Saturday, January 2, 2010

Molly Stick


A couple of months ago I had a really bad flare up of my arthritis. Since then I’ve been walking with a stick. I decided that instead of resenting my stick I would give it a name and treat it as a friend rather than an enemy. Also, if you’ve read the book ‘Howl’s Moving Castle’ you’ll know that in it the main character Sophie talks her walking stick to life. Now I’m not saying that will happen to mine but if I don’t at least give it a name it definitely won’t.

I started off with my Grandmother’s old walking stick which I named Glinda after the good witch from ‘The Wizard of Oz.’ Unfortunately, Glinda wasn’t quite right for me. I had a couple of falls when walking with her and the physio from the hospital suggested I’d be better with a crutch. The hospital lent me a temporary crutch until I could get a permanent one. I named him Kody after the Matchbox 20 song. You see, just before my flare up I’d been doing a facebook quiz where you had to answer questions with the titles of songs from one artist. I think I kind of jinxed myself, as one of the questions asked my favourite form of transportation. Matchbox 20 have no song titles with any form of transportation in them so I chose the title that seemed closest – ‘Crutch’ – not knowing that in a few weeks I would be unable to walk without one.

When my permanent crutch arrived I was a little out of inspiration. There’s only so many times you can name inanimate objects without running out of names. I left it to my parents. My Mum chose the name “Molly” and my Dad added the sir name “Stick” later. From then on she has been known as Molly Stick (see picture).

I know I’m supposed to be writing about exercising and eating healthy but I thought I’d tell you about Molly Stick first to put things into context. I often forget to explain to people that I have autoimmune disorders and confuse them by making references to my hands not working or giving myself injections. I think now people can see Molly Stick they understand a little more but I have got some strange looks in the past.

I hope the holiday season has been treating you well and I’ll be writing more soon.

Little Miss Autoimmune

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