The post of 2 parts - Before and after seeing the orthopaedic surgeon

 This one is deliberately going to include a thoughts before / thoughts after update.

Part 1

I see the orthopaedic surgeon at 7pm this evening (it's fun that when it's on BUPA that they work late to catch up after taking a holiday)

I'm still using the Inversion Table for a minute or so a few times a day - only when I start feeling pain in my lower back. I haven't taken a single Tramadol since 18:30pm on August 5th which is amazing, I have taken a couple of co-codamol twice now (this Saturday evening and last Saturday) but both days I had been on my feet for far longer than I usually am.

I keep saying I'm not in pain, but that simply might be that I've hurt for so long that the lower grade doesn't really register as pain any more. My lower back still feels 'squashed' if that makes sense like there's far too much down there that should be better spread out but honestly it's not terribly comfortable but it's not painful (okay you're probably thinking I'm slightly mad saying that)

He's going to quite surprised that I can lean backwards quite a bit further than I could 3 weeks ago (I'm not going to be doing backwards walkovers any time soon) a few more inches but hey a win is a win and I will take that. I do wonder if he will want another MRI to see if the inversion has made significant change to what it all looks like in there before deciding what happens next.

The weekend has been fun lots of time at the dog park with friends and the dogs they brought with them. Friday, Saturday and Sunday (poor Winston and Bella will feel very hard done by this evening when it's just the two of them) Kirsty brought the dog she's pup-sitting Friday and Sunday while his people are on holiday - a super sweet poodle cross boy who's fallen in love with Bella as they all do. And Claire made it up to the park with the Beagle boys on Saturday. Some sunshine, fresh air and a change of scenery seemed to really do her some good.

There was a half hearted attempt at a street food festival in Reading yesterday that we pootled around for a while. We had a few nice eats and found some amazing artisan coffee but sadly I think plague times has had a lot to do with the number of vendors who turned up.

Part 2

RESULT - it's NOT spinal Stenosis - there is some arthritis and some facet joint degeneration but he can fix that .... will get a call later this week to go in and get knocked out for an epidural where he will put some stuff into my spine as a first phase .... likely to need further injections for the FJ after that but it's a bloody good result and he's REALLY happy about me getting the inversion table .....

That definitely deserves a G&T or 2 😎