Writing this post feels like a race against time. Just before 11:00 this morning I started to feel a pins-and-needles sensation in my left hand. My thumb was strangely stiff and stuck to the side of my hand, I could move it if I tried really hard but it was slow and it quickly moved back to its stuck position. Initially I thought I must’ve been sitting on it in a funny way, but after fifteen minutes with no improvement I began to realise something was up.

Within an hour the rest of my fingers had gone stiff and stone-like as well, and I couldn’t move my hand at all. By lunchtime my wrist wouldn’t move either. I’m used to my hands locking up temporarily during ‘ticcing fits’ but I’ve never experienced anything quite like this before.

By 4:00pm my forearm was getting stiff too, so I decided it was time to get some professional help. I went with Fat Sister to my local A&E where I was seen very quickly. The doctor was friendly but perplexed. She called the on-call neurology specialist for advice and he suggested a medication to try, I took it and waited, but my arm remained painfully tight.

While we were seeing if the medication would help, Fat Sister bumped into a colleague she used to work with. I started to explain what was happening to me but I got very distressed and started to cry uncontrollably. Fat Sister comforted me and a nurse gave me some painkillers which made me feel much calmer.

The neurologist came to see me and examined my hand. He said it was dystonia and that there wasn’t much he could do. He said it was a case of waiting to see if it would sort itself out, but advised me to speak to my consultant as soon as I could.

Fat Sister and I got back to the castle a little while ago, and I soon noticed the thumb on my right hand getting stiff in the same way as the left. Worried that I’d soon lose all movement in both hands, and so not be able to type at all, I began this post, typing with one extended finger.

While I’ve been writing, my right hand’s become claw-like too, and typing’s getting increasingly difficult.

I’m used to my body doing strange things, but even so, this is frightening.

Today’s definitely not panned out as I thought it would, and what’s happened feels like an unwanted Christmas gift from my brain.

I hope the next time I write I’ll be able to report an improvement.