For those of you that follow my blog, you’ll remember that back in September last year, I braved a visit to my GP for the first time since moving into my new home as was really struggling with my back pain. Struggling as in tears most nights, lack of sleep, irritable and lacking energy and motivation. You might recall my feeling that my GP is an absolute wonder – so warm and understanding and could tell just by sight the state my posture was in.

She came up with a plan: a referral to the Wheelchair Service to sort out the seat and try and combat the way it encourages my bad posture and the state my spine is in, along with new meds, and re-introducing physio back into my life, though it would be a while before the latter happened due to the usual waiting list malarkey we disabled folks have to contend with for neigh on every little piece of support we need to enable us to live life as independently as we can and as happy, social humans. At the time, she prescribed an anti inflammatory medication called Naproxen, and I left that appointment feeling the most confident I’ve ever felt in this whole entire saga of pain and fighting to be taken seriously.

Since that time, there have been some pretty important changes and developments, and in light of that I wanted to give everyone an update!

To get the frustrating element out of the way first, the wheelchair centre “would be loath to give me a new seat as they don’t think the seat is the issue”. They didn’t listen to any of our concerns and it just felt like I was an inconvenience being there. What they did do was place another piece of foam in the seat in order to try and correct my leaning and keep my posture straight. As suspected though, it hasn’t worked: I’m still leaning and we’re firmly convinced the seat isn’t fixed to the chair frame securely.

Also, my medication wasn’t made a repeat prescription and when I contacted my doctor to arrange more, I was told by the receptionist that no more would be prescribed due to a shortage. So, I was back to struggling just with Ibuprofen, which I find doesn’t really work for me.

Then, towards the end of January I received a call to say I had reached the top of the physio waiting list. My physio, Claire, has been brilliant, along with Katie, my new occupational therapist – we talked about everything: what causes my pain, how I was managing it, how it was impacting me mentally, and so on. After showing them my transfer to the toilet, Claire was of the view that my pain is caused by increased spascity in my muscles – basically they are in a near constant state of tension leading to the stiffness I regularly contend with, and where I’m sitting near enough all the time, a change in position is irregular and painful. She arranged another appointment with herself and the neuro nurse to talk through medication options, and we settled on a very low dose of a muscle relaxant called Gabapentin…

I started taking it on Friday, at bedtime as that’s when the pain is at its worst. What’s great though is I’ve already noticed a difference! The pain is at its most manageable I can ever remember it being, and though I’m still a night owl, I’m getting more sleep now the pain is better under control. All of that combined has done wonders for my mental health and I’m in a much happier state of mind!

Claire has also written up my physio regime and shown us how to do all the exercises: on my own where I can, and with support as needed. We also talked about other things I could do to keep more active, and so here’s something I thought I’d never say….

I’ve started yoga. I go to a specialist class run every other Tuesday by a wonderful lady named Nina of https://sittingfityoga.com/

We met when both of us were asked to speak at an event in honour of International Women’s Day run by Bristol Women’s Voice as panellists.

I attended my first class last week, and felt really refreshed and happy afterwards. Nina’s so patient and encouraging and it’s useful on the mindfulness score as well as the physical activity. Rather amusingly, my main take away was the fact I need to master the breathing properly! It’s great to be taking back that control in my life, mastering my pain after it’s spent way too long the other way around.