Pain and health

Masks made from old handkerchiefs and strips of tights - we don't wear them a lot, but useful in public

I wrote in 2018 about living with pain. But everything these days revolves around lockdowns and self-isolation. So although we continue to live our daily lives with aches, pains and pills, the context is something nobody could have predicted though plenty say (with hindsight) that we should have known. I'll write a separate piece about daily life soon - for now we try and keep moving physically and mentally, and really for us life has not changed that much, though we see fewer people face to face.

Now I’m celebrating, if you can call it that, my second anniversary of sciatica. This distracted attention from the arthritis in my right knee (not serious enough to operate) and the after-effects of the replacement of the left knee. This metal hinge, which sets off alarms at every airport, is deemed by surgeons and other medics to be a real success. As I've said, it is like installing a new door but forgetting to oil the hinges. Not an exact analogy - simply, nobody I have spoken to yet is interested in the state of the flesh around the new knee, which is by turns numb, stiff and achy. Physiotherapists shrug and say it’s normal, and certainly it’s bearable. Now I am in the realm of constant pain, and the aim is to keep it down. I am on fairly high regular doses of painkiller which don't help my digestion.

The sciatica treatments I've had of the past year include infusions and then a treatment is described in French as rhizolyse - curiously no exact translation for the surgical procedure in English, but essentially it is the interruption of a nerve root - by "thermocoagulation", about which Wikipedia says "Radiofrequency thermocoagulation is a thermal pain treatment procedure. For example, percutaneous intradiscal radiofrequency thermocoagulation (PIRFT) involves the placement of an electrode or catheter into the intervertebral disc and applying an alternating radiofrequency current." But for all the technology, twice in 2019, my leg still hurts a lot. The surgeon talks a good game, charges enough for his time and is not very helpful. But I have finally hooked up to the Pain Clinic at the Hôpital Saint Eloi in Montpellier Dr Geniès at the pain clinic in the St Eloi hospital in Montpellier. Dr Giniès to whom I spoke on Wednesday was worth his weight in gold - and I did not even have to leave the house. I reckon that many encounters with doctors would be better by phone - healthier and less time consuming for both patient and doctor. He talked sensibly about the combination of current pain, the longer term fatigue and degradation which make it persist, and the psychological element (he was more helpful on this than most psychotherapists, and helped me reflect on Tom and his recent death. We have little idea how much pain he was in in the final months of his life). But the practical outcome was to change my painkiller medication, and the changes seem to have med a marginal improvement although the French prohibition on any Ibuprofen at all has not helped. The next step, when the restrictions on movement are lifted, will be to get a machine of the type I have often encountered at physiotherapists' treatment rooms, delivering pulses of electric shock. But the way he recommends using this is quite different from the methods I've experienced in those places, and which I always found useless. He's suggesting 3 sessions of an hour every day (set up by a nurse in the first place). So there is that to look forward to. I am feeling very hopeful despite the ongoing pain. Meanwhile, we move about - exercise in the house and garden (me on various machines, Mary doing Qigong although she can't of course go to groups at the moment) and walks by the canal and into town (photos to follow!)