Five years… Nothing concentrates the mind like…

So I went to see the lung specialist yesterday and got mixed news.

On the plus side, I’m special. On the negative side I’m special in that I’ve got a rare lung disease called pulmonary alveolar proteinosis which could kill me within five years – this happens to a quarter of the people who have it.

I’ve decided it’s not going to.

It’s weird really. I’ve spoken before about being stuck emotionally in the state I was in when my addiction really started which was as a teenager. Teenagers famously think they’re immortal. I’ve thought a lot about my own death and even tried to precipitate it a few times with suicide attempts. But I’d just started to think about the future in a more adult way, to plan ahead. I have a test next Wednesday to confirm the diagnosis. I’ll have to stop taking the Naltrexone before then because I’ll be under some sort of sedation to have tubes stuck down my lungs. Boo!

Yesterday I was frightened and in shock. Today I feel a lot more positive.

I’ve started in on reading a self-help book by The Barefoot Doctor and it talks a lot about visualisation and thinking positively. I’ve already started turning the thought, “I refuse to be ill” into some sort of mantra and I’m going to seriously take this on now.

I’ve kept up pretty well with my exercise and meditation doing either one or the other or both every day.

I’m off to see Desmond in a while to talk about setting up a website to earn us some money. We shall see where that leads.

If you spent it, thank you for your time.

TCC x

An experiment

The last three days have started brilliantly. I may have gone off track a little after that but the beginnings have been good.

Did you see what I did there? I attributed the good stuff to something abstract (the days), and the bad stuff to myself. Mmm. Vaguely interesting. I suspect if you’re an addict or suffering from depression you probably find yourself doing the same.

So. I have started the last three days brilliantly. The challenge now is to keep it up. I’m exercising. Woohoo! I know it’s good for my mood. I’ve done this before and not managed to stick at it but for the moment I feel exponentially better for my little morning workout. It’s nothing major: I jump on the exercise bike and cycle as long (not very long) and hard (not very hard) as I can. Then I do 10 press ups (this number will hopefully increase with time) and 30 crunchy things. After that it’s what I can remember of the Tai Chi warm up routine and running through the form as far as I’ve got (not very far) 10 times. Then I meditate for 15 minutes.

I’m off to the hospital tomorrow to find out what the scan of my lungs reveals. What my exercise reveals is that I get out of puff pretty damn quickly. I smoked too much over Christmas, I’m back at lower levels now, but I should quit. But smoking, like drinking, has an enormously powerful psychological role in my conception of myself as an adult – foolish I know, but these lessons learned (in adolescence in this case) take some time to unlearn.

It beats the hell out of lying in bed wishing I were dead and throwing up as a start to the day.

My experiment is actually around vitamin D. I did some writing for a company on the ‘winter blues’ and there’s some recent research that vitamin D may help alleviate depression. So, I’ve got 100 tablets of 1,000iu vitamin D3 (there’s a D2 as well, but what I’ve read suggests three is better), which cost me £4.99 and I’m taking one a day to start with. I don’t get out enough at the best of times – being fair of skin and reddish of hair I’ve the sun has not always been my friend. And, while my diet is good I’ve read that it’s tough to eat enough liver, eggs and so on to get our daily jolt of vitamin D. Once you start looking into things the advice you find online can be so contradictory that it’s confusing as hell. Hence the 1,000ius a day (I’ve seen up to 5,000 recommended).

We shall see.

Onwards and upwards.

If you spent it, thank you for your time.

TCC x

Well, here we go again. Fasten your seatbelts, it’s going to be a tedious ride.

Come on TCC, sell it. Well, OK.

I had a good today. Today was a good day and, like Ice Cube, I didn’t have to use my AK. I don’t have an AK of course.

It started well, it’s gone a little off track since but that’s par for the twisty course.

I got up and exercised! Woohoo! Hooray for me etc. But really that’s a good thing, it makes me feel better, it starts me off on the right foot. I meditated too. And, by 11am I’d done more than I’d do in a whole day in the general run of things.

Since this morning’s fine start I’ve fallen behind a little. A quick trip to hospital for a CT scan. This should be worrying me but it’s not. I’d like to cut down and then stop smoking but it doesn’t seem something I have the time for.

The Shelves of Destiny are still on hold. I tried though, but I can’t find anywhere that sells wood of the right size, I must do some googling straight after this post.

So, moving slowly forward but not fast enough.

Usual sort of stuff.

If you spent it, thank you for your time.

TCC x

Still time to change and the shelves of destiny

Howdy doody. Happy New Year. I hope 2013 finds you as well as could be expected and ready for another 365 days of fighting crime/conquering new worlds/just getting by or turning down Nobel prizes because, ‘it’s not about the money and fame’.

Good fortune to you whatever you do. (This does not apply if you sell arms, drop bombs, pedal heroin or indulge in any of the other myriad behaviours I have deemed a Bad Thing. If this is the case I wish you speedy career/personality/behaviour reform and a lack of success in your current malfeasance.)

