My 10 essentials

Hi Guys,

I've been a bit quiet on the blog and social network front the last couple of weeks, I've been in a bit of a funny old mood so not felt like being on my computer etc but my lovely friend Donna Trinder tagged me in her recent post 'My ten essentials', on her fabulous blog Lost and Found .  You can read the 10 things she just couldn't do without on there.  Thanks Donna, I needed something/one to kick my blogging ass into gear and bring me out of my grumpy mood ;0)

So what 10 things do I feel I couldn't live without? Well lets see...

My 10 essentials

1) Ok I'm sorry but I'm going to copy this answer from Donna, Anne who was also tagged in this challenge and Amanda from a Diary of a mummy misfit who originally tagged Donna.

For me my little family starts with my Hubby, my parents and I have to include my pooch Spike.  They (well I'm really talking about Hubby and my parents here) are extremely supportive and caring and I'm not sure what I would do without them. Spike supports me in his own little ways by cheering me up if I feel sad, warming my feet and he loves a good old cuddle. Pete is my soul mate and my best friend. He's definitely not perfect but he is the perfect man for me (excuse the soppiness).

The rest of my family are very important too and although we are all busy in our own lives I know that they are there.  This includes my extended family, Hubby's family. They live many miles away but I know they are always there for us and I couldn't ask to marry in to a better family.

2) This would have to be 

You can find friends in the most unexpected places or in the most unexpected circumstances.  I feel friends are often the blessing that comes out of a bad situation.  For example being diagnosed with MS.  I'm sure you'll agree this would be a bit of a bummer (yes, I'm putting that very lightly) but there are some positive things that have come out of my diagnosis and one of them would be meeting some wonderful people and making some wonderful friends. This has been through forums, Twitter and blogging.  I have made some fantastic friends some of which I may never meet but they are good friends all the same. As the other ladies who were tagged have said already (I'm not going to copy all their answers honestly) I too love Twitter and the people I have met through it.  It's amazing how close you can feel to someone you have never met.

3) Control. I'm not talking about controlling things in life, I'm far from a control freak *err Hubby you can keep your smart remarks to yourself!*. I'm talking about loosing control of myself, my body.  So far I have been lucky in the sense of how MS has affected me. I have recovered from any relapses I have had (more or less) and medications are keeping my MS at bay.  The thought of loosing control of my body and/or my mind terrifies me. I have had a glimpse of problems with speech and mobility and its not a route I want to go down again any time soon.  Ultimately I realise that I have little control of how things are going to pan out with regards my diagnosis but the control I do have is how healthy and strong I keep myself now.  I am lucky that MS hasn't had a bigger impact on me physically, so I should take advantage of this fact and do all I can to keep myself as healthy and strong as I can.

4) Avonex, the disease modifying medication I take! I don't know what I would have done without it!  I was sitting in the GP's the other week and we were chatting about how things were and she was asking me about Avonex and who was prescribing it, which is the hospital,  She checked the cost and it was just under £700 per injection! She mentioned she wasn't sure if it would be a drug they were allowed to prescribed but was surprised to find that if she wanted to she could.  I then said to her I hoped the hospital would continue to prescribe it because there's no way I would want to come off it as it's one of the reasons I can keep working full time.  She quickly reassured me that of course they would continue to prescribe it if they needed too. This wonderful drug is keeping my MS under control and it has been for over a year and a half since my last relapse.  Along side the positives of this drugs  is the negatives, the side effects from it.  But for me I stuck with it, learnt to cope with them and I've come out the other side and now I get minimal problems with it.  Who knows how long I'll be able to stay on Avonex, at some point it may be necessary to change (I hope to goodnes that this doesn't happen unless it means its to go on to a newer better drug which doesn't involve weekly injections).

5) Ok I'm sorry, no 4 isn't completely original either. Books, film, T.V.  It may sound awful but I'd be lost without any of these.  Ok yes I would survive but they're a great pleasure in life.  Well books not so much but some people may say, 'T.V, films they're not essentials' but I love a bit of escapism, getting lost in fantasy worlds.  It's not just fantasy worlds I love documentaries an programmes you can learn from.  Saying that no matter how many cooking programmes I watch I still get it wrong!  From as young as I can remember I loved getting lost in these fantasy worlds.  One of my earliest memories of reading is The Faraway Tree by Enid Blyton, I use to imagine myself up there with Moonface, Mr Watizname, Silky and Saucepan man.  It was one of the many fantasy worlds I loved to imagine was real. 

6) Anne I'm with you with good old Sky plus too.  I would hate to be without it! It's the best thing ever! I record so many different programmes and watch them when I have time. I love it when there's new series that Hubby and I enjoy and we can sit down and relax together watching it. *A little note, we don't spend all our time watching T.V, there is more to our lives ;o)*

7) My phone! What did we do before our smart phones! I don't know how I survived, lol! I use my phone for my photo's, keeping organised, keeping in touch and even checking on my money.  I've been out and about looked at my bank balance at the cash machine and realised, damn it, I have no money. So  in a few short minutes on my phone I've transferred some money from Hubby's account to mine, LOL!  How good is that!  

8) My computer.   Another bit of technology I'd be lost without.  I love my little notebook my parents bought me for a birthday pressie.  When I dropped it and damaged the hard drive so I couldn't use it for a few weeks, I hated it.  I love going on Twitter, doing my blog, checking out other peoples blogs.  I love to look at clothes and other things I'd like to buy if I could.  At work if a patient asks me a a question I can't answer I click on google and voila! 

9)  Adventures, I love going on adventures with Hubby and Spike.  Once upon a time, as a young girl I was quite a tom boy but as I got older the adventure scout in me hid away.  Hubby reignited my adventurous side (ooh err!) and I discovered my love of camping and the great outdoors.  I would hate it if someone was to take that away from me.  We even went wildish camping when I was bang slap in the middle of a relapse which was affecting my coordination and balance. We slept under a tarp in our hammocks and I still managed to explore the glorious Welsh countryside, admittedly Hubby did all the hard work (which is nothing new when we go camping, lol!)

This quote from that wise little bear Winnie the Pooh, makes me think of my Hubby - 

10) Contact lenses.  I'm really quite short sighted and without my contact lenses or glasses I'm blind as a bat.  I don't mind wearing glasses sometimes, particularly during hayfever season but I'd hate to wear them all the time and would be lost without my contacts.

So that's my 10 essentials.  Some are pretty essential and some are just things I love and our essential to me, well kind of.  

Ok now I have to tag some other lovely bloggers and these are:

Melissa from Forgetting mess, pausing time...

Mia from http://themusescircle.blogspot.co.uk/

Kate from http://canigetanotherbottleofwhine.blogspot.co.uk/

Ladies I would love to see your answers but I appreciate not everyone enjoys or gets the time to do these challenge.

Thanks again to Donna, this is just what I needed and as always I've enjoyed this little challenge.