Back Again! Back Pain Support Thread

[PavlovtheCat]

Only right I start the new one seeing as I was responsible for the last one ending so abruptly !

This is a support thread for people with back pain (that does not even cover the description of hell that back pain causes). It's for all types of back pain, for long term posters with chronic pain (including those on the upwards journey to recover), short term advice through tough acute episodes and all the in betweens.

We moan, winge, share successes, guide each other and hand hold through the maize of a million medical routes and options, treatments, investigations. We internet shop as a form of pain relief, drink wine, take strong painkillers, eat cake and we go through lots of heat packs!

We don't always have the answers but we do have a lot to say about it all

Here are the links to our previous threads:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/general_health/1871592-The-Back-Story
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/general_health/1992406-The-Back-Story-Continues
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/general_health/2023274-More-Terrible-Back-Stories

yeah- it was a past thing- about 17 yrs ago! it is long gone and now as you i have way more stuff so it all needs its own box. We have a big drawer full of wires, leads and small machines like hair-dryer etc but it's one of the kitchen drawers that's supposed to have my utensils in it- our, i mean our , of course! have you seen michael mackintyre's bit about "man drawers" with old phones, info booklets, leads, other country's money etc in, we have one of them too, or three! here's the really big q- how many makeup bags do you have? i have 4 at the mo, 1 nail colours, 1 eye, 1 lipsticks and one "newest stuff" + foundation.

hope you feel ok in the morning matilda, I know what it's like when you feel like you have to clean the house and then regret it a bit after- or think you might. Once you get into it , it's really hard to stop, you feel a bit committed, well i do.
anyway hope they are nice house guests

I had a massive clearout while pregnant with DD2 while DD1 was in nursery. We had a huge box full of electrical stuff, cables especially which we managed to whittle down and now fits in the drawers of the TV cabinet.

I've kept up being fairly ruthless since but have a pile of stuff for ebay/charity shops. And we also get less random crap from the inlaws. Seriously, they gave us an ercole chair which is big and scruffy and not really something the kids should be playing on. Heaven knows why DH agreed to take it but they got it back when we had DD2. We are in a 2 bed flat and they have a 4 bed detached with two garages, two reception rooms, massive kitchen, three bathrooms and a laundry room. They obviously feel too guilty to chuck it themselves so offload it to us. I'm dreading a potential house clearance, sorry very morbid, but they have so much stuff and I don't want it (except the piano which is small and was supposed to be given to DH for his 30th but his mum changed her mind).

We do have a cupboard of doom. It's our only inbuilt storage - it's the under stairs cupboard, the upstairs neighbours' stairs. It's not so bad now I have some trofast in their to store toys and kids clothes, plus suitcases and anything else without a better home. I can now fit in the vacuum, steam mop, ironing board and even DH's keyboard and have room for the buggy. The shed is is also full of stuff but we had a big clear out. Now we have the amazing school place we have to stay put and we can't afford to buy a bigger place here. I hope the school is as amazing as they say, I couldn't really tell much difference at open days.

Now we have to stay I'm planning lots to try improve the storage - new kitchen, new shed, move the boiler, redecorate kids room inc moving a radiator and getting bunk beds. And any day/week/month now the bloody builder is supposedly coming to repair and repaint the front of the house, repair and repaint our bedroom ceiling and repair and re plaster the hallway. Why are builders so unreliable? We have the plumber out tomo but I've told DH to be home to deal with it. Bloody toilet. No wonder I'm stressed.

But the rest at the weekend helped and I feel better. Still stressed that the kids have trailed bread around the house after DH left it out instead of putting it away so they can't reach and they are still home all today, flipping teacher training day. I forgot and have a telephone counselling assessment appointment so have to pray DD2 sleeps and DD1 leaves me alone for half an hour. Thankfully the weather was ok enough for DH to put the toy kitchen etc in the playhouse so less mess, phew. Might go get another coffee and hide from the kids until nap time.

We have a whole garage of doom. God forbid we should ever have to put a car in it. I'm ruthless, though, in the house - I do plenty of ebaying as long as the stuff is light enough to carry to the PO; & have filled a huge charity shop bag today. All the local charity shops do pick-ups round here as most of the shops are on a pedestrianised street, so it's a really handy way of getting rid of things!

I know what you mean about potential house clearance, Queen. I have thought this about my PIL & their extraordinary quantity of stuff. It's not morbid, it's practical - I've already had to do this twice, for my mum & my sister, & have been executors for them both. That was bad enough, but neither of them lived in huge houses. Not worried about my dad, either - he has never amassed "stuff", & has a much younger partner who will (I hope) sort all that out.

Buy my PIL keep everything - they have DH's old school exercise books in the attic. Sometimes they pretend that DH & SIL are using their house for storage, but when DH tells them to just chuck it all out they never do. And yes, to the offloading onto us if they can, unless it's something we want! They had a lovely wooden sledge that was actually DH's but they refused to let us have it as they wanted the boys to use it there - ignoring the fact that we'd be unlikely to be visiting if there was snow deep enough to sledge in. And DH has smuggled out lots of his old lego bit by bit as he wanted our two to have some of it, but had been told to leave it, even though it was his.

Anyway, how is everyone on the pain front? Hope people aren't suffering too much from cleaning / festivals etc. My nerve pain hasn't been so bad today & yesterday so haven't started the pregabalin yet. Still having a big problem with generalised muscle pain in the upper back & can't work out why.

The woman from the cleaning agency has been round today. She seemed really nice - well, she liked our cat, anyway - but she won't actually be doing the cleaning, & I haven't met the woman who will be yet. We're going to give it a go, anyway, & have 3 hours every fortnight. It's just under £9 an hour so I don't think it's too bad.

I love throwing things away. But I'm scared of throwing out electrical leads and chargers, they are just bound to be the one you need some day. With four of us all with the usual bits and pieces including a long run of the boys with Playstations etc, we have a fine collection. So the fridge box is a fine idea. I stuff things in drawers as I don't like clutter but the state of some drawers and cupboards might be best avoided. Cleaning out cupboards is strenuous, though and requires reaching and bending so not easy.

I'm back from my psychological assessment. Very nice man so the nearly two hours passed easily. The had lunch with my kind friend who came with me and found a tiny old medical museum which was fascinating. So quite a good day. Not, of course in expected pain but have taken full whack of codeine and had tramadol sr earlier so let's hope I remember to get off my bed at some point.

Well done on getting cleaning help. It's vital and even better if they speak good English so you can actually communicate your wishes. I had a girl for a while who spoke none at all and so could only do one set of tasks and then quite badly. A good cleaner is a joy.

Hope everyone is doing ok. Haven't said it for a while so will now.

Steady girls, steady.

Ok,

I'm a bit

Bored

So

I will

Finish

Up

This

Thread

And..

Start

A

Lovely

Shiny

New

One.

See

You all

There!!!

And here are my new summer nails...well it is June