Christmas Blues

The season started off cheerfully as it always does. The dampner came last week when my mum suddenly became immobile with a terrible slip disc. One minute she was fine, prepping for christmas cake and all the festivities and her charity work. The next minute she woke up in the dead of night howling in pain. She’d been undergoing physio therapy for a spine ache caused by this slip disc and 6/14 sessions later was showing a 90% improvement in terms of mobility (walking) and was getting about with virtually no pain. The Dr even ruled out surgery since she showed so much progress and asked her to continue with the entire session of 14. Long story short – She coughed in her sleep at night and woke up with a shooting pain going down her spine and leg all the way to her toes. The orthopaedic surgeon treating my mum asked us to come back on the 27th with a decision on surgery. The only way to relieve her of the pain supposedly caused by this cartilege pressing against the nerve running down her spine.

My parents place reeks of non-christmas and the blues, and on Saturday I made sure it was otherwise. Up went the tree, the cake was in the oven baking and I know both my parents were happy. Mum even got out of bed and came out to see the house and went back to bed with a smile. It’s difficult seeing them alone now that my sis and I are not there at home with them anymore. We both visit multiple times a day. Surgery is a bit overwhelming, but if that needs to be done, I guess there’s no choice. Relatives and friends keep calling and recommending several native treatment options, but my dad and I are both sceptical. My mum on the other hand is gung-ho on the surgery to get it over and done with. We’re meeting a neuro-surgeon on Wednesday for a second opinion, but I doubt with the level this has come to, that his diagnosis would be any different. Christmas blues a plenty.

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