Well that's me off my bike for a while

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Mo1959

Legendary Member
@SatNavSaysStraightOn Emma, are you maybe expecting too much too soon? I know it was a different op and probably not as bad as you, but I was close to tears in the first week after my clavicle op. I was overdosing on painkillers and my neighbour was walking my dog and shopping, etc, but once the worst of it wears off, I am hoping you will be like me and start to feel you are making progress. It will feel a long slog unfortunately. It certainly sounds as though you need someone around a bit more though, and as Pat says, maybe a temporary home help just even for a couple of weeks or so would be such a boon.
 
Maybe ask the physio about a back support and whether the occupational health department can help at all. As I said, after my discectomy I had to wear a corset for 3 months. They have to cut through a lot of muscle to get at the spine. Weakness ensues as well as much pain!

Hope you have a restful night :smile:

^^^^this^^^^^^, i have been told i will have to wear one for at least the first 6 weeks maybe longer depending on recovery,
I automatically presumed you had one ,in your shoes, i would definately be asking about it.

as suggested above, home help is a good option.

good luck
 
OP
OP
SatNavSaysStraightOn

SatNavSaysStraightOn

Changed hemispheres!
Sadly I pretty much saw the top of every hour last night. No one has mentioned a back support or anything like that and I know the cover we have on bupa is limited. I'm too tired and in too much pain today to talky make much sense of life, but there is a bupa talk to us number that I have been given, so when my husband gets home layer today/evening I will get him to bring up the phone (he forgot again) and I can speak to them for some advice. The only thing I have noticed is that the falls all seem to be later in the day rather than in the morning. It's about the only thing I have come up with and it is possible that they may be able to help out one day in January when my husband had to be away from home overnight. I gather he can't cancel this meeting for some reason I don't fully understand and had to be in Bristol for 9am.

Thanks everyone.
 
OP
OP
SatNavSaysStraightOn

SatNavSaysStraightOn

Changed hemispheres!
My husband , after a tactful word was said, scraped a part clear to the tunnel (2 lane railway bridge with an amazing echo) and then a touch further, plus our a lot of grit down that our landlady provides so I could carry on with the physio walks after finding me in years pacing up and down from the bedroom to the bathroom counting the steps and the laps out, so I have been able to keep doing the entire 50m each way twice a day. Bit I have to congress to having put on some cycling gloves this evening to keep my hands warm whilst out. That 100-125m is taking me around 20 minutes to do and my hands are getting rather cold on the crutches :laugh:

The Dr, thankfully could see how much pain I was in when I saw her today. She had increased one of my nighttime meds to try to help me get some sleep. My OH bought me one of these activity tracker things you west on your wrist all the time. Currently it is useless at tracking footsteps because it can't take the crutches into account, but it has shown I supposedly walk well over 500 steps at night and am getting less than 3 minutes deep sleep at night, total. The Dr had also written it up that for the next repeat of these meds (next week - they are strictly controlled) that I don't need to come in and if things haven't improved pain wise for sitting and standing in 2 weeks time I need to get an urgent review from my consultant. Hardly surprising given the state of the lack of disk remaining in my spine and she didn't seem too surprised given everything else.

Hopefully tonight might hold some sleep for me, fingers crossed.

Thanks
SNSSO
 
Sleep well.
 
OP
OP
SatNavSaysStraightOn

SatNavSaysStraightOn

Changed hemispheres!
Really glad you have got more meds. Also I'm impressed at your walking total. Keep on keeping on!
Whilst I'm asleep? Hoping that will decrease at night! :laugh:

Or did you mean during the day? M is for metres, not miles in this case sadly.
My days of being able to walk 27-30 miles in a day with a full pack and still take extra kit from others are sadly long behind me. Currently cycling that is a seemingly long away challenge but it will hopefully happen before the end of 2015 again!
 

Ganymede

Veteran
Location
Rural Kent
Whilst I'm asleep? Hoping that will decrease at night! :laugh:

Or did you mean during the day? M is for metres, not miles in this case sadly.
My days of being able to walk 27-30 miles in a day with a full pack and still take extra kit from others are sadly long behind me. Currently cycling that is a seemingly long away challenge but it will hopefully happen before the end of 2015 again!
Oh no I meant your metres!! ^_^ Even that seems good as you weren't walking at all before! of course you must feel that you have a long way to go but I was just pleased that you were on your feet! I'm sure you will be both day-dreaming and night-dreaming of longer distances. :hugs:
 
OP
OP
SatNavSaysStraightOn

SatNavSaysStraightOn

Changed hemispheres!
Progress is very slow.

I've taken a few more falls which haven't helped matters much. My oh has caught me twice in the last 4 days alone, which whilst useful does not do much for my confidence, but neither does falling.
The latest fall was yesterday. Totally stupid. I was sitting on the edge of the bed rubbing/massaging my back after having just some one of my sitting up exercises (I can still only manage 12 mins 30 seconds at a time) when he brought up a tray with our evening meal on it. He knelt on the bed right next to me to place the tray down to the side where it would normally go, but this meant kneeling on the bed on the same side as the side I have lost all the strength from and I couldn't brace myself to stop myself falling off the bed as the mattress went down with his weight. There is just nothing there in the way of control in my leg or side and next thing I'm on the floor having landed on my bad side. It will take several days to settle down again fully after each fall. The problem is that it is so stupid that it reduces me to tears just because of how pathetic it is. My knees and shins are a network of multicoloured bruises and my 92 year old grandfather is more mobile than I am!

I'm still recording my physio walks on strava, just for motivation more than anything else. I have only failed to get out twice a day one which was on Saturday. I'm still measuring distance in hours per kilometre rather than kilometres per hour and living from one 2 hour alarm reminder to the next for the pain meds. Not ideal but it really is the only way I'm getting by at the moment.

I'm also now back to the 10-11 hours a day at home alone routine now my oh has returned to work, so back to continuing to live in my bed... I will happily trade places with anyone who wants to moan about going back to work after the hols... Any offers? Nah, didn't think so...

Oh and there is now a bird feeder attached to the roof window in my bedroom. The highlight of the day is watching the birds work out the angle to grab the sunflower seeds at! Visitors so far are blue tits, great tits, coal tits, robins, a female blackbird and a nuthatch. The roof is too steep for squirrels luckily.

I see my consultant again in a little over 2 weeks. I can't see that there will have been much more improvement and currently we are not even sure that we will be able to get me there without still needing a private ambulance with a stretcher. If I sound a little down, I guess it is because I am. :sad:
 
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