I do not want this to become a dear diary affair and I will not be posting every day unless circumstances dictate that.   However there may be quite a flurry of activity to begin with, just to explain what has happened to date.

I finished my last post with a brief description of one of the pains I have – and this is not going to become a pain diary either.  But it is that particular symptom which started my path to diagnosis.

The first acute attack of pain I had was back in February/March 2014 and I remember it clearly as I was getting into a car and had a sharp pain all down one side of my right leg and up into my lower spine (which I now know is called the lumbar region).  It was notable because of the acuteness and it was unlike anything I’d had before.  I put it down to moving awkwardly or a trapped nerve or something and I felt no need to see a doctor about it as it went away after a few days of making spasmodic appearances.   Now fast forward to the first week of February 2017 when I had a similar attack after getting very, very cold and having to stay at that temperature for a few hours.  The next 24 hours were very cold and uncomfortable and the pains started at the same time and seemed to disappear when we went away to South African warmth in the middle of February.

Only to start again with a vengeance on our return at the end of March and I was eventually driven to see my GP about it.  At this time our GP who I had been seeing for over 30 years was retiring and the practice closing.  So my need to see a doctor coincided with finding a new practice and then working out how to actually see a doctor.  A whole new experience to me as we had been incredibly lucky with our old practice when we could get an appointment within a few hours of telephoning and seen immediately upon arrival.

So the Health Centre which I transferred to held all sorts of mysteries that needed to be solved before I could begin to try and tackle the system and be seen by the same GP so there was some continuity to my “treatment” and we were all talking the same language.  I was aware that as soon as I walked though the door the clock was ticking and the allocated number of minutes had to be used profitably.   So why waste them running through a shaky history of how I remembered my pains and symptoms.  If I saw the same person each time we could discuss that particular day’s issues instead of the whole performance being repeated again and again.

Entrance:  Bernard the Boa Constrictor.  As I write I have a squeezing to my right thigh.  That part of my limb feels as if it is in a vice.  But, hey, he’s been joined by one of  Esther’s little friends who is dancing around my right hand and at the same time she has managed to text her friend Stewart (the Stone Fish) who lurks around on the kitchen floor and gets stuck to the instep of my right foot.  Or could that be Seymour, the Sea Urchin?  Sharp, prickly, scratchy spines rubbing around the instep and going deeper if I put weight on that leg.

Back to the surgery.  By August I managed to see the same doctor a couple of times AND she remembered me so at last a bit of continuity.  I asked if I could see a neurologist as the physio wasn’t working and although the Mindfulness App I had used had some benefit, when the pain was really bad I’m afraid my mind lacked the education to transcend the continued attacks from Bernard and his gang,

And you haven’t met Claudia yet.