“Don’t make me laugh you bugger, it hurts” I laughed hysterically not knowing whether to laugh or cry.
“If I swipe my work access pass will the gate open?”he mimiced a swiping action between my butt cheeks, pretending they were two metallic security pads, the ones you often see in office buildings. More laughter and more cries of pain.
I was bent over with my head at a 75 degree angle to my feet, holding tightly to the wooden bars on the farmers fence next to a gate, between us and the cows in the field. (I must have been in pain, cows scare the living daylights out of me.)
“Let’s hope the farmer doesn’t pass by while you’re doing that. Before you know it he’ll be elbow deep fishing around for a calf!”
“Shop, it!” I cried, in too much pain to be offended by being referred to as a heifer, this really does hurt.” The pain was bad enough on its own without the additional muscle spasms caused by laughing. If it wasn’t for these additional spasms the laughter might have been a nice distraction. I knew there was still a mile to go in the walk before we were at a point where the car could be bought up to get me without causing a big fuss. Why, oh why, had I thought a walk through the fields would cure the back pain I’ve had for the last 4 weeks? I’ll tell you why. I’m a stubborn, pigheaded, self deprecating woman who doesn’t know what’s best for her! – I had decided that the pain must be psychosomatic, after all a round of acupuncture and a fully body massage had only revealed knotted muscles but no actually “cause” for the pain. If they couldn’t find anything surely there wasn’t anything to find and all I needed was a good dose of fresh air and a long walk to shake it off, right? Wrong!
While traveling my back had started to ache – the holiday accommodations I have stayed in have been great but the furniture hasn’t been very supportive. That coupled with the extra walking, long drives, showers only, no baths to rest weary muscles, had started to take their toll on my back.
After a great stay in Snowdonia I packed my large hold-all ready to move to North Wales. As my back was aching I swung it onto the back seat of my car rather than lifting it, I figured this would be quicker and I wouldn’t have to bend. Nice idea but as I swung I felt something ping in my back and my left leg buckled. With a few choice words, and a lot of puffing and panting, I finished loading the car and drove the 90 minutes to my next destination – a beautiful two story cottage with a great view over miles of fields. With limited mobility I spent the next week and a half looking at that view and living out of my car as I couldn’t carry my belongings from the car into the cottage. I went on few outings, short walks on the beach (looking like John Wayne after a long horse ride through the desert!) and a trip I had to take up the Great Orme in Llandudno (I’ll tell you more about that in another blog). I hoped by mixing rest with small amounts of exercise the pain would soon go. It didn’t, so I headed home.
After a week and a half resting at home, a deep tissue massage and a session of acupuncture the pain wasn’t shifting. So I decided to go on a gentle, but, long walk through the countryside. My walking started slow and became even slower. The further I walked the tighter the muscles in my upper front thigh and hips became. With this tightening my strides became smaller and more painful. Every hundred yards or so I had to stop and crouch (with the aid of a fence to help me lower) or bend over (again with the aid of a fence). The three mile walk took two and a half hours. The last time I felt or moved like that I was in labour! This walk was not the tonic I was hoping it would be.
A trip to see the osteopath yesterday revealed I had slipped a disc loading my hold-all into the car three weeks ago, and no amount of rest and gentle walks were going to put this right. The osteopath, impressively, was able to correctly tell me the exact movement I had done while putting the hold-all into my car 3 weeks ago!
I needed manipulation to get it back in place. “Take a deep breath in for me. That’s it. Now out slowly” Sh## this is going to hurt, I thought as I did as instructed. But compared to the pain I’d been in already it was surprisingly bearable. Most importantly, I could stand up straight and the spasms had stopped! “You must drink a lot of water to rehydrate the disc and rest. The pain is likely to get worse over the next few days. Come back and see me Thursday” Was the warning from the osteopath just as I left. He wasn’t kidding! Bloody hell (sorry mum), today I feel like I’m constantly being punched in the kidneys! And the muscles in my thighs and hips are just as tight as before. They feel like elastic bands that have been pulled to their max, ready to break any moment. – The shareholders for Tiger Balm will be getting a decent dividend this year with the amount I’m using!
Hopefully after my appointment with the osteopath tomorrow I will feel much better and be able to continue my travels. First stop will be the Barefoot festival in Loughborough this weekend. 🤞🏻I desperately want to try BellyBolly, a fusion between belly dancing and Bollywood dance moves, they are having workshops on it in the main tent this weekend – I’m hoping for a miracle tomorrow 😳
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Yesterday I met my literary idol – Milly Johnson. I’m not usually a “fan girl” and generally don’t understand people getting excited seeing celebs. Living close to film and TV studios I very often see actors walking around and think nothing of it but Milly Johnson is a different kettle of fish. She’s the one who has really spurred me on to want to write seriously (that and my eldest, closest friend saying “will you bloody well stop telling me you’d love to, go and do it. Then come back and tell me all about it”. We were actually talking about something else at the time but I hear her voice every time I think “I’d love to …..”).
