You may be wondering why you've landed on this page, who I am, and what on Earth I'm blethering about...
Stick around and you might find out!
I'm 28, in a civil partnership, and live in a gorgeous area called Perthshire...the heart of Scotland with my beautiful wife and our two dogs. I had the misfortune of requiring spinal surgery in August 2011 due to a herniated L5/S1 disc - basically the gel between two of my vertebrae had bulged severely and was compressing the nerves leading to my legs. It all happened rather quickly after I had my MRI scan...I was assessed by my neurosurgeon on the Monday, admitted to the neurosurgery ward that afternoon and went under the knife the next day.
The surgery was successful in repairing the herniation, but unfortunately my nerves had been badly compressed for too long - the result being that I now suffer from chronic neuropathy. In otherwords, from the moment I open my eyes, whether that's first thing in the morning or the middle of the night, until I manage to sleep, I'm in agony from my belly button to my toes. I've been prescribed a series of painkillers, one after the other - both individually, and in various combinations with each other, none of which have helped to dull my pain.
I'm lucky in this era of NHS postcode lotteries to have an amazing pain consultant, who genuinely cares about how much pain I'm in, and is frustrated with the limitations placed upon him regarding what medications he is allowed to, or prevented from prescribing due to budget restrictions...a rare quality I have come across in the past 18 months.
So, that's a wee bit about me and my story, future blogs will delve deeper and put forth my own opinions on various issues...some readers may agree with me, even identify with my situation, and some of you may disagree completely with my opinions - I welcome comments and discussion as long as they are kept clean and not abusive...spammers and trolls will not be tolerated, and such posts will be deleted.
Next blog coming soon!
Pic is my actual MRI scan of my back...the dark round blob near the bottom next to my spine is the disc that herniated and did all the damage!
