Patterns of life

I have never had a fixed pattern to my life. I didn’t do anything regularly. Okay, I brush my teeth every morning when I get up. That scuzzy unbrushed feel is horrible.

Oh and I went through a stage of early bird swimming every morning. That’s getting into a swimming pool at about 7am and swimming x number of lengths. It was a long time ago. I was younger then. I lived in Hull. These things are not in fact related.

Now I have to schedule things – daily, weekly, so many routines. Meds at 8am, 2pm, 8pm. Restock week’s meds docket on Sunday. Hang on, that’s all there is in my repeated iPhone alarms. Thank goodness for no longer injecting Rebif three times a week. Each injection involved a series of alarms – cool bag in freezer, cool bag out and put on injection site, inject, take paracetamol.

Even with the alarms I will still sometimes forget to do something. For example, I will stop the alarm and then not take the meds.

And then there is the four weekly collection of repeat prescriptions and the associated phone call to/from the pharmacy. The bi-weekly reflexology sessions – a pleasure but I still have to remember to go to them. The four-weekly massage – again a pleasure. The weekly visit to the Disabled Living gym on a Wednesday morning. All these have to be programmed into my phone and written in my filofax.

Also there are non routine things. If it’s not written down, in multiple places, I will forget to do it.

Every hospital appointment is diarised. Social events are programmed into my phone and alarms set. This is not always a guarantee that I will leave on time or, sometimes, even remember to go. Once I had been really looking forward to a meal with actor friends at a house I hadn’t been to before. The occasion was going to be such fun. We don’t often all get together for non-work reasons. It was written in my filofax and I had worked with the host the previous week and said how pleased I was to be going to it.

On the evening I got a phone call at about 7pm. “Where are you?” He thought I might be lost on the way. I was sat at home blissfully unaware. I got in my car, drove for an hour or so, didn’t get lost. They waited the main course for me. It’s great to have good, forgiving friends.

Last minute doesn’t throw me. I am used to it. One of the consistent patterns of my life has been not to have consistency.

It’s a little annoying when it’s sleep patterns that are not consistent. Or rather when the consistency is waking up at 2 or 3am. I broke the pattern last night by not going to bed until after 3am. It was possibly not the best thing to have done. Especially when I woke well before 8am ready to take my morning meds. About two hours before. And I still brushed my teeth first thing.

Are you a creature of habit?