Do you remember the game, Twister? I grew up in the 70’s and 80’s, a time before mobile phones and instant tech, a time when boredom was an accepted part of childhood, when parents simply expected you to entertain yourselves, paying little or no attention.
Twister was a stalwart of our generation, try as you might to play it alone, it required a good number of people to get the most from your entangled situations. I am sure it is still around, but for those who have missed out, it is a play mat of coloured circles, with a clock face spinner board, in turn you spin and it directs you to place a body part on a colour, it climaxes in a contortion of limbs, all trying to hang on to position.
I now play my own version of this family game, as I move, Left leg, red! Very red, red for pain and stop! Right ankle, red, and by this I mean right wrist, my neuro symptoms have me say the wrong thing even to myself, as I move around, I identify the red areas and find solace in the green, right leg, green now after a week of red, hence the now red left leg, all that compensating has a cost. I put on another support bandage, swallow pain pills and try to move as gently as possible.
The hard part can be naming the areas anatomically, I know when its really bad, when body parts I can not name are shouting out red to me. Breast bone, red, red! Sternum, red the muscle under arm pit, knew that name once, red red and red! But right knee, green today, so hey.
There is rarely a route cause link to these seeming injuries, occasionally something as simple as carrying my bag differently, did that once and couldn’t raise my arm for a week, was nearly sent for x-ray, suspecting dislocated shoulder. Crossed my legs for a few minutes, felt like my thigh muscle was been flayed from the bone for days following. Such causes can be so slight it can be impossible to avoid, once a red spot is up, your whole body works in overdrive around that area, thus triggering a Mexican wave, of pain around the body.
And so as I try to function, I play my game of Twister, knowing if I played the real game, I would be a collapsed, immoveable heap, remembering that I was never very supple and often found it too painful to play, ironic then that I should be trapped in the Gamemasters clutches and now forced to play daily.
So with fingers, right hand and left, now in the red zone, from typing, I retire back into my support gloves and say goodbye for now.
Chris. x
Living With ME 