Hey everyone, it’s a week later and I’ve managed to record a second podcast, so things are definitely on the up.

I hope everyone’s ok and had a good weekend.

As promised, I’ve come back with an update on my back, how I’m getting on and what my plan is.

As mentioned in the previous podcast, I said I’d be back with an update, no pun intended, or is there?

Maybe there is.

If you haven’t listened to the previous podcast, I suggest you do that first before listening to this one, because you’ll need to understand a bit of the background.

So many puns! Honestly, I’m not doing it on purpose.

As with the previous podcast, there will be some detail that I won’t go into, terminology that I don’t feel comfortable using.

Again, I’m not a doctor, this is not medical advice, it’s just my journey, so please treat it as such.

On Tuesday, I had my back reviews.

I actually ended up with two different reviews in the same day.

It wasn’t intentional, but as mentioned in the previous podcast, I wasn’t moving anywhere fast, so I attacked from different angles, and I just ended up with multiple different people helping me on my journey.

I have to admit actually, I was a little bit nervous about Tuesday.

I was fairly confident because I’d started to feel better that it wasn’t going to be anything bad, but your mind does tricks on you and makes you think it’s going to be the worst news.

The good news is, it wasn’t.

In general, everything’s fine.

There’s nothing hugely concerning in the scan, in the investigations they’ve done.

There’s just a few points of note in the report.

I say a few, about five or six, some of which I’ll go through right now, others I’m going to leave out just because I don’t fully understand them, although the doctor did explain them, but I don’t think it’s right for me necessarily to go into all the detail of that on this podcast.

Point number one on the report, and I’m going to struggle to say this word, is degenerative, degenerative?

It’s really hard to say.

Degenerative aging.

Basically, as we all are, I’m getting old.

I’m aging.

My body’s aging.

My muscles are aging.

Thanks for telling me.

I guess I’m a little bit devastated that that’s been called out as point number one, that I’m getting old.

The next few items on the report, essentially all very similar.

They just go through the different segments on your spine and call out any issues.

Nothing major in there, nothing concerning.

I’ve got a few compressed spinal discs, but nothing in there that would cause an orthopedic surgeon to want to take any action.

And that’s essentially where I’m at right now, that no further medical action is recommended, which is incredible.

I have to say there were points in this journey I never thought I’d get here.

It’d been 11 weeks and there’d been no improvement.

It wasn’t till the week before last when my back cracked and things started to get better that I realized that actually it wasn’t going to be like this forever.

To hear that from not one, but two professionals that know what they’re talking about was really reassuring.

That’s the message here, right?

You may go through this for any medical reason.

You may have all the tests, you may have all the appointments, and at the end of it, you’re absolutely fine.

But if you’re concerned something’s not right, get it checked.

Go to a doctor.

Look for that reassurance because 99% of the time, it’s going to be nothing to worry about.

Going to the doctor gives you that reassurance and gets rid of that worry.

I know now that I can focus on my physical fitness, my health, all of that great stuff that we all should be doing, but loads of us aren’t, including me.

I now know that I can go to see a physio.

I can go to the gym.

I can do more exercise.

I’m free to get myself back to a level of fitness that hopefully should help prevent or at least slow down this reoccurring again, which for me is a really great thing.

All round, good news on the medical front.

I’m glad I did the MRI.

They’re not as scary as I thought they were going to be.

Please go back to the previous podcast to hear my thoughts on the MRI.

It was a process that I needed to go on for my own confidence and just to get reassurance everything’s okay.

What’s next on this journey for me?

As I just mentioned, it’s really important that I now put some time in and realize that A, I’m getting old and B, I’m not as fit as I used to be.

That is the next goal as part of this journey.

I need to get back to a reasonable level of fitness because to be fair, we all let it go occasionally and it’s been a long time since I’ve last been in a gym or done some regular exercise.

So that is absolutely agenda point number one and I’ve already got a kickoff meeting with a physio that specializes in people with my condition.

That should help in terms of what works, what’s not going to work and what I can actually do.

Not only are they a physio, it’s kind of half gym as well.

There’s some opportunity to do some decent at least upper body exercise for me.

Let’s get this done.

I should start hopefully from around the 7th or 8th of May and we’ll come on to why there’s a gap.

I know what you’re all thinking.

What about the holiday?

You would not believe how many times I’ve nearly cancelled my holiday.

There’s been moments, as I say, when I’m like this is not going to end.

I’m never going to get on holiday.

It’s not going to happen.

Based on the last two weeks going pretty well, I’ve still got some work to do.

There’s still things that I need to be careful with.

But based on the last two weeks, right now the holiday is go.

I’ve got a few days to go where I’m going to remain extra careful to ensure that I don’t do anything that’s going to set me back.

But right now I’m very excited to say the holiday is happening.

I can’t wait.

It’s been a long time coming.

I’ve needed a holiday for a long time.

As you can imagine, I’ve spent a lot of time not doing very much the last three months.

So a holiday is exactly what I need.

Genuinely it’s going to be the uplift that I need to reset my mood, to just settle me back down again.

Then the plan is get the holiday done, come back, start physio, start training, looking to do it once a week, maybe twice a week for a good while and then maybe do it once a month just as some maintenance.

I might do this in another podcast as well.

I’ve been medically stable since I was 18.

I’ve not really been seen by anyone, doctors or physios for my condition since I was 16, 17.

They used to be seen every six months.

The NHS are great.

They look after you.

You get everything you need.

As soon as you become an adult, off you go.

Do your own thing, which has been interesting, but it’s made me realize that I need to do this kind of stuff and to stay engaged with it and have people around me that can help me when I need it.

Give me that guidance, give me those exercises, give me that reassurance it’s all okay.

That is the plan for probably the rest of this year really, to get myself up to a level of fitness that I think is a good place to be, to open those networks of people, build those relationships, just have it ready if I need it.

I would recommend the same to anybody else as well.

And actually I will definitely do a separate podcast on this.

I don’t think I’ve mentioned in any other podcast, I’ve actually had a work coach just as a generic training tool for the last six months.

One of the things he shared with me was your network is the most important thing and it comes down to it’s not what you know, it’s who you know.

And that works in every single part of your life, be it your professional career, be it your personal life, be it your network of people that can help you.

Just having people to reach out to, to give you advice, to give you their opinion, to be a sounding board, to talk to, etc, etc.

is one of the most important things that anyone can do.

And tied to that is asking.

If you don’t ask, you don’t get.

Simple as.

And the worst thing if you ask, the person can say no.

They also could open the doors to something amazing, they could solve your problem, they could move you on to the next step, they could make an even better recommendation.

It’s all about having that incredible network of people and asking them when you need to.

And also being there when they need you and they need to ask you something, you respond in kind.

So network, network, network.

I’m conscious that my last one was quite a long podcast, so keep this one short.

But all around good news, I’ll be back with a holiday update.

Might take me a little while just to put it all together, but that’s the plan.

And then definitely get back on my list of things I wanted to record.

I think I’ve just added at least two new subjects on there.

So this is going to be going for a little while.

I hope everyone’s still enjoying it.

Any suggestions, any subjects, please let me know.

Have an amazing week and I will talk to you when I get back.