Me, myself & the NHS

Those that know me, know that Christmas is my absolute favourite time of the year, or at least it used to be. I’ve had chronic pain for 8 years now, and every year a good Christmas seems to come at a price.  I keep asking Santa for a pain free body, but it seems they’re in short supply. For me, Christmas is about seeing family and friends, having enough food to sink a ship (that’s just my portion) then maybe have a few too many drinks.  As I’ve grown up, dishing out the presents massively outweighs the joy of receiving them, but Christmas shopping has become more and more challenging. Due to my hip condition and having arthritis, most of my parcels come via Amazon and are bought in October/November, so I’m prepared for when some inevitably get lost and then I have time to reorder.  During December I try to battle the elements, that are Christmas shoppers. Politeness seems to go out the window and unfortunately not everywhere is wheelchair frien...

When you live with chronic pain, everything you do becomes a chore. It can be really daunting at times, even if you're surrounded by a million friends and family, they will find it impossible to relate, unless they've been through the same. I've been on this wild ride now for 8 years, with 5 joint operations under my belt. I'd like to consider myself an expert, but my condition throws new things at me all the time. I joined a few chronic pain groups, but found my condition too rare to seek help and get the right advice. I have femoral retroversion, and it means the head of my thigh bone is at a different angle. It's destroying my hips and knees. I never thought I'd be in my 30's, looking forward to the days when I can have new ones and start my active life again. But here we are. After months of being on these generalised sites, I found a few based in America that seemed to fit my symptoms. It wasn't long before I met a lady called Tanya,...