Voodoo Chil'

An update on the powder and potions - I took the first on Wednesday night and the second last night.
Yesterday I woke up full of the cold - all snottery and coughing. My lower legs were sore and I felt really yucky. I didn't get dressed til well into the afternoon and stayed in all day.
This morning I got up to get Vee off to school and still felt horrible. I was sore again and tired. Before I had fallen asleep the night before, I had been feeling really warm. It's now after lunchtime and I'm just back up but trying to get myself back on track.
I don't think I'll take the 3rd powder tonight. My concerns about this whole homoeopathic lark being a load of hooey seem to be proved, as I don't feel any better - in fact I feel a whole lot worse. What a waste of time.
I feel doubly scunnered as I haven't been doing much writing or rehearsing. Dammit!

Taking a Powder

This is basically the text of an e-mail I have sent to Professor Richard Wiseman (http://www.richardwiseman.com/) a well-known skeptic and de-bunker who I follow on Twitter and his blog. It pretty much sums up what happened today.

Dear Professor Wiseman,
I thought you might be interested in my being referred by my GP here in Glasgow to the Homoeopathic Hospital at Gartnavel Hospital.
I have ME and Fibromyalgia and am currently being prescribed Pregabelin (Lyrica) which is giving me gvery ood results in terms of pain and fatigue relief.
I was diagnosed in 2003 by the Infectious and Tropical Disease Centre (also at Gartnavel) and after a severe relapse this autumn, my doctor referred me back to them. Despite the lastest research into the links to ME with the XMRV virus, they stated that they don't consider ME to be an infectious disease (!) and suggested a referral to the Homoeopathic Hospital. I am part of an ME support group which is particularly interested in the current medical approaches and treatments re ME, so despite my reservations for the purpose of research I agreed to go.
I did receive an appointment fairly quickly despite being told it could take up to 12 weeks. I went along this morning (24th November) for an hour-long appointment with a Dr. Bob Leckridge.
He told me he was trained as a GP but had become interested in homoepathy. He took a complete history, not only of my ME but of my and my family's health but did not perform any physical examination. He spoke at length about the use of homoepathy as a holistic treatment and his beliefs in one's health being like a river (!) flowing between the banks of chaos and rigidity. He did a lot of wee squiggles on a sheet of paer that he gave me to take away with me.
He surmised that my disease stemmed from my initial bout of pleurisy that I had in 2002 from which I feel my ME stemmed and that this had never been properly addressed. Taking into account my personality - confident and empathic he said (I felt a bit like I was having a cold reading - I told him that I was a stand-up comedian so no sh*t Sherlock), he prescribed 3 doses of Phosphorus powder 30c to be taken over 3 days and a return appointment in 3 months. He also gave me his e-mail and urged me to get in touch if my symptoms worsened before then but he did not explain what benefits if any I should feel. He also gave me the address of his website/ blog - http://heroesnotzombies.wordpress.com/.
I am going to take the powders, again for research but am concerned that NHS money is being used in this way instead of doing clinical research into a condition which may at worse now be linked to a leukemia-type virus but that the general concensus seems to view as psychological. If so, how is it that a neuropathic treatment used for epilepsy is currently of great benefit to me?
I appreciate that you are a very busy man Professor but thought that you would like to know what is being offered to ME patients like myself.

Movember

Here's my fella rocking a 'tache. Suhweet!

