Oggs, Lyra, Berrie Chat

[Berrie]

Hellooooooo!

Thanks for asking.

Morning! What a delicious nights sleep!
I guess the can of Stella on top of the pills helped things along!
Right best get these children dressed.

Sounds like you had a much better experience than last time

Another horrible grey wet day here . Where did spring go?
DP is out tonight at the Press Awards so I'm going to have a nice cold glass of Chenin Blanc and watch Muse live in Paris on DVD. Perfect.

There you are Lyra! I've imagined you laying enormous tiles on the floor but I guess you've not got round to that yet.

I have to see the Consultant today - an incredibly rude and horrible man. I am not looking forward to it. Dh is coming with me so there are two people to brush out of his consulting room rather than one.

Hope that you both have good days!

No kitchen floor yet. Still finishing the downstairs loo (I can only do an hour or two a day) but it's looking amazing. You wouldn't believe it was the same room that I hated going in a few weeks ago.
DP out again tonight so it'll be Muse live at Wembley Stadium on DVD tonight Or maybe headlining Glastonbury in 2004. Decisions, decisions...

How did it go with the scary consultant?

Morning

How did you get on Berrie?
Thank you for the books etc. They arrived yesterday afternoon. Can't wait to start them. I'm reading Further Exploits of Sherlock Holmes at moment.

Still not fed up of Muse Lyra? I find that if I listen to one group/certain songs etc too much, then I get fed up with them an have to take a break.

Morning.
What is left of the dodgy disc is protruding again and pressing on the nerve. This is quite unusual since the prolapse was so big last time. They can operate at any time however they cannot explain the pain in my left leg as it is pressing on the right. Because of this it would be better to wait and see what happens in the next month or so rather than go in when they are not sure what is happening. They have referred me for epidural injections of steroids but this will only cure the leg pain. Because the leg pain is insignificant compared to the back pain I don't think I'll bother. I only wonder whether the leg pain might get worse again but presumably I could still have the epidurals at a later date.
Surgery carries risk of further scar tissue which itself can press on the nerve and as expected the message was pretty much that I will always have back pain and that my spine will ultimately continue to degenerate. I need to learn to live with my condition as it is and strengthen my muscles and lose weight to improve the amount of pain I have.

People live with worse. I just need to get used to the idea.

Could the pain in your leg be a sort of payoff because you are over compensating so to speak?
I know I sometimes get pain in my left knee because I occasionally favour that leg so as to ease the weight bearing on my bad right knee.
Does any of the above make any sense ?

I'm still plugging away at the weight. It's going very slowly but I've ditched the so-called diets and am just trying to eat more sensibly.
I usually have porridge with fruit for breakfast, home-made soup for lunch and whatever I've cooked for tea but a smaller portion. I'm hoping this way it will come off slowly but I won't crash and binge as I'm not actually denying myself.
It feels positive somehow, as I'm consciously feeding my body well, with healthy stuff, if you see what I mean.

Anyways. I'm ere to support you in any weight loss/exercise plan if you want .

The pain in the leg is because the disc is pressing on the nerve. It doesn't hurt much though it was much worse than the back last time. They operate because the pressure on the nerve could cause permenant damage.

My resolve is weakening already. I'm hungry.

Your healthy eating plan sounds good. Glad you are feeling positive about it. I'm going to make some parsnip soup for lunch and have an apple now

That's very sensible Oggs. If it comes off slowly it's more likely to stay off. Are you doing more exercise too? Still walking huge distances?
How do you feel about all that, Berrie? Was it what you expected. Sounds like it could have been worse but could have been a lot better too. If they operate again, will they remove the whole disc? My mum's going to have her crumbling disc taken away completely and the vertebrae fused together which should take away the pain at the bones won't be able to rub together.
Oggs, no, not even a bit sick of Muse yet [mad fan emoticon]. It's weird because usually I'll get sick of anything I listen to too much but, a year on and no sign of getting bored of them. But then there was 10 years' worth of music to discover all at once and that's a LOT of songs. Do you think there's any help out there for band addiction?

Were they always going to do that following the discectomy Lyra or have they decided to do that since?
I don't think they are ruling anything out just biding their time.

