The Road to Hell

The road to hell, as they say, is paved with good intentions. I've been ill. I won't bore you. Suffice to say I finally had a diagnosis of chronic pain. Much better than it might have been. I won't mention it again unless to tell you of helpful or interesting things. After all, I have a big family out there now. My new chronic pain brothers and sisters.

So far my new magic words are Tens Machine. My pain is neurological. So instead of thinking sore, sore, depressing, distressing..............my easily fooled brain things............tingly.....not depressing, not distressing. Really amazing.

I'm also learning to relax, distract, and exercise appropriately.

The most useful and sensible thing I have learned is that it is not a war, it's an ongoing negotiation. If you fight pain with grim determination and gritted teeth, pain will win, every time. She'll bring you to your knees. If on the other hand you negotiate with pain, that's a whole different ball game. These guys can explain it much better than I can http://www.painconcern.org.uk/blog/

Their excellent podcast Airing Pain is well worth a listen. The third episode is up now. Subscribe on Itunes.

If on the other hand you like your disability with a large helping of irreverence and you are not easily offended, catch Ouch, a BBC podcast bringing an ironically humorous slant to the seriously unfunny subject of disability.http://www.bbc.co.uk/ouch/podcast/

One of the other truly amazing things I have learned is that making/ artist endeavour/mucking about whatever you want to call it keeps me sane. I know for a fact I'm not along in this either.

I hope that creating will be the main thrust of my jottings from now on with just the odd seasoning of pain matters where relevant.

I'm having some chums round for a wet play session. Tonight I've been trying to remember some techniques. The trying to remember bit is relevant as I hope to be exhibiting in an exhibition to raise money for Alzheimer's. I have a family member who suffers.

Anyway, I began monoprinting and it starterd to speak to me of memory fading and coming back into the foreground. I would like to develop this idea.