The time finally arrived to go back to work. I have to say that yesterday I seriously wondered if I was ready. I hadn’t been too great overnight Friday/Saturday, and didn’t feel up to going to puppy classes, which was a pity because it was the last one. However, I picked up during the morning, and in the afternoon we went sofa-bed shopping. Sunday morning I awoke with more pain than I have felt in quite a few weeks. The only way I can describe it is that it felt like someone was trying to fold me in half vertically, and my spine was objecting strongly. My legs were very stiff again, although that wore off quite quickly, but the pain continued for most of the day. By late afternoon the pain around my spine had eased, but it felt like I had a poker stuck in both shoulder blades.
Anyway, this morning arrived and thankfully I didn’t feel too bad. I had physiotherapy first thing so went there on the way to the office. Katie assessed the strength in my legs and feet, and noted there is still weakness in my left knee and hip extension, although overall my strength does seem to be improving. I did a balance test and my right leg was reasonably ok, just a lot of wiggling of my foot to keep myself up. When I tried my left leg I felt all over the place again, although when I eventually had to grab the couch next to me, Katie said I had managed 14 seconds, whereas when she last assessed that movement in early June, I had stopped after about 4 seconds, so things do seem to be improving, albeit slowly. I am going to start gym sessions with a therapy technician from next week. Katie is sorting out a programme for me to do a bit of strength work on my legs, and also to focus on the balance. I’ll do that weekly and then see Katie again in about 5 weeks to see how things are going. I’ve also got another hydrotherapy session booked for early August, and in the meantime can practice the exercises in the local pool.
I walked over to the office, something I was a little dubious about doing, given that it is across the other side of the site from physiotherapy, and I had my laptop etc in my rucksack. However, carrying the rucksack properly (with both shoulder straps on) proved to be ok. Couldn’t help but think of the clip of 21 Jump Street I’d seen yesterday when the two cops were going back to school undercover, and the “cool” one has a go at his partner for wearing his rucksack like that saying something like “what the hell are doing? Nobody two-straps these days. At least try to be cool! Hey, I’d no-strap if that was physically possible.” Funny then to see that, when they arrive at school, pretty much everyone was “two-strapping”. Made me feel a little bit more comfortable with actually using a rucksack properly. The main thing is, it hadn’t appeared to cause me any additional back pain.
It’s fair to say my new office is a little bit bare at the moment. It’s due to be redecorated later this week (I know, shocking isn’t it – the NHS wasting money on painting an office that was only decorated as recently as 1996!), so they’ve just left me with an old desk and my chair for the time being, and will move the rest of my stuff down at the end of the week. As of now, I think going back to work has been ok. So I only did a little over 4 hours, but I don’t feel completely knackered from it, but perhaps it’s a bit early to be saying that.