There truly have been so many thoughts popping into my head, but I realised that before I write them I needed to explain some things.

I had always planned to make a fair share of this blog my reflections on getting older, and the impacts on your life. From how your body changes, to the things you learn, have learned, and how you think so differently. But I realised to do that I probably had to explain one of the biggest impacts on my life over the past five years.

So a few years ago now I wrote about an injury I had back from 2014. I thought at the time it was just my Piriformis muscle, but it was much more than that, because now my injury to my leg has finally been established. Here is the story as to why and how…

In May when we were finally having the bathroom refurbished we had no toilet for over 3 weeks!! (More of that to come.) But it meant that we had to crouch (or I had to) over a bucket in the garage whilst the plumbers took forever to do the bathroom. This in turn meant that my poor left leg, which had basically been carrying all the weight (literally) had finally had enough and one day the knee just popped. My right injured leg was struggling more than it ever had, so due to the amount at the point that my left leg gave way I could not actually walk!

Now I find as I am getting older I am finally realising that there are some things that will not fix as easily as they did before. That we all need a little but more help. The decision was made and the following weekend I went to a Chiropractic. That woman has saved me.

It transpires that I had damaged my psoas muscle all those years ago, when my leg went through our decking that was more than a metre from the ground. I had torn it, and also scrunched it up into my hip. Now this muscle is a large muscle that connects the spine to the pelvis, plays a vital role in hip flexion, stability and mobility, all pretty crucial things. Because of the amount of time I have had the injury it had also tilted my sacroiliac joint, which in turn aggravates the sciatic nerve, which leads to the pain I had in my piriformis muscle (smallest muscle, biggest pain in the butt!). This has meant as time has gone on, it has been nigh on impossible to use stairs, and my walking was getting less, meaning my quad muscle had atrophied! Quite simply it was becoming an ever increasing viscous circle.

 My wins are when I can hoover, and rearrange my cushions I am no longer in such excruciating pain, I have to sit down. Or when I stand and cook for more than 30 minutes my back no longer hurts me to the point where I have to sit down with a hot water bottle. There are times when I can walk around ASDA with no pain – I used to have to stand with the trolley and wait for RD to walk up to the end of the shop for any items – it was my nemesis, because of its hard floor. But most importantly there are some hours, on some days when I am not in pain. I find that stops me in my tracks because I have been in pain for so long.

When I first got to the chiropractor she hit the nerve in my knee with the little hammer thingy (a technical term) and there was nada, nothing, no muscle. Five months down the line my right leg is so much better – don’t get me wrong it is a chronic injury so the chance of it being healed completely are remote. But when you have been in pain every day for over 10 years you take the wins when the when they come. 

But….I am now disabled. It will never completely heal, and it impacts on my life in ways I never imagined, more of that to come.

How I long to dance again.

Moisy