h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hey there!

Been busy since I got back. Not writing much, but I had a birthday extravaganza last weekend. That was fun!

How are you doing?

Hi Speckly,


Sorry to be so slow replying to your last posting -- I got out of the habit of checking my page for anything new, and I hadn’t clicked on the “Notify me”.

Hope you had a good time wherever you were away at. Where was this? I think you told me, but I can’t track down where you did (if you did).

Life goes on much the same here, with the shrink trying various medicaments that give me various undesirable side-FX. Back to see him again a week tomorrow. (Anything that makes me drowsy/sleepy also brings on the nausea - I think mebbe whatever issue I have with my guts ought perhaps to be sorted out first, but I think the quacks gave up on that.)

I’ve been re-enjoying some selected Pratchett lately - just a couple of dozen pages a night after going to bed. Seems to help me get to sleep.

So far, I’ve got through Guards! Guards! and Witches Abroad; now about halfway through Men at Arms.

It helps, of course, that I forget how the plot develops. But I got a lot more out of it from knowing in advance that Angua is a w-- and that it’s a gonne that’s gone. And I keep hitting jokes I forget ever having come across, like Magrat’s “dire rear”. And I picked up a lot of hints in G!G! about Carrot being king that I missed the first time round, no doubt because I wasn’t looking for them.

He repays re-reading!

Hope everything’s still going as well as can be expected at your end? A "birthday extravaganza" can't be bad!


D.

Life is never simple is it. Just when things were plodding along nicely and everything seemed more or less good my brother-in-law was assaulted. He's been in intensive care for four weeks now. Our life has been on hold and I've let a lot of things slip. He's improving gradually and everything should be back on track in another few weeks.

I've just leant all of the 'guards' books to my father-in-law. He badly needs fun things to read at the moment.

The writing retreat in N. Wales was great fun, though I've done no writing at all since. First I was taking a break, than it was my birthday, then all this with G's brother blew up. Because of the serious lack of writing I'm probably going to have to take a semester out, but that won't necessarily be a bad thing in the long run.

Our housemate has similar problems with meds and side effects. He's resorted to a half dose of the antidepressants, topped up with cannibis. It's probably a bad idea for him to be doing that, but it's keeping him stable for the moment so I'm not going to criticise him for it.

I hope you are well.

Ouf! You never expect to hear about things like that happening to people you know. Glad to hear he's improving, though, even if it’s taking time.

The regional news keeps telling us about gay-bashing in Brighton (gay Mecca of the South, but the straights haven’t come to terms with that yet). I suppose as long as you don’t camp it up and you aren’t seen coming out of a gay club you’re safe, as their little brains won’t realise.

Hope you’re bearing up OK in the midst of all this.

I’m still fair to middling. I tried half a dose of the shrink’s latest idea, but it gave me one restless leg instead of two, which is no improvement. Also made me tired the next day, and tiredness brings on the nausea. The full dose made me so tired that I got confused about my other medications. It’s a long road ...

Back to see him on Tuesday.

I’m now re-reading Eric. Not really one of his best, but it has its wossnames.

D.

G's brother is awake, off the ventilator and talking. Mostly talking nonsense and very paranoid with it, but at least he *can* talk. It's slow and rather stressful but we're managing. I've had to take a semester off from Uni. It's unfortunate but necessary, and on the bright side it'll spread the fees out a bit more.

Our crony lived in Brighton for a while. It terrified him. He said there were gangs of young teens wandering about being generally criminal and violent.

I'm reassesing my medical options. I still don't want to be put on lithium or any other medication. I know about the side effects and how toxic they are and I don't want anything to do with them but I can't help wondering if there's more I could be doing to control my symptoms without resorting too drug therapies. I'm thinking about it but I'm not going to rush into anything.

How are you doing?

Life’s a bitch, isn’t it? I hadn’t realised just how bad your brother-in-law was - the mention of “intensive care” should really have told me, but then, I’ve only heard of such things on the news up to now. Still, it’s good that he’s off the ventilator and getting better. Fingers crossed for a full recovery.

You sound very much in command of what’s wrong with you. I wish I was - I was feeling extra-specially woozy and wrong-in-the-head when I got up today, and no way of knowing whether this is just my condition or brought on by the latest wheeze of the shrink. Just got to stick with it for a few more weeks, then I’ll know.

(Some time at the keyboard seems to help to sort me out.)

Saw him last week and he was impressed that, after all the drugs I seem to be unable to tolerate, I tolerated Prozac for some months a couple of years ago (even though it did me no good), so he’s started me on fluoxetine again, “augmented” by olanzapine at night, which is a “neuraleptic”, which is the preferred name these days for anti-psychotics, can’t imagine why. He’s hoping it will also improve my “sleep architecture” (a little more regency and less post-modernist brutalism would be nice).

Was with him for over an hour, most of which time he spent thinking aloud. But I guess he needs input from time to time, so I had to be there.

I’ve also had a letter from the people in Psychological Therapies re an assessment session and a possible course of therapy. They have a variety of psychotherapies on offer, and whether any of them will do me any good I’ve absolutely no idea, but it can’t hurt to give it a try.

At least the weather’s still nice down here. I seem to be putting on weight, despite being on a fairly minimal diet. Must try to walk about more.

Hope things work out over there, and you manage to sort yourself out.

D.

The UnderGuide is up and running now (got a place on the front page and everything!) and Lizardy and I have both joined up as miners. We'd love to see some of your writing in there. It's not nearly so much trouble as the Peer Review process and the editing that gets done after they are picked is minimal. With your grasp of english I doubt they would need much editing at all. You don't even need to be active on the site, several pieces that have already been picked have been from long time absentees.

How is the fluoxetine/olanzapine mix working out?

Happy birthday!

I hope you had fun.