Priorities

Helens artwork Priorities!

So, these days I use a walking stick when I’m out of the house. There is a term for this. I am Ambulant!

And for those who are unfamiliar, I live in Melbourne Australia. Melbourne weather is known to be very erratic. I think crowded house was singing about Melbourne when they sang of ‘Four Seasons in one day!’

During the winter months, it helps to layer up with clothes because being Ambulant you really need to prioritise.

Walking stick or umbrella?

I sometimes after 8 years get a look of concern from the same people asking me if I have an umbrella.

Here is pretty easy, the answer is I GET WET…

The next one I think is pretty easy also.

Once a month I go to a committee meeting for a self-advocacy group I belong to. I cruise through Degreaves Street and pick up a coffee (medicine) to get me through the meetings.

So walking stick or Keep cup?

KEEP CUP!

Without my ‘medicine’ I don’t make it through those meetings. I often get a migraine just walking through the door and with a room full of people with an assortment of Brain Injuries I generally want to blow my brains out, pretty quickly…

Piss or Blood

I recently, (again!) had another handover from one Case Manager to another.

She was a good Case Manager, but she had been dragging her feet a little on my “goals” and it became obvious when there was a ‘new’ Case Manger and that she had been looking for work closer to home because she had a young daughter in Day care and she traveled an hour or so daily to get into Melbourne…

I’m quite over the process of getting a new Case Manager. I like to befriend them so they better understand who I am and what I’m about, so they can appreciate how much I do for myself and the importance of what I do actually ask of them. I like to treat them like my friends because I do want the best from them.

Anyway, I digress – On the last meeting the outgoing Case Manager was busy checking her phone.

She explained, she was concerned for a call from their Day care provider.

And she used the term ‘Piss or Blood!’

I look at my new Case Manager, a young fellow whom I like already. He refers to me as his favourite client, so he gets a K.P.I. ‘tick’ already.

This “Piss or Blood” comment needed explaining, so it goes like this:

If she gets a call and her daughter has had an “accident” that requires a change of underwear in the scheme of things it’s not a big thing. If there’s blood, that’s more worrying. But this is not yet the point.

So, there was once a time I would speak to my mum every day.

I don’t have family close by and I live alone. When I didn’t live alone, my housemates did my head ‘in’ and despite the extra expense of living alone, the upside to living alone are many…. To be continued.

I now only call home if I want or need something or something has gone particularly badly and I need some reassurance of how to fix it, because by that stage maybe simple decisions are beyond me.

But that doesn’t mean I get a timely response. If I call, text, email, please don’t ignore me. I shouldn’t need to tell you why for you to prioritize how swiftly to respond. Just do.

If I’m having a really shitty day with my mental health, I may not call you. I may send a cheeky emoji to a person not remotely related to me because they will respond and I won’t feel like I’m going through the “Blood” alone and no one cares.

It’s a really ordinary feeling to feel you are alone in the world.