5 month anniversary

It´s not really a day for celebration, but tomorrow is it 5 months since my back was OK. I have finally called the hospital to ask why I haven´t heard from them yet. Then they told me that I won´t hear from them, until 3-4 weeks before the operation date...And that the operation-que is 8-10 months long...

So this morning I went to see my doctor again, and he wrote a letter to see if the health authorities will pay for an operation at a private clinic. They only have a waiting time for 1-2 months. So the norwegian bureaucracy moves on.

What else? The exercises which I have been doing the last week and a half are actually helping. I still take my daily doses of morphin, but now I have a few hours every day where I´m "pain free". Amen.

Pain free ?

A doctor recommended me the book "Pain free. A revolutionary method for stopping chronic pain". It arrived by snailmail on Friday, and yesterday morning I spent the first hours in bed reading the first chapters. This american author thinks that all pain can be cured through physical exercises, not surgically.

So - he promises me that the pain should subsides after a week of doing five exercises for 20 minutes every morning.

I can´t say anything that I am willing to do the exercises, and would be very happy if they would work. I have done some similar exercises earlier, which had no special effect, but maybe these are exactly the ones I need.

In the first exercise I sit on the edge of a chair and squeeze a pillow between my knees (three sets of fifteen). Then I lay down on my back with my feet up on the chair and do the pillow squeeze. In the third exercise I lay down with my forehead on the floor and my arms resting in the "don´t shoot, I give up"-position. This position should be held for six minutes.

The fourth exercise is a static extension, where I kneel with my hands on the floor under the shoulders. The back should sway and my hips should be in front of the knees. This position should be held for one minute.

In the last exercise I sit down against a wall with my shoulders and head against the wall for a minute.

I let you know if this really is a revolutionary method...!

Still waiting

The university hospital of Ullevål sure takes it´s time to do their paperwork. It has been two weeks since I met with the surgeon, and still no answer about the time for the operation. I am trying not be be inpatient, but if I haven´t heard from them on Monday I´ll call to ask what is going on.

I had a few bad days last week. Not only do I have an constantly aching back, but I also got a flu. So all my good medicine was fighting the fever. The good thing about fly is that it is actually OK to lie in bed and drink coca cola. The second good thing is that it get´s over. In just a few days.

In the mean time I am trying to think positive. And some nice things are happening. Just before the fever got to me, I got a phone call from a recruiter. My name had been dropped as interesting for a position, so he wanted me to come to a job interview. And since I was intrigued by the call, I took an extra pill and went to see the guy on Monday. He said I would hear from him on Tuesday.

But I´m still waiting...

Examination

Today I met with the surgeon at Ullevaal hospital who said that because of my great pain I can have an operation if I want one. I got to look at the MR-photos of my spine, and could see where the damage is. He explained briefly what they will do, and mentioned the risks. But his main message was that this is a simple procedure:

I´ll come in one morning and go back home the next day.

But - I still don´t know when it will happen. There is a line at this public hospital, and they will let me know next week. Hopefully this will be over in a few weeks.