pain

poor old esther came out in chicken pox on new year’s eve-eve and she’s just entered the horrible itchy stage. to ease the itchyness jane dropped a cold spoon down esther’s dressing gown.

the success of this small action lead to an escalation to a packet of frozen peas.

poor old esther. no doubt kezia is next in line.

i’ve been ill for the last 4 days with some fluey man-cold. cold shivers, achey joints, sore throat, general uselessness etc.
by saturday night i was feeling human-ish again and we went to a friend’s 40th birthday party. there were loads of really nice people there but i couldn’t talk to anyone as i couldn’t hear anything thanks to my cold bunging up my ears.
so i just stood in groups of people and smiled on cue. i quite enjoyed it.
here are some sausages.

BBC NEWS | Health | Under fifties ‘blighted by pain’
and here are some useful websites on pain

a happy trip to the hospital today. just like the pain clinic, i was told not to come back again. woo hoo !
the specialist was all ready to give me the ‘cronic pain is for life my friend, few people get rid of it completely, most just have to learn to live with it’. But before he could say it I launched in to my ‘it’s loads better now, still occasional pain, but mostly fine’ speech. how we laughed.
there was also a comedy moment when a very tall old lady, who had failed to provide enough ‘evidence’ in her sample tube emerged and explained the situation to a nurse. once the situation was clear, the nurse said:
“has someone brought you along today ?”.
the old lady looked at her and said
“no, i came by … [pregnant pause] … transport”
i wasn’t sure if the nurse wanted her to find a friend to provide the sample instead ?

my diet has been a big disaster today. chocolate and bread were presented at all our locations today and it seemed very rude to refuse them. so i didn’t. i’ll try again this week. perhaps it’s just a monday to friday diet ?
the last straw of the day was eating chocolates in the car on the way back home (2 hours). it was very dark in the car so we couldn’t see the best before date on the chocolate bars we had found in the car. unfortunately they were quite old and my fudge chocolate bars was fizzy. yuck.
but let’s remind myself why i was doing the diet – it wasn’t to lose weight, it was just so i felt better/healthier. and i did feel better / healthier the few days i did it, so that was good.
i’ll see what happens to my stomach tomorrow after today’s bread feast and decide what to do next. ho hum.

diet confessional: this evening on the way back, the antibiotics, pain killers, ear pain and lack of sleep all took their toll and I BOUGHT AND ATE A KING SIZED MARS BAR.
so that’s no good and i now feel quite sick. and i feel i have let you, the reader, down too. i’ve still not eaten any bread or beer and will attempt to stay off the chocolate for the rest of the week.
addiction is an annoying thing.
here is a nice little thing i found relating to mars bars:
KING-sized Mars bars make ideal normal-sized Mars bars, for
giants. NORMAL-sized Mars bars make ideal king-sized Mars
bars for dwarfs, as well as fun-sized ones for giants.
FUN-sized Mars Bars make ideal normal sized Mars Bars for
midgets.

other ear has the lurgey now, so back on antibiotics. twice the strength, twice the fun, (hopefully) half the pain ?
was nice to see christmas decorations for sale in the pharmacy. hi ho.

it’s thursday midday (in the UK at least). so i’ve not had chocolate/beer/wheat/dairy for 3.5 days. that means i’m quarter of a way through my diet. I WANT CHOCOLATE ;-(

i know you have all been concerned, so here is the update:
i went to the doctors this afternoon (on jane’s bike) and was told most of the infection has gone, but i should take some antibacteria stuff for a week to blast the last away.
here it is (placed neatly on the mantlepiece area of my sony vaio laptop)

right, following last week’s ear infection and general health malade, i’ve decided i need to do my exclusion diet for a fortnight. see earlier post for some more details
definately out is chocolate, bread and dairy products.
not sure what is in yet. going to tesco to find out. fruit, salad and veg i suspect. (though fruit is too sugary really).
if you see me eating bad stuff shout at me.

my chronic pain is called neurophathic pain which means my brain feels pain even if the original source of the pain has long since left. my particular pain is in a particular sensitive part of my body (for blokes) and is very unpleasant.
one way of blocking this type of pain is to give the patient an epidural. sometimes this is enough to trick the brain in to thinking that the pain has ended and once the effect has worn off, the pain magically dissappears.

Read More »old pain clinic story

hoorah. i’ve been discharged from the Pain Clinic. Doesn’t mean I’m completely better, but does mean they can’t do anything more for me !

it’s a shame really as their new clinic is fantastic compared to their old location. the new one has airconditioning and everything.
the berkshire hospital is fantastic at the moment as it’s riddled with funny little passages which aren’t signposted very well (or if they are they are in latin or something). Here is a wooden tunnel:

I had to walk through the middle of the breaks and fractures department to get to the Pain Clinic (which seemed fair). it was absolutely full ! i was going to take a picture of about 200 people in bandages, plasters etc but the mob looked slightly unhappy !

the pain clinic has moved from the rather aptly names Battle Hospital to the Royal Berkshire hospital. I usally allow 2 hours by public transport each way to get to the hospital from home. not sure if the new hospital is closer or not. I’ll just have to find out …

i’m off to the hospital to go to the pain clinic tomorrow. be interesting to see what happens. i’ve weened myself off my gabapentins and now only need to reactive use co-proxomal as required. compared to this time last year it’s fantastic. i’ve had a mostly pain free life for the last 2 months i think.
however, i have been in quite a lot of pain the last couple of days. i think it’s probably the temperature. perhaps that’s why i went a bit bonkers earlier