Progress

 Finally - I have an appointment for osteopathy.  8 November, so 4 weeks away, but at least I have a date!

The osteopath, a very well spoken lady called Felicity, seems very nice and certainly well informed about my hip condition, we had a long chat on the phone and she asked lots of questions which showed a good knowledge of hip bursitis, and the sciatica which is now affecting my left leg.  Probably a result of poor posture caused by the bursitis - well, that's what I think anyway, my back is a bit twisted and I do walk with a limp, so have probably trapped the sciatic nerve.

An elderly neighbour is dog sitting next week, looking after her son's lovely Golden Retriever whilst they're on holiday, she's unsteady on her feet (I know the feeling! 😂) and has asked if we'd help with dog walking, a rota has been organised amongst some of us.  And another neighbour is going on holiday in a couple of weeks and we've been asked to feed and check on their cat whilst they're away.  It's no problem, we all help each other out here in our tiny hamlet, we check on each other's houses when anyone's away, water plants, take in parcels, put out/take in bins on rubbish day.  That's the beauty of living in a small place where we all know each other.

Another nice day

 It's a beautiful sunny and warm day again, it's going to be like this most of the week, very lucky for our friends from Kent who are down here on hols this week.  They're keen walkers (they do geocaching) so they'll have a lovely time being out every day, they think nothing of walking 6 or 8 miles at a stretch (we won't be doing that with them, a light stroll on the beach maybe!).  We're going out for lunch with them tomorrow, so the most walking we'll be doing is to the pub (which is next door to the caravan park), and then a little stroll around the park - as it's small, that won't take long 😉

We actually have been out for a walk today - for the first time in ages, we went to our local lovely nature reserve, haven't been there for months.  I couldn't walk as far as I have in the past, and couldn't keep up with husband and Betty - I found a bench to sit on whilst they carried on.  It was so nice sitting in the sun and listening to the birds - and I even saw a stoat (or maybe a weasel?) pop out from the bushes and run across the path.  Behind me I could hear some kind of waterfowl in the stream, hidden by the thick swathes of bulrushes, and there were dozens and dozens of starlings on the pylon cables overhead.  It was really lovely.

Got the bed linen and towels out on the line this morning and made 2 cakes....Sue's marmalade cake, which husband has had a slice of and pronounced really nice, and a boiled fruit cake.  It's such an easy cake to make, the dried fruit is placed in a large saucepan with brown sugar, spice, water and butter and brought to the boil, then turned off and left to cool in the pan.  When cool, eggs, flour and baking powder are stirred in, then poured into a cake tin lined with parchment and baked for just over an hour.  I'll cut both cakes in half and freeze half, the other halves will be taken to the caravan tomorrow.

I've chopped up all the leftover veggies for our Bubble & Squeak tonight, now I'm off upstairs to sit in my bedroom recliner chair and read my book - husband is flicking through the TV again 😒.  I'm waiting for the osteopath to ring me back to arrange my appointment, she rang whilst we were out on our walk and left a message on the answerphone.

A nice day and a thank you to Sian

 It's a lovely sunshiney and warm day, makes you feel good.  Have got last night's washing (I always do the washing overnight on the economy rate.....all the more important now energy bills are rising rapidly) on the line, the bedding has been changed this morning so lovely fresh bed linen to get into tonight, which is always nice.  Just been to town and bought a gorgeous very comfy pair of ankle boots for winter, and a pair of slip on trainers (bending over to do up laces is out of the question these days).  

Just about to prep all the veg for dinner (roast pork today) - I'll do plenty of veg so we can have the leftovers for our vegetarian day tomorrow.  It'll be bubble & squeak (that's chopped leftover vegetables, all mixed together and fried until it's crispy on the bottom, for overseas readers) with a couple of fried eggs for tomorrow's tea.  With brown sauce, of course - well, for me, husband hates it.  After I've prepped dinner and got it in the oven, I shall depart upstairs to sit in my bedroom recliner chair and do some crocheting or read my book - husband is watching his favourite saloon car racing on the tv and the constant drone of the engine noise, and the commentators talking over it, drives me nuts.  Well, he says he's watching it....I'd say he's asleep!! (his eyes are closed and he's snoring 😒😡).

Tomorrow I'm going to soak dried fruit for a rich fruit cake.....it may become a Christmas cake, or may get eaten before then!  I'll also make a Marmalade cake, using Sue in Suffolk's recipe, we'll have slices of that with a cuppa in the caravan on Tuesday when our friends come to visit.

