Back pain and damp

Malvern, May 2021

I left you in pain at the end of the last blog post with my hurty knee and hip. By Tuesday this had progressed to dreadful spasms of my lower back muscles. I could be entirely comfortable standing, sitting or lying still, especially with a hot water bottle on my lower back, but most movement caused shooting pains.

Despite this I decided to go to mum's birthday celebration, as both Lola II and Sister D would be coming too. Sitting down to lunch along with dad as well we decided that this was probably the first time the five of us had eaten together at this same table for between 30 and 40 years - either one of us had been elsewhere or there had been husbands, children/grandchildren or other guests present. It was lovely. Mum reflected that if she'd been asked 10 years ago, she wouldn't have believed she'd still be with us. We're hoping to do the same for dad's birthday next year.

In the evening I went over to see a friend I used to go to school with who now lives locally. One of her daughters also went to the same school, which has changed in 45 years from being almost exclusively white (there were two non-white girls in my year) to being nearly completely non-white, and now focussing strongly on 'STEM' subjects: science, technology, engineering and maths. Most pupils go on to study medicine, dentistry and pharmacy. I suppose this must reflect the change in local population too. Apart from the 'old timers' like my parents who have been there more than 50 years, the newer residents tend to be from Asian backgrounds.

I drove on from there to see a friend in Dartford, then drove home. The state of my back wasn't great, but sitting and driving weren't too bad so I didn't cancel my vaccination shift on Friday. I really should have. It lasted 11 hours, and by the time I got home I managed a cup of tea and slice of toast then lay on my huge comfortable soft sofa with a hot water bottle as the pain gently melted away. It was a struggle to get up to bed, but I was nearly pain-free next morning. Unfortunately, getting up and moving around still generated the muscle spasms so the pain returned during the day, but at least I had no more work or travel to do and could spend more time immobile.

Since then I've been mostly resting, interspersed with watching television, communicating online and trying not to drop things that need picking up. Thankfully I haven't had any trouble sleeping. I think it's improving slowly, but it's already been a week and I'm a bit fed up with the pain and lack of mobility.

And then, a huge setback for the LTRP. The auditorium (front room adjacent to the street) has been smelling a bit musty for about a month, and I finally investigated and found damp around all the outside walls rising from the skirting board. Well, with the last rooms about to be decorated, Lola Towers was probably imagining that attention might soon be diverted from serving its needs on a full time basis, and decided to remind me of its importance. I've called the damp men back in to have a look.