When I was first diagnosed as having Chronic Neuropathic pain, I came up with a way of measuring how good or bad the day ahead might be.
After getting ready in the morning, washing, brushing teeth and visiting the toilet; I realised that the time it took the toilet cistern to refill was a measure of how fast or slow I was moving that morning.
This might sound really silly but bear with me…
If I could flush the toilet, then get out of the bathroom, across the landing, down the stairs and into the hallway, BEFORE the toilet cistern had filled up again, today would be a good day. If I was only halfway down the stairs, when it filled up, I could use how far down the stairs I was as a “pain measure”.
Throughout the years, this proved to be a fairly reliable measure of how good or bad the day would be. How agile I was, first thing in the morning reflected how much pain I would be in. Each time I made it all the way down the stairs and into the hallway, before the water stopped flowing into the cistern, put a big smile on my face. Sometimes even turning around in the hallway to face the challenge of the stairs and feel smug that I had just managed to get down them.
I’ve been doing this for a number of years now.
TODAY is going to be a great day.
I have just managed, first thing, to make it all the way to the bathroom door BEFORE the toilet cistern was full.