Into the groove

So it has now been 5 weeks back at work! It is tough going but glad I am doing it. I am still not sitting to work and am predominantly working from home to save the hour commute each way. It has been a phased return and since the first 2 weeks I have been working 4.5 hours a day, all stood up. This essentially takes all day as by the time you have had a couple of breaks to lay down and have lunch etc it is soon late afternoon. Until I can sit for 30 mins or so it will be hard to work more I think. 

Work have been great and it has been nice being back into what feels more like a normal routine. However, after 2 months of rest and recuperation I have had to be careful managing day to day stuff that is now less on my terms than the previous weeks. The cumulative effect of standing every day has caused quite a bit tighntness into my lumbar spine so I have been trying to regularly move. I have continued to swim once a week and now am able to do some basic yoga to keep my spine moving as well as stretch out the scar tissue at the operation site. I have probably been walking less as I have not had the time and am stood most of the day so tend to collapse on the sofa when I get the chance!!

As for the sitting I have continued to improve slowly. The pain/discomfort ebbs and flows and can be hard to predict what causes it etc, so I am just using my common sense and accepting that sometimes it increases without an obvious cause. At this stage I think it is important that I keep moving (within reason). The Professor had told to simply slowly return to normal life - do exercises that do not lead to pain and sit if it does not cause pain. He stressed that it is important not to stimulate the pain so if anything does, either sitting or exercise, then stop it. Therefore I tend to do give myself a breather from any exercise or sitting for a few days at a time and then go again. It seems to work ok, but it really is a game of patience. I have achieved some important milestones though - eating my dinner sat down, taken a short car ride sat in the back (on my coccyx cushion) as well as a record 16 lengths in the pool.

This weekend is a bank holiday in the UK so I took the Friday off in order to have 4 days in a row where I am not stood at a computer for prolonged periods. I have come back to the countryside where I grew up - I think the fresh air and space do me the world of good! It is also nice to have a change of scene as I have spent a long time in our little flat over the last months and my poor wife deserves a break from me too!! Tomorrow I am taking the train back to London which is slightly daunting as it is a 2.5 hour journey so it better not have delays!! I will write more soon 😊.