Name and No Shame

I read this piece in the Guardian online http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/nov/20/childrens-names-girls-names and it really struck a chord.
As I mentioned in my last blog post, once again someone had trouble with my name. It has been a burden all my life, mis-pronounced and mis-spelled. However, after having had it for 40+ years, I'm fiercely defensive of it.
As you know my name is Jeanne. I pronounce it as "Jan" but with a hard "djih" sound. It's French, for Joan, and was the name of the woman we call Joan of Arc (Jeanne D'Arc) and also of the actress Jeanne Moreau. Watch any French movie and you'll probably hear someone being called it.
The reasoning behind my name comes from a drunken promise my mother (Georgina aka Georgie aka Gena) once made to her's. My uncle had 3 daughters and named none of them after my grandmother and my aunt only had one son, so when she found out I was on the way, my mother stepped up and said if I was a girl, she'd name me after her. The story goes that when I was born my gran came into the ward, scopped me up and declared me "wee Jeannie". My mother was aghast, having picked out a name for me - I was to have been called Julie (Julie Andrew, geddit? My mother was a big fan). Sadly, the baby girl next to my mum died suddenly and as she was also Julie, my mother scrapped the idea. Not wanting a "wee Jeannie" she gouged out the "i" and I became Jeanne.
I have gone by "Jan" and actually spelled it as such in my teens. However, now I like it and I think it's more memorable. I know Americans say it as "Jean" (as in Jeanne Trippelhorn) but I have a figure from my past who was called that so it's a bit hurtful to hear my name said that way.
When my own baby was on the way, our choice for a girl's name was Mhairi but some Gaelic "enthusiast" tried to tell us "it's pronounced Vari when she's there and Mari when she's not" (!) so we went with the "Vari" spelling - we discovered later that it's a Sanskrit name meaning "water" or "sea".
It could have been worse - if I was a boy I would have been Gregor! (Vari would have been Joe after Joe Strummer.)

Radio Ga Ga

Taking my first step back onto the world of comedy, I was on local radio last night. All in all, it was a pleasant experience. I fluffed a bit when surprised and asked for a one-liner (I don't do one-liners - to me it's like asking a doctor you meet to have a look at your boil) but then I came back with 3 great gags about the Royal Wedding, so all was OK. A nice wee studio, nestled in the bottom of a tower block, all friendly people. Being on with Charlie helped and Ross Main was nice (he didn't seem to remember me from the first Spoons and the "Sex And The City" incident!). I think it went OK and the feedback I have had so far is positive.
Just a couple of notes for any DJs -
1) Please don't try to do the transatlantic DJ voice when you have a perfectly nice Glasgow twang.
2) If you promise to do something (like play a piece of music that means something to somebody) either do so or say on air that you can't (in this case because the CD player was acting up). Don't whatever you do, say you are playing my favourite track and then put on f*cking "Back In Black" by AC/DC (which I dislike intensely).
3) Get my name right! That always helps. (On explaining that my name is spelled as it is because I was to have been called after my mum's mum and my mum adapted it to the French speling - "What part of France does your granny come from? Clydebank.)

Back In The Saddle

I may end up with egg on my face and tears in my eyes but I have agreed to do a 5-minute "comeback" spot at Spoons on Friday November 26th. I feel it is time, as Rafiki says in The Lion King.

Update

Sorry for not posting - life's been a bit of a whirl! Vee hasn't been well - she spewed her guts up on Tuesday and was poorly for the rest of the week, so I have been tending to her. Gee has gone off on a stag weekend (translates as 4 guys camping and going to Go Ape!)and we have been stuck in watching doovds - we saw Kick Ass tonight and it was fabby.
I managed to convince my doc to let me try some new tabs - Pregabelin/ Lyrica - and they seem to be working a treat. No pain, head clear for the first time in ages and sleeping about 7 hours a night with no disco naps!
I met up with some other ME patients last week and had a good chinwag - it feels good to meet other people who really know how you feel.
I'm going to be on the wireless on the 19th - nothing stupendous, just on a new comedy show talking with Charlie Ross and Ross Main on a community station. I'm also hoping to have the DJ play Chris Kane's new song "House Rules", which would technically be it's UK debut! And I have been talking with a sketch group about writing and performing. I would like to try for Spoons at the end of the month but we'll see. Definitely want to get back in the comedy saddle for the new year.
Not much else - reading, playing Fable III (it's grand) and listening to music.