Having had a lot of pain when I went to bed last night, and having had a lot of head-sweats over night, it was not much of a surprise that I felt rough when I woke up this morning. Laying on my back was like I was laying on a patch of sunburn across my shoulder blades, and I had jabbing pains around my back.
Later in the morning I had my regular 6-8 week follow-up (surgery was 7 weeks yesterday) at the Wessex Neurological Centre. We discussed my progress and the fact that the jelly-leg is getting worse. He said the sensation in my foot, and to an extent the hypersensitivity, is more a neuropathic symptom, thus related to the nerves themselves than the spinal cord. As such he is not surprised I have not really seen much improvement in that aspect. He did the usual reflex checks etc, and the slight response that was shown in my right knee at physiotherapy had completely gone again. He reiterated what Mr S had told me; that the expectation was only ever really to stop the symptoms worsening. The increasing jelly-leg is a bit of a negative, but there are also signs that some things have improved, and that suggests they could improve further. He asked me to walk heel-to-toe. I have only tried this once since I was discharged and, like previous attempts right back to when Mr S first assessed me, I fell over then. However today I was able to take about half a dozen steps, and whilst I was very wobbly, I didn’t actually feel like I was going to fall over. I explained that I had already been attending outpatient physiotherapy, and that I am booked in for hydrotherapy tomorrow, so there wasn’t much more for him to do.