October

I’ve not blogged properly this month. Bad Danni. Quite a bit has happened, and I hope to get most of it down here.

I’ve been diagnosed with ME. This isn’t a big surprise, as I’ve been ill now for 14 months and my blood tests and things are normal, while my symptoms match. The main symptom for me is muscle and joint pain that isn’t relieved by normal painkillers (ibuprofen and paracetamol), but I’m also exhausted, and often my legs won’t hold me so I can’t walk at all. I have to use the wheelchair all the time when I go out now, which sucks a bit but I guess it’s what it is there for. There have also been a couple of particularly bad days where I’ve had to use it in the flat as well, but luckily that’s not a common thing.

I also have quite a lot of the other symptoms (brain fog, word finding issues, post exercise fatigue that normally causes the leg failure mentioned above) that make life a bit more difficult. The brain fog and stuff makes college interesting, as I have a very poor short and medium term memory (worse than I already had from dyspraxia and stuff) so have to write everything down. It’s not going too badly though, and my Computing test results have been good so far (100% on both of them is good, yes?). I have had to miss a few lessons because of exhaustion, which isn’t great but I’m doing my best to go in.

In Interface, we’re meant to be looking for work experience. Unfortunately, the one I want to do I can’t because it’s upstairs and there is no lift. I’m also a bit worried about work experience in general, because right now I’m simply not well enough to do it. I’m managing college through stubbornness and because it’s familiar, and adding something extra isn’t going to help. I’m also rather ill at the moment (relative to the last year, so since I got ME) and dreading college, not because of the lessons but because I’m not sure how I’m going to stay awake and alert for at least 12 hours a day. This half term I’ve been taking naps during the day, of between 15 minutes and 3 hours. I’m also in a lot of pain, and because of the medication I’m on to keep my brain under control I can’t have any painkillers, so I’m also rather grumpy and grouchy. Realistically, I know I shouldn’t be going to college at all and should be staying home and resting, but I’m determined to get through this year, and so long as I can get dressed (even if I need help) I’m going in.

On Wednesday I went to the Centre for Life with my friend Dean, who was at Interface with me a couple of years ago. We got to see the Doctor Who exhibition, and it was a lot of fun 🙂 It was nice seeing him, as since he lives quite far from me and he’s no longer at college we don’t have that much contact in real life (though we talk online sometimes).

Apart from sleeping (I do a lot of sleeping these days) I’ve been playing a bit of World of Warcraft. Got some of our guildies the Kingslayer title (I already had it from the first time our guild killed Arthas, back in June with the 20% buff), and managed to do some hard modes, including Saurfang, which we managed to 2 shot. I’m not sure if it’s the 4.0.1 changes that made it easier, or just that we had an awesome group, or both, but that was a brilliant moment for our raid. I honestly think that if we get a similar progression group together more often, we could get most of the hard modes in ICC down before Cataclysm comes out. It depends on what the guild wants, though.

As for Cataclysm, I’m really excited for it. I have the collector’s edition preordered from Amazon, which should arrive on the 7th December. I watched the Blizzcon stream which was awesome, and made me wish I could have been there. Maybe in a couple of years 🙂 The login screen and the cinematics are just amazing, and with the changes coming in 4.0.3 I’m really looking forward to it.

I’ve probably missed a lot of stuff, but that goes with the poor memory. Today is Hallowe’en, and so far we’ve had no trick or treaters, though we have got through a bag of Haribo Spooky Mix. Tomorrow is the 1st of November, which is the start of NaBloPoMo. This year, I’m going to try and post every day for the month, and as I liked it last year (on my previous blog) I will be posting a video everyday, on whatever takes my fancy. Hopefully I’ll also type a few words to go along with it.

Also tomorrow is Autistics Speaking Day. I will be blogging about something related to autism and communication, and I may be hosting a guest blog post for the day as well. More information on that tomorrow 🙂