Aches and pains!

Aches and pains!

We all get them, and as we get old they seem to get more severe and more frequent.

Regular readers will know that I have suffered from a prolapsed disk in my lumbar spine for about three years now. I have no idea what caused it, and I suspect it is linked to an old injury I got in my twenties starting a pull start lawn mower. I have had three lots of steroid injections directly into the disk and the spinal column to try and treat it, to no avail. Back in February I had laser treatment, which basically kills the trapped nerve endings where the disk has collapsed and therefore kills the pain. It has been pretty effective, but whether it lasts long term is anyone’s guess.

I have also, in the past year, had an arthroscopy on both my knees, where the cartilage was shot to pieces. It has obviously been deteriorating for some time, exacerbated by a fall two years ago catching a stray dog in the garden. They both still ache when it rains or it is cold, and I am stiff as a board when I get out of bed in the morning, which takes about ten minutes to wear off.

You will also know that I have bizarrely developed tennis elbow in my right arm, no doubt due to all the computer work and typing I do. With an ambition to do freelance writing, that isn’t going to get better any time soon. All these problems with joints and cartilage are now worrying me that I will develop arthritis when I get even more decrepit than I am at the moment.

The latest thing, as I blogged the other day, is my blood pressure which is now sky high as are my cholesterol levels. Honestly, if I make retirement at all it will be a miracle.

The Hubby is now complaining about back pain, which he first experienced when we were on holiday. A small, easy movement one day turned him into a cripple with pain shooting up his spine into his neck. I gave him a couple of my Tramadol and some Ibuprofen which he took and which helped, and after a day or so the pain wore off, but it has returned and he now needs to go and see the doc.

I blame my hormones for most of my daily aches, but I don’t know what his excuse is. Men do have a menopause, don’t they? No doubt weight and fitness could improve and that would help us overcome some of it, but not all.

We will just have to focus on ourselves for a change, and not spend all our time running around after other people. How many time shave we said that we need to diet, get fit and try to have a healthier lifestyle with more relaxed weekends and down time?  More than I can count, and so far we haven’t achieved it. Having both a last found a partner that we do want to spend the rest of our lives with, it would be nice if that life was long and healthy.

Oh, hello Doctor Williams……