Factor 50+ Works

We went to the beach and I protected my lovely Sunshine from the harmful rays with Factor 50+....and then stupidly wiped my hand on my shoulder...

These white stripes are not cool!

Doggy Discectomy

Last night's telly viewing included Super Vets on BBC 1 (mainly because finding the remote was too much effort for all...) and to my surprise my Mum wasn't worried (Which is a surprise as she refuses to watch hospital programs!)about Tommy having an operation on his back....a doggy discectomy if you will. Whilst I hadn't lost the use of my hind legs, I guess the procedure is the same...pretty much! :s Anyway, that is probably as close to an operating theatre any of us want to get...:D

Un-stapled

My clips came out this afternoon..so hopefully lying on my back will be a bit more comfortable! For those of you who are not too squeamish there's a picture here. (Don't worry they're in a packet! No flesh in evidence!)

Mine's a double....

...discectomy that is.

Things have been a bit hectic since my last post...I was in quite a bit of pain after Sunshines Christening so I went to the docs to get a referral for another epdiural (as it was decided that maybe it was worth anoother go). Well, on Thursday I got a call from the hospital and I had an appointment with the consultant on Monday. Okay, that's kind of quick, Peter made me pack a bag just in case but we didnt really think that anything would happen on Monday...and bang! 'The epidural has done all it can, time to take them out...I have a space this afternoon or do you want a few days to get your life together?' 'err, it's as together as it can be, let's do it!'
And that was it, admitted to hospital and operated on in one day. Got to come home on Wednesday as physio and everyone else waas happy with my recovery. Lucky for the squeamish there are no pictures of my staples...although the nurse did tell me that there were 12 of them!

Jammy donuts

Life on the carpet has changed a bit over the last couple of days...in fact I haven't been on the carpet..I've been in hospital finding out that I have not one but two herniated lumbar discs. The gooey stuff in the disc had leaked out and was pressing on my left leg nerves..it was described to me by the suegeon as the jam being squeezed out of a jammy donut!
I got to have a look at my MRI scans but couldn't bring them home to blog so I found these picks to give an idea of what happened...but with two discs!



So, as a result I was given two options...a caudal epidural where steroids are pushed into the epidural space at the base of my spine to encourage natural healing of the tissues...or a discectomy

50/50 chance of success with one or 80% chance with the other...
Yesterday I opted for the epidural and now I can walk and the numbness in my toes is subsiding...should be tingle/numbness and pain free in a couple of weeks. The only downside is I can't do any heavy lifting or bending at the waist for a while which means I can't pick Sunshine up :(...we're off to my mum's for a while so Peter can recover and get back to work.

But at leasat it's something positive to post! The last few have been a bit dismal so it's about time I had some good news to blog!

Life on the carpet

Well, not life as most people would know it...and not new life on the
carpet...although I really should hoover more often! I'm stuck on the floor again today...after improvements in my pain situation over the last couple of weeks, I feel like I'm back to square 1 again. Spasm city or the suburbs at least. Poor Peter had to come home from work to look after Sunshine and I am realising how cold it can be on the floor all day...especially when both the doors are left open and the fire is off! I'll be more considerate to Sunshine from now on and maybe even get some draught excluders.

Friday the 13th

I'm not superstitious but this Friday 13th was not a good one for me...At 7am my lower back decided to go into spasm just as I was getting to the top of the stairs. It was just a good job that it was early in he morning and Peter had not gone to work...poor Sunshine was screaming for her brekkie! Agony does not adequately describe the pain...time for an ambulance.... :( Entonox to get me down the stairs and into the ambulance and a trip to Frimley Park.
It seemed like an age before I was seen by anyone...amazing how gas & air slows time down...drugged up and sent home so I have taken up residence on my trusty matress in the living room. Fed up because I wanted to take Sunshine to Aquatots today...but lucky for her Peter has...Sunshine and I will be going to stay at my mums for a few days so that Peter can go to work...Mum will enjoy seeing Sunshine for such a long time!

Pain in the butt: Part II

Following on from my sciatica post comes the next installment...it got to the point, the other weekend, that I coudn't move so last week my midwife referred me to the Physio at the hospital...Unfortunately they couldn't really do a lot for me...The nice physio gave me a really sexy (?!) corset to wear to help support the ever increasing weight of Junior...it seems to be working ok..just means that I have to move slowly and not sit around too much!
Of course not content to leave it at that I did a bit of research on the internet (I get told off by the health professionals for this) and found that the ain I have may not be plain old sciatica but something called Posterior Pelvic Pain...fortunately for me it's not SPD which would be much much worse!
Now I am counting the weeks and keeping my fingers crossed that it doesn't hang around too long once Junior arrives.

Sciatica is a pain in the butt

..literally! I'm not sure if this has been triggered buy my increase in weight, my poor posture (at times) or the fact that Junior is getting bigger and lying in a funny position - or all of these things! What I am sure of is it can be fine some times and agony at others...and it's a bit frustrating 'cos there is little I can do about it! Any tips warmly received! :)