Today was day 3 of my half-days work week, and I can’t say that it went as well as the first two, when I managed to make it nearly a full half day before having to go home from the pressure that built up in my back after sitting upright for 4 hours. I even thought yesterday morning that the back actually felt a little bit better when I woke up, but it deteriorated pretty quickly throughout the day to end up with no obvious progress by the end. Today, on the other hand, I only made it through an hour and a half of work before I began experiencing extreme waves of nausea from the back pain and absolutely had to go home. Worried, I rescheduled my doctor’s appointment for this afternoon and spent all my time before the appointment laid up in bed. The back’s still feeling significantly worse even though I’m lying down, which is why I’m blogging at midnight–the valium and heat packs still haven’t managed to relax my muscles enough to allow me to sleep.

The doctor obviously knew it wasn’t good because I was coming in earlier than expected, and he immediately set about trying to get me on another course of treatment that will hopefully start improving my back. It was definitely worth the try to get back to work and to normal life, but that obviously wasn’t working so I’ve been ordered not to go back to work for the rest of the week. On top of that, I’m going to physiotherapy tomorrow, which I am really hoping makes a difference. I will be realistic though and figure that after the first treatment, I’ll probably hurt worse, but I’m hoping it will help me make great strides in the long run. I’d like this because it’s looking a bit doubtful that I will be able to get on the plane in what is now a week and two days, since a valid point has been made that I only have one back and sitting on a plane for 20 hours might do it much more future harm when it’s already in this state. Not good. I just have to wait and see what the physio does and what the doctor has to say during my next appointment on Monday.

Until then, I’ll be lying in bed reading The Great Hunt and hoping my back doesn’t implode when I visit the physio tomorrow. Also, there’s been more good news about the car situation–it looks like I’ll just be getting back what my car was worth rather than having to go through the hassle of finding the same car when there are very few new ones left in Perth. As much as I’d like a new Ribena, I think it’d just be easier to save the money and wait until I’m in a better place (ie not about to depart for England and not with a mangled back) before I get a car again.