I think it first occurred when I was on medication for not sleeping and I fell down the stairs twice. And hurt my back. And I just went to the doctors and said, “And my back hurts.” And it snowballed from there. So now I attend [name] Hospital every three months. But my doctor, said, that, she thinks I was on the wrong drug because it should have stopped this happening with my spine collapsing.

 

 

Well my depression drugs. I'm on Phenelzine and Lanzipan. And I've been on Phenelzine for over twenty years. And the Lanzipan about five years. And they suit me. Phenelzine is a very old drug and they don’t like prescribing it because there are restrictions with it. I can’t eat cheese, yeast extract, anything fermented. Yoghurts. I have to avoid them. Gravy is another thing. I just can’t have them. But they suit me, I have been in hospital and tried to come off them. And tried other drugs, but they just made me worse. And I think it's those drugs that have caused the osteoporosis. They can’t think of any other reason why.

 

 

They know. They said it could be. They haven’t definitely said it is. But they said I've been on it so long it could well be a factor in getting the osteoporosis.

 

 

None whatsoever. 

At home, yes. Walking on occasions I've been told I have got to walk every day. And I can’t walk far. I can only walk about fifty yards. And that's about my limit. I potter round the house. I need sticks to walk with. I try and do without them in the house but I can’t always especially going up and down stairs. I can’t go up and down without my sticks and just hopefully it's going to get better if my spine fuses.

 

 

The pain.

 

Yeah. You know, when I first was diagnosed with it there was no real pain. I had a slight backache because I thought I'd fallen down the stairs, but that went and as I say I just woke up one morning with this horrendous. I went to get up and the pain was excruciating from the top of my spine down to the back of my knees and my knees. I couldn’t stand. But with bed rest and Co-Codamol it eased it off a bit… and there are many drugs that other people can take but I can’t because of my depression tablets. And so all I can take is Co-Codamol because they interact and one fights the other. So I probably have to bear more pain than most people would do. Well the consultant said that to me as well because of the (depression) drugs. I mean there is no way I can give them up. No way.

 

I can’t take other painkillers because of the Phenelzine for depression. I take Co-Codamol, Phenelzine, Lanzopine, Calcichew, and cod liver oil capsules. And that's it. It's enough [laugh].

How is your GP, how is your relationship with her?
 
Marvellous.
 
Yes?
 
She's absolutely marvellous. The only thing is you can’t get an appointment very often.
 
How long have you been with her?
 
Well I've been with the surgery longer than she's been there. Oh thirty years. I would say. And all the doctors there are marvelous you know. If you can’t go to see your normal doctor, there is always an appointment free for another doctor. And they're all very good. They look after me. They really do. If I've got any qualms at all I just have to go there and they sort me out. You know,
 
Oh definitely, yes, every time I see the consultant he writes to my GP. And my GP has written to Professor [name] at [name] Hospital about changing my drug, so I'm just waiting to get an urgent appointment to see what they're going to put me on. But I was told a couple of weeks ago when I had the infusion that I would be put on a new drug once I've had my annual consultation. So they are just pulling it forward for me.
 
So when is this annual consultation?
 
Well it was, it's coming up in June, but I think they are going to try and get me in sooner in view of the letter my doctor wrote, because she feels I shouldn’t have had this happen. I should have been on a drug that would prevent this happening. But whether that’s the case or not, but that is what she wrote anyway. Well that is what she told me she was going to write.
 

 

It's literally, literally get on with it. Live your life. And do as much as you can and stop when the pain comes. And which to me, I like my garden and I can do about half an hour sitting down. I have a little stool and after half an hour the pain is acute, especially down my legs, but if I rest for about an hour I can go and do another half an hour and I do that two or three times a day, but it is painful.

 

 

Oh definitely.

 

 

Well just going down to the local shops, you know, that, that’s hard, you know, and I've got to be quite truthful, most of the time I drive down there, but it's a point of being able to park. That's one good thing I can drive. Otherwise I'd be a prisoner. You know, I get down to the local shops and I have to sit down before I start on my trip back and that's only about a hundred yards away. But it does get very painful. And when I sit down the pain eases off but it takes about half an hour to go completely. But it really does affect your knees. When you go to stand up you get a lot of pain in your knees. And in the backs of your legs. Hopefully if the spine fuses that will all go.

 

 

If it's really bad, I go to bed and lie out flat, but most of the time I can get rid of it by just sitting down on a comfortable seat, on a soft seat. I can’t sit on hard seats. In the dining room we've to load it with cushions for me to sit there because anything hard pushing in the back of your legs is very painful.

 

 

Oh definitely.

 

 

Shops definitely, yeah. Going up and down stairs as well that is quite painful. But I, I do it quite often.

 

 

I can’t do anything. I can’t do any decorating or anything like that. We were putting curtains up in the dining room. My wife couldn’t reach so I said I'll do it. So I went to tread on the ladder and I couldn’t lift my leg up and I fell backwards. Luckily enough I had the brace on and I hit the dining room table and it stopped me from falling. So I can’t climb a ladder. I haven’t attempted it since [laughs]. It didn’t really hurt. I didn’t hurt myself, it's just that I couldn’t balance on one leg and get pressure to pull myself up on the ladder.

 

 

No, because it was the fall was taken by this brace, so I wasn’t worried about it. I did come and sit down for about an hour before I attempted to move again, but I had no additional pain or anything through it.

 

 

But it literally stops you doing everything, even washing up, most of it goes in the dishwasher, but things that can’t. I can’t stand at the sink and wash up for my wife. Because if I stand for about five minutes I'm in agony. I'm much better walking although after about 50 yards it gets painful. It does make an awful lot of difference to your life. I suppose I don’t notice it as much, suffering with depression and being agoraphobic, slightly agoraphobic I have been restricted over the years anyway. So it doesn’t really affect me that much. Except things around the house that I can’t do anymore. I can’t decorate and I can’t spend hours and hours out in the garden which I used to. Otherwise, you know, it doesn’t affect me that much.