Philip (Phil) England

 Early May, and what a start to my birthday month it was 2nd May:  Every bone in my body is aching, my throat is sore, it hurts to talk, cold then hot then cold, been sneezing, been sick, got a headache... what is this thing I've got? and how have I caught it? Well it's not Covid, but still, how did I catch anything? I've kept wearing the mask even after the Welsh Government said we no longer had to. I've been really careful! 3rd May: Feeling a little better, but got a feeling my back is gonna be hitting me tomorrow 4th May: Just after 3am and OWWWWWWCCHHHH Aching from head to toe, slight high pitched noise in my ears, tingly all over, Fibromyalgia working with my Ankylosing Spondylitis to woke me up, hate this, I really hate this. Pain at level 9.5 out of 10 5th May: So after my full allowance of Co-Codamol, and Gabapentin backed up with 10 doses of CDB oil, the pain has FINALLY gone down to 7 out of 10, still not a good level but its getting there FACTS : The Co-

I was trying to get down stairs to put milk bottle out when my back decided to fire pain at me, it stopped me in my tracks  I am really getting fed up with it all, fed up of no quality of life, any life I do have is impacted by damn Covid. I have days when I am trapped in my flat, when I can even get out side the block to get some fresh air. Life can't get any worse right now, unless I catch Covid, then that would be the cherry on the top. I keep wondering why I am taking Co-codamol or my Gabapentin, until I stop taking it for a 48hour period, when I realise it does actually ease the pain I feel, no matter how slight.

So, in the middle of the night my body decided I didn't need any more sleep and woke me up. A tingly type of pain, which develops in to a constant aching pain which seems to then spread from my mid to lower back and then moves up the back to also cover the top part of my body. Sometimes I get one pain in the mid to lower part of my back and my neck and shoulders at the same time, then the two seem to join up. I am really not liking trying to live my life with pain, it really gets me down. Seems my medication isn't really doing much to counteract it, it eases a little, but that's about all. Think of it as the sound on a hifi. The pain I wake up with and live with on a daily basis is at 9 or 10 - full volume, which gets reduced to 6 or 7. I am ALWAYS in pain and that makes my life horrid.