---

Fascinating Musings

Season 1 – Tuesday – 06/06/23

---

If you want to enjoy the rainbow, be prepared to endure the storm. Warren W. Wiersbe

---

Music – backyard-party

---

---

Last October, l had a couple of falls in the street where l live a couple of days apart in the same week. You may also recall that l wrote about it. I tripped over raised paving slabs here in Sandwich and, on each occasion, suffered small but immediate injuries. On the Tuesday fall, l tripped on my right side and pulled my knee; on the Thursday fall, l tripped and pulled my hip. The immediate effect on my right side was that my knee and lower back were very sore, whilst, on the left side, my heel and hip were very painful. Several months passed from October to January, and l experienced further pains and strains with my pelvic area, hips on both sides and lower back. The pain was, at times, quite intense and debilitating. I put up with it as we do, thinking it was a sprained muscle and would heal naturally, but it never did. Eventually, when l couldn’t take the pain anymore, I booked an appointment with my doctor in March, who, after examinations, decided to book me in for x-rays which l had later that month. The results back from those diagnosed me with osteoarthritis. Something that well over 50% of the over 55’s here in the UK would experience at one point. There are two common types of arthritis – osteoarthritis and rheumatoid. The former is caused by the ageing process and the general wear and tear of that process on the body with the cartilage between the joints and manages how much shock or judder to the joints the body can take, whilst the latter is less common. Still, it is more to do with the body’s immune system attacking joints. Osteo is regular arthritis, of course. If you speak to my mother, it is almost like the end of the world type of problem. You can’t tell her, “Mum, it’s just arthritis.” Oh no, she will correct you and say, “Rory! It is OSTEOarthritis! There is a difference, you know! Mine is more damaging” But then my mother always has to have something more deadly even if it is not. So the main bulk of my body has OSTEOarthritis, and as far as the doctor’s surgery was concerned, that was the end of the story. “You are getting old, pal. That’s the way of the world! Sort of diagnosis. There needed to be no follow-up in their eyes. It was the case closed. This is all good, except no one told my left and right hip those things and most assuredly, the lower left-hand side of my body didn’t get the memo. Over the last few weeks, the pain in my lower left back, or the upper part of my hip, was bone-jarring and left me quite crippled. I still worked it because l can be a bit of a donkey like that, but also l have high pain tolerance, so sure it’s sore; it has to be a ten+ for me to say l need to stop. Last week, however, l was walking around with pain in the high tens – just moving in bed was becoming a problem it could take agonising minutes to roll over to the left or the right side, and it was constant and not letting up. The last week alone has been gruelling with many things. l took a couple of quieter days and then booked myself in for an ultrasound scan for the 3rd. That was last Saturday, and l finally got a thorough examination and was correctly diagnosed with the actual problem, which is still a common medical problem amongst a certain percentage of the population but isn’t JUST arthritis but a little more of a painful issue. Greater trochanteric pain syndrome, also known as lateral hip pain or trochanteric bursitis, is a problem associated with pain on the outer side of the hip on the thigh. This explained why l couldn’t accurately pinpoint the pain-sensing. It was either the top of my hip or just below my buttock on the thigh side. In my case, it is a long tear in the gluteus medius tendon initially caused by the trip last October, which started the injury off and then over time, as the tear became more extensive, this was due to the increased workload of gardening, composting, the allotment and ironically walking but also sitting and sleeping on my side which further explains my troubles sleeping for the last six months. My left hip area has also been swollen for the last two months. Hey ho. To avoid the knife, so to speak, because whilst some people opt for surgery, l have taken the path of exercise. I was saying for months that l wasn’t limbering up properly before working, which would cause an injury. Well, the actual damage was a raised paving slab in Sandwich. But informal exercise replaced with physical exertion caused the significant strike, so it’s my fault in many respects. But at least l now know that it’s not just OSTEOarthritis! Case closed. It will take three to six months to heal correctly, even with the exercises, and my right gluteus also has a milder tear. Gardening and doing everything l am doing can continue unless l can’t walk, and as l can still walk, and now l know what the issue is, l can work around it. My business is now bending down and getting up again, twisting, bending, moving, hoeing, raking, digging, walking, hauling – that’s business and will award strains, sprains, and pains. I have had pain for the last thirty years due to stomach and digestive issues and so have gotten used to the presence of it, rightly or wrongly. I have reset my pain scale to a new realistic level for me of coping to 14 points. I can cope with ten points of pain ish relatively easy, but not 14. But l have been advised that if my pain hits seven, l need to switch tasks and take on a new chore while the pain subsides. I don’t mind using some Deep Heat if needed, but l refuse to take chemical medications. I can work with that motto. I am an advocate of no pain, no gain. So it’s fine with me. People can put up with more pain than they give themselves credit for. It is a case of mind over matter. I don’t mind, and it doesn’t matter.

---

---