The key to less stress at Christmas? Plan ahead
With the festive season around the corner, our MSA Nurse Specialists offer some tips to help people affected by MSA have a peaceful holiday
The festive season can be stressful for everyone but particularly so for people living with MSA.
Our key message is to plan ahead. To make your life as easy as possible it will help to think ahead about the things you might need in advance, especially when shops and some pharmacies will be closed for part of the holiday period. For starters:
- make sure you have all the medication you need to cover you for the whole festive season
- do your shopping in advance, or perhaps online, to try and avoid busy crowds and long queues, enlist the help of family, friends and neighbours if possible.
Remember that if you fall ill over Christmas and the New Year, there will always be medical services open to help you. It’s very useful to have a list of contacts by the phone if you need help urgently. If you have a life threatening emergency always call 999, for non-urgent advice here are some numbers:
- NHS (England) call 111
- NHS Direct (Wales) call 0845 46 47
- NHS 24 (Scotland) 111
- If you live in Northern Ireland dial 999
Your GP surgery will be running an out-of-hours service so make sure you have these details easily to hand as well.
It’s also a good idea to find out where your nearest late night pharmacy is and their opening hours over the Christmas period. If you don’t know where your closest open pharmacy is you can check out the NHS pharmacy locator.
We’ll be available, along with some of the MSA Trust office staff, over the festive period apart from on Christmas Day (Friday, 25 December), Boxing Day (Monday, 28 December) and New Year’s Day (Friday, 1 January). We don’t work on Saturdays or Sundays but at least one of us will be available on each working day during the holiday period.
Click here for our contact details or you can always call the office on 0333 323 4591 and someone will put you through to one of us. However, please remember that the MSA Trust office will also be closed on 25, 28 December and 1 January.
The Trust doesn’t offer an emergency service, if you need this, please dial 999 immediately.
And finally we wish everyone a peaceful and enjoyable festive season.
Best wishes,
Samantha, Katie and Jill.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in the blogs published on these pages are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the MSA Trust.