Sian - thank you very much for the YouTube video re lack of oestrogen causing collagen loss after the menopause, which may explain why women my age get hip bursitis - very interesting, especially since I stopped taking HRT (because my male GP kept badgering me to stop it!) 2 or 3 years ago and my bursitis started after that!  Coincidence?!  I see there are other videos by the same therapist on the subject of bursitis, I will watch those also.  Very helpful, thanks.  Blogland is wonderful.

Light at the end of the tunnel. And good friends

 The Bowen therapist seems fairly confident they won't all have positive Covid tests, her child who had a slight temperature is now fit as a fiddle, and she says they all feel completely fine.  They get their results today, let's hope they're all negative - for their sakes.  She's hoping to book me in for the initial free taster treatment for late next week.  Meanwhile, the osteopath I spoke to is fully booked until November, but will have me in for her first available appointment that month.  Fingers crossed it's not when husband will be in hospital, or unable to drive when he comes out!  I'm hedging my bets and having both treatments, well at least one of each anyway, then I'll decide which one I want to continue with....whichever seems to be the most helpful.  It's annoying that I have to pay to be treated, and it's not cheap (at a time when energy, food and fuel bills are all going up massively), but our NHS system is so overwhelmed and has clearly let me down.  I'm not even bothering to ask my GP for another physio referral, I have no faith whatsoever that it would result in an appointment anytime soon.

My hip, oddly but thankfully, is nowhere near as painful today....but my back is, and I'm now getting sciatica in my left bum cheek radiating down the back of my left leg.  If it's not one thing, it's another.

We were going back to the caravan today for a few days, for the final time, but I've decided against it, I really don't feel like it at the moment because of my aches and pains.  And the fact that I'm not yet ready to say goodbye to the van for this year.  However, we will be going there on Tuesday, just for the day - a lovely thing, our good friends who live in Kent and who we see a couple of times a year, are coming down here on holiday.  They want to see our van, so are meeting us there, we'll spend an hour or two showing them around, catching up and having a coffee, then we'll go to the pub next door for lunch.  We'll see them another day as well whilst they're here on holiday, hopefully we'll find somewhere to go for afternoon tea.  We'll go back to the van to close up another day.

My best friend called in to see us a couple of days ago, that was nice, as was the picture they texted me yesterday which made me smile - I need all the cheering up I can get at the moment.

Sod's law strikes again

 The Bowen therapist rang me early this morning - one of her 3 children has had a positive Covid lateral flow test this morning, so they're all having to go and get tested at the official testing centre.  Obviously, she's had to cancel my appointment, well, can't be helped, it's just one of those things.  She is going to ring me this afternoon for a chat, and book another appointment - although I guess that won't be for another week or 10 days, once they've all finished isolating.  

Meanwhile, I've rung the hospital physio department to find out if I'm any nearer getting an appointment with them - only to be told that as my referral was so long ago now (I had an initial phone consultation with them back in January, then Covid intervened!), I have to go back to my GP and ask for another referral.  And how long is that going to take, for me to get a new physio appointment?  Bloody weeks and weeks, I should think.  

To say I'm pissed off is an understatement.

I've now contacted a local osteopath and am waiting for her to ring me back - I have to do something, get some form of help, I'm at my wit's end.

No arthritis

 Following on from the earlier post, and to answer Cherie and HH.....

I don't have arthritis, I've had x-rays and scans which showed no trace of it.  I do sometimes say it's arthritis, for simplicity's sake, rather than having to explain what it actually is.

It's something called Trochanteric Bursitis, although it's now called Greater Trochanteric Pain Syndrome I think.  Basically, it's inflammation in the fluid filled sac on the outside of the hip joint, although the pain also affects muscles and tendons around the hip.  It is very painful indeed, it causes a severe burning like pain from just above my hip down the outside of my leg to my knee, and sometimes beyond.  I can't lie on my right side (the affected side) in bed.....obviously I turn over in my sleep and the pain wakes me up constantly.  It also causes stiffness, especially when getting up from a chair, and makes me limp.  I can't stand on my right leg to get dressed without holding onto something, or I'd probably fall over.

It affects my posture, which in turn gives me backache - well, it makes my ever-present backache (which I've had since I had a slipped disc in my lower back at the age of 19) even worse, particularly if I've been standing in the kitchen for any length of time doing veg or meal preparation, or baking.  I can only walk very slowly, and not for any great distance - the pain gets worse and I get slower.

