MGA News Spring 2002

Life in the Gravis household has been turned upside down. Not by anything which has happened to me, but because, over the past six months, Mrs Gravis has had cataract operations on both eyes. This has solved an eye problem that she has probably had all her life. The trouble is that she can now see me clearly and it would seem that my sense of colour co-ordination does not come up to her standards. For years I have been getting away with what I thought were cheerful colour combinations, because her natural lenses acted as a colour filter giving everything and orange tinge.

One item of clothing that I have clung on to is my bright red and yellow waterproof jacket. Apart from the fact that it is warm, it makes me highly visible when out in a wheelchair. Over the years I have discovered that down at wheelchair level you are below an able-bodied person’s line of vision. On busy pavements or in supermarkets, however careful you are, they just don't see you and walk into you. Dodge as you may, it is, of course, always the wheel chair user’s fault. Wearing my colourful jacket did help, but not when I merged with a colourful sales display, of say Heinz Spaghetti.

After one particularly frustrating day out, I realised that what was needed was something that would be at a height which would catch the able bodied eye. My chair has a joy stick control which leaves one hand free. The next time I went to the supermarket I held my walking stick upright in the spare hand, so that the handle was at a standing person's eye height. The result was amazing, not only did people see me and make way for me, they stopped and asked if they could get things off the higher shelves for me. This was fine but, like most myasthenics, my hand soon gets tired, so I had to come up with some means of providing a detachable fixing. Thinking about it on the way home from the store, much to Mrs Gravis' surprise I suddenly said "Dodgem Cars!" They have a rod with a tag at the top, attached to the rear of the car that picks up power from the overhead net. The answer was, using a Velcro strap, to attach a cane, with a small brightly coloured flag at the top, to the back of the chair. This worked well, but Mrs Gravis did draw the line when I made a flag with the words "I am down here" and an arrow pointing downwards. I should be visible, but 'not an exhibitionist' she said.

At the time of writing (late January), I have managed to escape catching any of the various flu bugs doing the rounds. (At this point Mrs Gravis and I are both furiously touching wood). My friends avoiding contact with me when they have any kind of infection has certainly helped me. I have them all well trained and they are all very good about it. I think, however, that the main factor has been having a flu injection early last autumn. Yes I know that we can all point to folk who had the jab and went down with flu the next day, but my doctor friends tell me that this is because they were probably already infected before having the injection. Given that myasthenia can be aggravated by a viral infection, I was concerned that the flu injection could have the same effect. My GP assured me that because the vaccine is a 'dead vaccine', meaning that there are no live virus cells involved; there would be no problem.

If you are concerned about catching flu, then next September it would be worthwhile talking to your doctor about being inoculated against flu. My GP tells me that whatever their age, myasthenics fall into the 'at risk' category of people who are entitled to an anti-flu injection. He also puts Mrs Gravis into this category, because she is my carer. Here's to a healthy summer.

MGA NEWS Spring 2002

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