With all the naked selfies going around at the moment, I am thankful that I am healthy. In early 2010 I had a breast cancer scare which changed my life for the better. I shed over 7 stones while working out 3 times a week. As my body shape changed my confidence grew. As the mother of 3 twenty something's, step mum to 2 thirty something's and grandmother to 3 I felt old before my time. My sons would arrive home with these beautiful girls and my daughter is the most beautiful size 8 and I hated accepting invitations where I would need to socialise with them. My relationship suffered and our sex life was non existent. But, I turned that around and instead of the 18 stone lump I was I became and 11 stone woman and discovered myself. To cut a long story short, after reaching my desired weight I was working really hard with a PT to tone my body. I had gotten to a place where I liked what I saw in the mirror; I liked the definition and muscle tone I had developed. Unfortunately 5 months later I was struck with a chronic sciatic pain which had me sitting on ice packs at work. After the third excruciating day I had an appointment with my physio about something completely unrelated but when he saw the pain I was in, he made an assessment of my back and started some acupuncture treatment. I left with a written assessment to give to my GP with his recommendation that I needed further investigation soon. He thought I may have a prolapse between discs L4&5. We were shocked to find that this assessment was dismissed and I was prescribed morphine based patches which increased in dose as time went on and I got no better. 7 months later and at the request of my orthopaedic consultant I was sent for an MRI which revealed a spinal cyst for which I had to be referred to the spinal unit near by. They looked in disbelief at the amount of drugs I was on, unable to comprehend why this hadn't started ringing alarm bells with someone. In January 2014 the cyst was removed from my spine, recovery was speedy thanks to my health and I was soon back in the gym. However during these 15 months I had managed to put on 2 stone and I am now struggling to lose it as I cope with the added pressure of the withdrawal of the morphine patches and chronic insomnia. This will hopefully document the story of my journey back to fitness.
