It is #MSAwarenessWeek, so I’m going to do a quick thread about what it’s actually like to live with multiple sclerosis.
When I was diagnosed, my main symptoms were balance problems & double-vision. If I try to stand on one foot, I fall over. Not too much of an issue, coz 1/?
how often do you stand on one foot? Literally every time you walk. In other words, I’m really unsteady on my feet, which is even worse if I close my eyes. This obviously becomes problematic when you do something like have a shower and wash your head. When I’m out and about 2/?
I use a walking stick to give my brain more information about where I am. I can also lose my balance if I turn around too quickly, say, or look up, so having the walking stick presents me with a literal crutch in case I need it. There are other times balance matters too, but 3/?
that will give you a sense of how tricky everyday life can be. I do exercises to try to improve my balance, but it will never again be back to 100%. Part of what influences my balance is my eyesight. I mentioned I had double-vision when I was first diagnosed. That was awful 4/?
forcing me to either wear an eyepatch or else prisms over one lens of glasses, which corrected the vision when I was wearing the glasses but was still double in my peripheral vision. Speaking of which, if I try to look out of the side of my eye then my vision bounces around. 5/?
My muscle tries to pull my eye back round, as you can see from this video. The result is that I have move my entire head around to see things at my side. Imagine wearing a hood that cuts out your head peripheral vision & you’ll get a sense of what I mean. Anyway, in order to 6/?
(Forgot to attach the video before. It’s here)
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Going to try to sum up my feelings about the Pier Head in a quick thread. Apologies if you hate threads or you've seen plenty about it, but I'm incensed.
I was disappointed to see so many people congregate at Anfield on Thursday night, but I understood it. The outpouring of 1/?
Emotion and the desire to be with people that you know and love at that moment. I was able to have friends & family in my garden to watch the match and celebrate in a socially distanced manner, but not everyone is so lucky. You head where you know, I guess. I said in the 2/?
Preceding weeks that people wouldn't congregate if we won the league but I was wrong. I didn't like to see it, but I did get it.
Yesterday, though, was a totally different thing. The immediate glory and desperation to be with others wasn't an excuse any longer and the people 3/?