I am the pincushion. Coo coo cachoo.

This morning I went to a physio about my back pain. It has been impacting too much on my plans and I need to do something, so today I took a taxi to the Back Pain Clinic. The taxi cost me 4 pounds and arrived at the hostel within 3 minutes of me calling them. Lift your game, Melbs! The physio was really nice, made me stretch a bit, then mentioned that he used acupuncture quite a lot, and did I mind? I asked if it hurt, he said you feel a bit of a pinch, like a normal needle. I said, well okay. I was seriously willing to try anything. So he stuck 4 needles in my hip and left them there. He was right, I did feel a bit of a pinch. A damn painful pinch with every needle, but then you sort of relax and the pain goes away. But I tried to move at one point and that hurt, so don't move if you ever had it. Then he went away for about 15 minutes and I got Sean to talk to me to distract me because I didn't want a repeat of the blood donation, where I thought about the fact there was a needle in me and cried. Yay. But Sean talked to me and I was pretty relaxed, and then the physio came back to turn the needles. That bit also hurt. Quite a lot. But again, only for a few seconds, then the pain faded. He gave me a really vigorous massage along my spine afterwards, and then stood me up. He wasn't happy with what he saw, so he put the needles in again, but this time only for about 30 seconds, then we tried again. It was really amazing. The pain in my back has improved significantly and he showed me some tricks with posture and core strength to help me manage it. Unfortunately, the pain in my legs is still quite bad, but I have a follow-up appointment on Thursday morning so I'll mention it if it's unchanged.

He told me to avoid sitting, and to stay standing and active if I could. Because of the swelling in my knee it's not too possible right now, so I pretty much have to lie on my side for long periods of time if I need to sit down. It's only temporary, but it's frustrating to say the least. Sean and I walked back through Derry in an attempt to stay active and found some cool shops, then I spent most of the afternoon lying on the couch reading. I got up to go to a restaurant for dinner with Sean then we had a drink with Kim when she finished her volunteering duties. We don't have any major plans for tomorrow, just washing and posting stuff home, but if we get that done, it'll be a big weight off my shoulders!