Thank you to everyone who has been emailing, texting and messaging in whatever form words of encouragement!  To those of you taking the time out to visit here and read my ramblings, I do appreciate it.  Just don’t take it personally, please, if I haven’t sent a specific reply……firstly my brain is full of opiate shaped memory holes, and secondly our fantastic mobile provider is doing a cr.p job of delivering any sort of mobile signal!!

Another day, another week and child number 3 is already counting down to half term……they’ve only just gone back to school.  I need time to get back on my feet without a house full of loud, smelly teenagers all day, every day.  To be able to walk into the lounge and for the sofa to be free of long, skinny jean clad legs lolling – can someone please explain why teenage boys are unable to sit upright in a seat, instead preferring to extend their limbs over any part of said seat except the front of it?!  I need to be able to walk into a room and for it to look just as it did when I left it; for my hallway to not resemble a sea of shoe shaped boats along its entire length; for the crumbs and dishes created at breakfast to be absent until dinner time, or earliest tea time rather than the one endless meal break of weekends and holidays.  So no, I’m not counting down the days to half term and then there is that promised trip to Westfield…..

I am feeling a bit more mobile, but just as I think I’m off and running, wham, that surgical pain hits me as a reminder that – I mustn’t bend, stretch, lift, twist, etc, etc.  It is important not to mess up the placement of the electrode leads at this stage as they won’t be securely anchored until scar tissue has formed around them.  Lead migration is a potential risk and can result in changes in the stimulation and a reduction in the pain relief.  So, no picking up dirty underwear from bedroom floors or emptying the bottom of the dishwasher or stretching up to the washing line.  I never dreamt that I would make such good use of the long arm, picker upper disability aid that I inherited from my grandad.  Who on earth thought it was a good idea for a woman with a bad back to have a range cooker rather than an eye level oven?  How do I get that casserole into the oven?  A wonderful band of friends cooked and delivered meals on wheels for the family after both my spinal fusions, but, as I had to explain to the kids yesterday whilst trying to prepare a meal for 5, they are all older and their dad is here this time round.  Deaf ears, talking to myself………

The stimulation is definitely working.  When I turned it off at lunchtime the difference was immediately palpable as that same old familiar feeling worked its way down my leg and out through my toes.  I’m not sure that I will be lucky enough to have a marked reduction in pain when the stimulation is turned off, but at present I am just so thankful that I have a means to disguise that debilitating feeling at the touch of a button. The boys and Duncan were invited to our neighbours’ gym yesterday – I kid you not, they have a home office at the end of the garden that is kitted out with proper gymnasium equipment.  Said neighbours have very kindly given us a key and told the boys to use the gym whenever they wish – no, boys, that does not include putting the dog on the treadmill for his walks!! – whilst I want to begin to experiment with more activity whilst switched “on”, I think I’ll have to pass on the gym for this month!!