to make it more comfortable it continued to serve us well, but in the last couple of years I kept waking with a sore back and I knew why. After 14 years of use, the mattress had developed dips and it didn’t matter any longer how we flipped it or turned it, there was a permanent dip on every face. Those dips didn’t just leave me with a sore back in the morning, they also made it really hard to get out of bed, it had to go. I know that I have just spent one night on it, but if anyone out there is thinking their mattress is past it’s best, well don’t think about it a second longer, get a new one. The new mattress is a lot deeper than the old one, so for the first time I don’t have to drop down onto the bed, the bed is at the perfect level to just lean slightly and I am sitting on it. Lying on it was like lying on a cloud in comparison, firm but supportive where needed and getting up, no problem, half the battle I had with getting up was the pain in my back, a pain that I didn’t have this morning. The extra bonus is in the fact that I can no longer feel Adam using it as a trampoline, he can bounce all he likes, my side stays unaffected, it has to be our purchase of the year.

When I finished my blog yesterday I actually decided to talk to Adam about it as he was here and he said that he would make the calls for me and see what happened. We were both ready for them to say that they had to speak to me and I was ready to tell them that Adam had my permission to make the call for me. To both of our surprise, neither ask, they were quite happy to take instruction from him, even though it was my medications that the calls were about. I have to say that I was shocked that neither needed to know anything other than that he said he was my husband, to talk about my medications. He could have been anyone, but they accepted what he said on face value. Mind you, neither of them have what you might call a vetting system for anyone, unlike when you call the bank and they require passwords and so on, but it still felt lax in a way. The chemist was quite happy to accept that I couldn’t bear the taste of the new amitriptyline, something that I also thought might be a struggle as these days they buy the cheapest so that they can make money. I am really glad that both calls went exactly as I had hoped, it is one less thing that I need to worry about going forward as I can at least hand those administrative type of call to Adam.

When he came off the phone I thanked him for making them for me, as always he said there was nothing to thank me for, it’s part of his role to do what I can’t with ease, but I doubt that I will ever stop saying thank you. It is still something I find hard, asking Adam to do things for just isn’t getting any easier. I know that he will never say no, but willing or not, it feels like I am putting onto him more and more almost daily. Going from independent to reliant is a very hard road to walk along. We all think that we will never need anyone’s help with anything, that we will always be able to do everything for ourselves, especially silly things as small as making a phone call. I have been winding myself up about making those calls for days, pushing it further and further away from myself in some sort of mad game that might mean that they would just fix themselves. Adam has always made it clear that he will do anything that is going to make my life easier, but I honestly didn’t think that this was something he could do for me. I suppose I have to admit that I am at that point where I am better at making myself wound up and under pressure than I am at asking for the help that is right here. You would think that the care he showed for me when I was too ill to even walk anywhere by myself, that I would have learnt, but it appears I still haven’t. Those two calls though have shown me something, it is always worth a try. If I don’t feel able to do something, even something I believe I am the only one that can, it’s worth Adam at least trying as you never know what response you will get.

Read my blog from 2 years ago today – 1/07/13 – Erratic control….freaky

Adam is on holiday this week so even though he has started and not finished loads of little jobs over the past couple of days, he is now in his normal holiday position, snoring on the settee. I guess he will as always sleep through the daylight and work on until dark, for someone who complains constantly about not liking dark evening, he doesn’t exactly make the most of the long awaited summers and it’s constant……