I've seen a GP twice - 2 different ones - both were sympathetic but not very helpful, just more or less throwing pills at me.  I can't take anti-inflammatories, I have an adverse reaction to them (it's on my medical record), so it's either paracetamol (which does next to nothing) or codeine.  I don't like taking codeine because it makes me very constipated indeed, and that just seems to exacerbate the pain problems.  Both GPs said a hip replacement isn't usually done for bursitis, and in any case would be a very last resort.  They both suggested steroid injections.....they don't do them in the surgery, they have to be done by a consultant or physiotherapist as it's important to get the injection in exactly the right place.  I was referred to physio - I've not yet seen one, but had an initial telephone consultation with one back in January - she said it's not up to the GP to suggest injections, that's their job!  And an injection wouldn't be their first choice anyway.  Before I could start actually seeing the physiotherapist, they were all taken off to help with Covid injections and all physio appointments were suspended.  I have recently had a letter from them saying although they are now back to doing face to face appointments, they have a huge backlog and will get to me eventually - when, they couldn't say.

The only thing that gives me a bit of relief from the pain is using a freeze gel or an ice pack, but both only lessen the pain for a short while.  I've got a TENS machine but that doesn't help my hip at all, although it does help my back pain a bit.

When we went for our flu jabs the other day, we were given a leaflet for some new service offering classes for things like losing weight, management of long term health conditions, and living with pain.  I was interested in the pain thing so went onto the named website to see if there was a class locally.....there isn't 😒

I can't wait around indefinitely for a physio appointment, so it looks like my only option is to pay to have some sort of therapy, hence why I'm going for this free Bowen taster session tomorrow.  I've had (paid for) osteopathy and chiropractic in the past, for my lower back pain - both worked (for a few weeks anyway), but gave me so much more pain for the first few visits, and I'm so fed up with continual pain, I don't think I can take much more of it.  The Bowen treatment is supposed to be very gentle.

Thank you for your concern, it does help 💜

I could spit....but it's not ladylike

 But then who said I was a lady?!?!

A while back husband was told by his consultant that he could go to Yeovil hospital for his prostate op if he wished, as our local big hospital in Taunton is snowed under and he wouldn't be able to have the op there for probably another year - he's already been waiting 2 years.  He said yes to Yeovil and was told he should hear from them with an op date within 4 weeks and, if not, to ring for an update.  Yesterday, I suggested he do that - he reckoned it was only about 3 weeks ago though.  I checked back (good job I keep notes of dates) - it was actually 5 weeks ago, and he's heard nothing.

So I got him to ring yesterday.....after being passed from pillar to post, put on hold etc, he finally got told that yes Taunton had passed the paperwork to Yeovil, but hadn't heard anything back.  They suggested he ring Yeovil direct and gave him the number.  Which he wrote down wrong 😒 (well, he is dyslexic so not surprising), so I googled and found the number for him.  After yet more being put on hold and passed around to different departments, he was eventually told that Yeovil have received no such referral and knew nothing about him!  So he rang Taunton back again.....his consultant's secretary wasn't there, but he's been told a message has been left for her and she'll ring him today.   Let's hope she does.

I was really hoping he would have had his op by now, or at least have an op date very shortly......now it looks like it won't be anytime soon - it wouldn't surprise me if he gets it in the middle of winter.  Which is just what I didn't want.  He'll be in hospital overnight, possibly 2 nights, and will be out of action for X amount of time afterwards (we don't yet know how long, but it will definitely be several days).  Which means I've got to do absolutely everything whilst he's recuperating, not that I begrudge doing that, and take the dog out twice a day, possibly in bad weather, just like last winter when husband had his foot op and was on crutches and incapacitated for 6 weeks.  But now my hip is so much worse than it was this time last year, so walking by myself is hard enough, without having a strong dog to contend with.  And falling over worries me, I've done it a couple of times in the past few months (fortunately, once on a sandy beach, and the other time in a field, so had soft landings).  Naturally, with being older and having a bad hip, I worry about breaking bones. 

Obviously I want him to have the op - 2 years is a long time to be waiting for his prostate and bladder problems to be resolved, and to have to take 3 different meds for it daily, on top of all the heart meds he already takes.  Before anyone suggests it, a couple of neighbours have offered to help out by walking Betty - however, Betty is a very strong and stubborn dog and needs careful handling, particularly as she's anxious around other dogs and can be reactive on occasions.  The 2 people who've offered....it's very kind of them but, for differing and valid reasons, I wouldn't feel confident about either of them doing it.  I WILL cope, I always do, but it just wears me out, mentally and physically.