Everywhere I go my red bag goes too. It’s my emergency bag and contains everything I need when I have a ‘ticcing fit‘. One of the things in contains is a plastic wallet for the sheets my support workers use to record the time my fits occur and how long they last. This is so I can keep track of them and see if things are getting better. I also keep a pen in the wallet. It’s called a Sharpie.

This morning I noticed some strange bruising on my chest exactly where I’m always hitting myself with my fist. But this area hasn’t been bruised for years, and these marks looked like nothing I’d ever seen before. In fact they were lots of tiny bruises, hardly bigger than a pinprick.

For a moment I couldn’t work it out, but then I remembered…. last night I was putting the Sharpie away but instead of putting it into the wallet I pounded my chest with it still in my hand.

I guess it’s a Sharpie by name and a Sharpie by nature.