I feel...frightened that, at 38, there is little hope of an end to the pain completely. That I need to change the way that I think of my life - that there are things like gardening and the allotment that I will not be able to do.That I will always be relying on people to do certain things for me. That travelling long distances on holiday are likely to ruin the holiday for me.

I'll lose the weight, I'll do the blimmin' excersises until I'm blue in the face and if I'm still disabled with the pain as I am now then at least I'll know I tried and maybe they will be able to do something more.

Chin up Berrie. That's the attitude. Go in fighting!

Do you have any special exercises to strengthen your lower back muscles? Have you tried an elastic support?
Losing weight will help.
That's what I need to do for my knee. It will never get better, will only get worse, but strengthening it and losing weight will help with the pain.
It sounds similar (not meaning to diminish what you are going through in any way. You obviously come tops in the crap body competition . I'm guessing that you'd rather I spoke straight and bullied you and joke about it than go all simpery(?) and "oooooh pooor you". If I'm wrong just tell me. Of course, I will occasionally go 'Ooh poor you'. It just won't be the default. I'm relying on you telling me to 'shut it' if you feel like I'm not being sympathetic enough. ) and I can empathise with having to make compromises - I can't ride a bike or kneel down and even walking can make it swell up and become painful.
Parsnip soup is yummy.

Lyra, I suppose it will take a while to get sick of ten years worth of back catalogue .

I think her disc was too far gone by the time she was finally referred by her GP (like you, they kept fobbing her off) to do anything else.
Losing weight will help, as will strengthening the muscles around the weak part of your back. I'm sorry it looks like you'll have to put up with this for life. That really sucks. You'd think there was something modern medicine could do for you.

So was the microdiscectomy an immediate measure to relive pain and they always knew she'd have to have further work done?

Absolutly Oggs don't worry it's fine. I just need to get on with it. I am hoping that the back pain will be more of a motivator for losing weight because when it's just about looking good I'd rather have the cake frankly! I have my doubts though...

I do do exercises to strengthen my back when I can and I do have a support too. It squeezes up a 'third tit' as DH so charmingly puts it.

I'm not sure what she had done last time.
Where does this third tit appear?

Under the other two.

You shall henceforth be known as 'Berrie three tits'

I shall be 'Oggs two bellies'

Berrie two bellies three tits in that case...come to think of it Berrietwobellies threetits enormous arse!

Morning.
My Grandfather died yesterday.
I rang DH to tell him yesterday and he was passing our village in the works van but he didn't call in (he often does) and he was going to be passing again later that afternoon and he didn't. He didn't ring me (again he often does) When he got home we had tea and he had a bath and we went to parents evening. Without coming in, he got in his car and went to see his Dad. I was momentarily taken aback but thought fair enough my Dad's Dad dying may have made him want to see his dad since his time is also running out. When he walked in I was watching something and he asked how long it had got to run. When I said it was less than half way through - an answer to his question not a statement that I wanted to watch the rest of it - he said he'd go next door and have a cup of tea with the neighbour, see if she was alright. (had been feeling ill the other day) My face told a tale and a short exchange led to him going to bed.
I'd had the kids all day, I'd had an emotional day talking to my siblings, trying to get hold of my Dad whose phone was off and then going round to be with him once he'd had the news. My own grief did not arrive until the afternoon after leaving my Dad(on the playground at pick up) I always seem to be sniveling on the playground, they must think I'm a nutter).
In his defense, he had a splitting headache, I was having a glass of wine when he got in and he is not drinking anymore. He did put his arm round me when I went to bed and was crying (not about him) but I was feeling hurt and still wasn't sure he even knew why. He thought all would be forgiven this morning because he'd hugged me but I needed a bit more of an apology / recognition that he'd been thoughtless. He was very defensivly nasty this morning but we've parted on better terms now.

Is it me? Would you have to be/think to be very explicit in what you needed/expected from your Dh/DP?He says I should communicate better with him. To me it just seems obvious.

So sorry about your grandad Berrie ((hugs))

Men and women are wired totally differently. Go on. Ask me how I know?
We are mid very bad situation which came to a head yesterday (to my surprise). Don't want to discuss on here or at all really at mo, but I've been at the library all morning reading up on said subject and trying to get head in some sort of order.

May not be around much for forseeable until situation improves but I will be thinking of you both.

Hope you and dh work it out Berrie.

Oh dear Oggs.
Hope you are ok.