cat scans & lab reports

cat scans & lab reports

Another, more sensitive scan has been developed: infra red imaging of breast tissue which will catch signs of potentially cancerous tissues much earlier on in the disease process. Breast tissue is very dense nowadays apparently (polite way of saying we ladies are getting fatter?) This can only be a good thing created by researchers at addenbrookes hospital, surely?

It will only be offered privately as NIHCE has decided that there are enough effective screening methods already available on the NHS. Only about 25% of breast cancer occurs in the under 50s anyway so it wouldn’t make financial sense to roll out this scan to the general population. People with a family history of breast cancer would be able to ‘go private’ and pay for the more sensitive scan themselves.

This seems eminently fair. But i am coming at this from a slightly different angle to the general population. I have ms and since hearing of CCSVI in August of last year have been trying to get a referral in order to get a scan of the veins leaving my head. Doppler ultrasounds, CaT scans and MRVs are used every day on people with vascular issues – those who’ve had heart attacks those who are at risk of furred up arteries (due to their smoking/eating/exercise choices?) and those members of the population who have ’congenital issues’ relating to the flow of their blood. But apparently, if those members of the population also happen to have ms they're not allowed a look inside their own bodies. We have an immunological disorder and so, therefore have no need to look at our veins.

Discussing the worthiness of this ‘immunological’ conclusion deserves a post of its own so we’ll leave that particular story of mice alone for the moment.

very wary

Like many other people living with a lifelong condition I try to give my body as easy a time as possible – do the sorts of things that, in our heart of hearts, we all know our lives may be easier if we did them. But coming from good, sturdy northern European stock it goes against the grain to deprive oneself of ‘joy enablers’.

‘I’ve been working hard all week – I’ve earned this extra drink/bar of chocolate/ice cream/curry/bucket of southern fried chicken skin/bucket of ice cream/4 fingers/bottles/crates of favourite liquor’ (name your particular poison)

Thing is: it’s more than hard to rewire the thought processes/coping mechanisms that lead you to reach for the ‘one last...’ the difficulty comes from the need to keep a ‘constant vigil’ over one’s actions. Mindfulness: it seems we’re encouraged to believe is an eastern trait and not something for hearty anglo saxon stock to concern themselves with. In fact, if folk do employ mindfulness in their daily life we eye them with a certain amount of suspicion. I’m curious as to why should be, even whether it actually is (rather than just being a product of my hungover/fevered brain in this oppressively close summer heat. Awareness isn't a dirty word.

http://www.essentialvermeer.com/catalogue/little_street.html I find vermeer paintings can encourage a stillness in me when i look into them. For a moment I can switch off whatever else is going on around me.

2nd time lucky

I set up a blog in the summer to help publicise my (what should by now be a global ;) T shirt business. Not sure what my priorities were in those endless days of sunshine but they didn't include blogging!

I quite like putting my thoughts into words but making those words comprehensible to others is a very different affair.

This time round there's a new focus... I have MS and apart from once or twice over the last 15 or so years I was able to not think about it (or more truthfully; I chose to stare into my navel and worry about what might be going to happen).

Time marches on and in the scheme of things i've been doing pretty well.

At the beginning of 2009 I decided that the pipe-dream of making my way around The States with a camera wasn't likely to be anything more than that unless i at least bought a ticket.

In my 20s I'd pictured myself driving peoples' cars (grammar/punctuation is bound to be wrong please don't get all lynne truss on me) from state to state. 15 years later i decided to modify my dream. Last March I chose the month of october for my 'life-affirming' road trip (think Thelma & Louise but just me... on a train).

I had a wedding to photograph in the UK in September and i figured/hoped there'd be fewer extremes of temperature in October (nyc at the beginning of the month and SF at the end).

It was great - i have 40Gb of unprocessed images to prove it.

I had my first chat with a travel agent at the beginning of last year and went in to check a couple of things before setting off - the presence of a walking stick when there hadn't been one before saw the agent encourage me to get travel insurance (with honesty in her eyes) An uncommon sight in someone who has the word 'agent' in their job title?

I had my 'emergency' appointment with a neuro last week (my gp arranged one a couple of weeks after getting back to the UK in November).

The blogosphere is apparently the place for ranting... Let the wild ranting begin!

I trust this bound-to-be oh-so-sporadic-journal can take its place in the hundreds of other ms-related blogs out there.