The pain in my knees was constant yeaterday. Getting up from a chair was a struggle.

I stayed in bed for around six hours but had to get up every couple of hours to go to the bathroom,

Using my new purchase of an electric blanket was helpful.

I intend to take it easy today and try to minimise the time I’m sitting down.

I am going to use a strategy from The Joint and Mobility Handbook for a Location Reset.

It’s Day One and I’m encouraged to choose my focus and it has to be my knees.

Then I have to check in with my body:

1. Rate pain or stiffeness (1 -10)
2. Notice how confident movements feels today
3. Log how you slept last night.

I will report and record my progress on here on a daily basis.

I’m struggling once again this morning with little sleep and a lot of pain. It’s clear that I’m now facing a dual attack from neuropathy and osteoarthritis. I have to review my approach to my conditions.

Clearly traveling around on my mobility scooter is not helping my pain threshold. The hand controls clearly irritate the pain in both hands. Also sitting for long periods of time is not helping me.

Today I intend to take things a little easier, review my diet, and spend less time sitting. I’m hoping that this dual strategy will mean that I may well get a better night’s sleep and wake up with less pain.

It’s Jo’s Bithday today.

She came here as a Cleaner.

But I soon recognised she could be far more than that.

Jo has helped me to get back on the straight and narrow.

She is my Mentor and subtly refuses to let me stray.

I call her Wonder Woman with good reason.

High priorities at the moment:

1. I neede to get rid of my long-standing fungal nail infection. I have been asked to provide a nail sample for analysis. The consequence of that is that I will be prescribed a very strong antibiotic that you can only take for a week. Then you have to wait for another 3 weeks to be checked to see if that has had a significant impact on your internal organs. That is a route I’m trying avoid. Therefore I’m soaking my nails in white vinegar 3 times a day while I’m sitting in my sunroom.
2. At the same time I have reopened Kate Swaffer’s book, “What the Hell Happened to My Brain?” Reading has been a problem for me lately but now that my cataracts have been removed I can see clearly again. My incentive is to finish Kate’s book and lend it to people who are dealing with those who have dementia. It can only help them to review their current approaches to people who have that condition. I’m not sure who my first candidate will be, whether it’s someone from my GP Surgery or Navigo the Mental Health people in this area.

There we go.

My left shin is causing problems yet again. The sore on my leg has not healed. I am waiting for a call back from my GP. I’m hoping that Helen a Practice Nurse is back from her holiday. She has the solution to heal this sore with impregnated bandaging that always does the trick.

At noon I have an appointment with my Chiropractor. My left shoulder is still painful from my fall on a train as it approached Birmingham Station. She will be pleased that my GP has recommemnced B12 injections. So am I: there are signs that my sleep is improving. Getting some positive rest can only help my battle with Neuropathy.

Following conversations with my chiropractor yesterday, I have a new action plan. Neuropathy is a complex matter and it is tempting to just address the pain rather than considering what’s causing the discomfort. The way ahead that I’ve now decided is to take a two-fold attack on the condition.

Firstly I have a number of supplements that I will take that should help to reduce the starvation that my nerves have been experiencing. I will be taking a B12 supplement and a magnesium supplement to give my nerves the nutrients they need. I will also be following a straightforward exercise program to try and get my body back into a reasonable shape. One of the areas I’ll concentrate on is my calves, which are often described as your second heart, and get them to pump my blood back up to my heart so that any nasties in my blood are removed. I also will recommence using my mobility scooter.

One of the things I have been doing lately is walking too far. Obviously I do need to walk but I need to ration how much I might walk otherwise the next day I’m feeling the consequences of overdoing it. I’m going to try this action plan for four weeks until my next appointment with the chiropractor, when we’ll review how things have gone.

I have an appointment with my chiropractor at noon today.

This will be my fourth appointment with her since I chose to use a chiropractor rather than a physio to address the problems that I’m having with my body.

My chiropractor offers a holistic approach to reducing and eventually eliminating the problems associated with Peripheral Neuropathy

I have great regard for her and look forward to discussing all the aspects of my neuropathy and deciding the next logical steps to aid my recovery back to full fitness.

I will post the Agreed Action Plan on here tomorrow.

It’s always dangerous with peripheral neuropathy to think that you’re on a winning streak. However I think there is much room for optimism when I look at the situation this morning. There are aspects of the condition that I seem to have made real progress on. Edema and red legs appear to be a thing of the past. My legs are no longer badly swollen and have almost returned to their natural color.

The real problem recently has been my inability to sleep well. However I seem to be making some positive progress on that front now. By using some sleep patches my sleep does seem to be improving. Unfortunately as an 80-year-old my problems of waking up in the night needing to go to the bathroom do interrupt my sleep pattern. However I think if I use a gadget that I’ve got to try and improve my bladder control even progress can be made on that front.

It’s early in August, the sun is shining. I live in a beautiful place, which is known as Costa del Cleethorpes, and there is room for optimism this morning.