Get a spine!

There are two ways to read the title:

Get a grip man and just get out there and pitch your work!

Is there something wrong with your back?

And both are true.

Those of you that have taken the time to look in on this blog on a semi-regular basis will have seen that I haven’t posted for far too long.

The main reason for this is I’ve been under the knife.

About two years ago I was playing with my kids in the back garden when I suddenly found myself locked on all fours unable to move.

I underwent a lot of physiotherapy, which although it didn’t remove the pain, enabled me to move.
Then this Easter, things went from bad to worse. The pain became unbearable, I lost a lot of control of my right leg and found it impossible to walk for more than 100 meters unaided.

My doctor was a star and managed to get me pushed up the list for an MRI (And having one of those is an idea for a play in itself).

I was somewhat surprised to be called in front of the surgeon a matter of days after the MRI, and even more surprised to find myself being admitted to hospital a week after seeing him.

I transpired that the scan showed that I had herniated a disk. That itself sounds bad, but when it was explained to me what it meant, turned my stomach. Many will you will have heard of a slipped disk – this is colloquial name for a prolapsed disk – where strain has been placed on the disk causing it bulge (potentially touching a nerve – dear old sciatica). A herniated disk is where it was once prolapsed, but the pressure never really passed, causing the disk to erupt – and in my case seep around and bond with the sciatic nerve.

Hence my rapid admittance to hospital. I was later told that they were worried that I was soon going to lose control of the big toe on my right foot – leading to instant medical discharge and massive problems walking.

So under the knife I went. When I came around, they informed me that I had to have two disks removed as when cutting in to sight my damaged disk, they discovered the disk above had herniated and was leaking down.

So, two disk removed and I’m now ½ an inch shorter!

The scan was July, the operation in August and recuperation has been ever since.

I was on sick leave for 6 weeks! I thought it was going to be fantastic – just think of all that time to write!

The reality was that I was unable to sit for the first 4 weeks – only lie down or stand. I did try to write, but it was just too painful.

As I write this now, I can comfortably sit for about 20 mins at a time (and I have one of those ‘kneeling’ chairs in my office). I’m just about ready to sit down and write again – but I still can’t make my mind up which of my Work in Progresses I want to attach first. Plus, I have to edit my collaborative effort with Phil, so that it becomes a viable play.

But I seriously need to get out there and pitch my work again. I feel like I’ve been away for far to long – and I feel that I’ve forgotten where to start.

Time to feel the fear and do it anyway I think!