So, how am I? That’s the important question here after all. This is all about me, me, me and me. If me is not your thing you’re obviously at the wrong blog. This is mine.

Not bad is the boring old answer. Not terrible either but not bad.

I still don’t drink. That’s a good un. For a lot of addicts Christmas is a tough time but for me – because my drinking was a secret shame – spending time with family generally means I’m less tempted to drink. I’m still on the medications of many colours (tediously most of them are plain old white, although mirtazapine is – in a used of potentially damaging food colourings about which I can be quite a bore given half a chance – a not that fetching orangey red), so I can’t.

I’ve slipped back a little on my meditating. Missed quite a few days now. Not good, must do better. I will. I promise.

Because Mag’s at home I haven’t smoked dope either.

I’m still going to Tai Chi but I did miss a couple of sessions in December. Personality and chronology experts looking for a reason might spot the conjunction of the aforementioned Tai Chi sagging will consult the house calendar and note that Mag was away. Any old excuse. I’d also promised to start playing football again, but didn’t. The weather was a slightly better excuse in this case but marijuana was also taken.

Counselling starts up again on January 9. I need to do my homework.

Really, I feel I need to make a lot of changes and am still struggling to make them. To that end we approach THE SHELVES OF DESTINY.

The Shelves of Destiny are – at this writing – yet to manifest in the physical realm. They are important. They are important because putting up shelves in the spare room, my – ahem – office, will be a big thing for me. Already I’m dissipating and dispersing my energy – library books (now overdue of course) are piled up loaded with good intentions, hobbies, self-help. The Shelves of Destiny will help me clear up my, ahem, office, which will help me sort out my papers and so on and so on.

I’m frustrated you see. I want to leap out of bed full of life and I don’t. I want to work a good eight hours a day then indulge in rewarding interests, but I don’t. The Shelves of Destiny are symptomatic of good intentions gone to seed.

The plan is to do them tomorrow. I have to go to hospital for a chest scan (I’m still not really right, another frustration) and can drive past the wood shop on the way home. There’s a lot of other things I want to do too.

Part of the plan is to write this every day, but we’ve heard that before haven’t we? (Note to self, stop writing like that).

So, hopefully, see you tomorrow.

If you spent it, thank you for your time.

Messages, threats, criticism and bouquets are all gratefully received in the comments.

 

Fine, fine, fine

Yeah, I’m fine.

Just not much to say at the moment.

I’ll be back.

And, in the meantime, here’s an apposite tune:

Good things too

I seem to be doing better at life. I may well have a writing job that will prove regular and pay a decent amount.

Now, I have to start getting busy. All my life I’ve coasted and got by on a certain amount of natural ability and even charm. Now I need to start to take this thing seriously, not accept my usual excuses and make the most of this opportunity. I also need to leave a lot of things behind; the blame, the bitterness, the jealousy are all worth nothing if they hold me back. Wasting time looking at the freelancing profiles of my competitors and thinking, ‘I could do better’ or ‘how did you get all this confidence when you can’t even write a coherent sentence’ is doing me no good.

So, bye-bye bitterness, bye-bye blame, on with cleaning up this office and starting to make something of myself.

I mentioned that I had a lot of long-term goals that merely impede my progress by their impossibility. Well, it’s time to start taking the small steps.

To be a succesful writer – essentially a small business (jeez, all this seems so alien to my usual mindset) – I need to get organised. So I’m going to log off and start cleaning up.

If you spent it, thank you for your time.

TCC x

 

Accentuate the positive – time to prioritise

I’m trying to look on the bright side today. The weather is not on my side. Grey, cold and wet.

But, I’m sober. I’ve walked past The Spread, soaking wet and weighed down with shopping, and didn’t feel the pull.

My health is getting stronger.

I mediate every day and have been to tai chi twice. I practise tai chi to some extent every day and I’m already feeling the benefits: my posture is better, I’m starting to get some of that energy I’ve been missing. The posture thing is interesting and a real change. I noticed it the other day, I look up more and started seeing things I’ve never seen while walking familiar paths.

My counselling homework this fortnight is all about focus. I’ve been given a wheel of life to look at. You can see something similar here. The task is to look at where I’m putting my energy. This feels like a good, positive and practical thing.

I have lots of long-term aims. (Don’t laugh). I’d like to be a popular and successful writer. I’d like to write songs and have an outlet for them. I’d like to be fit and strong. I’d like to wake up early every day and get on with exciting things. I’d like to be financially independent and even comfortable.

And, I undercut all these things and make no steps towards achieving them because I put up barriers. The chief barrier is – how can I do this when I’m a 41-year-old loser without proper employment who scrounges off his family and partner to survive. (You’ll remember I tend towards the negative when it comes to judging myself).

And, that stops me. The massive and inchoate ‘problem’ defeats me.

So, I need to start prioritising.

That’s the plan. Let’s see how we do.

If you spent it, thank you for your time.

TCC x