Some of you may have noticed that I have been away from here for sometime. It wasn't because I got bored of the site or the lovely friends I have made on here.

I have only recently returned home after some 5 weeks in hospital, it was at times very emotional and stressful. I can only praise the nurses and all the other staff on the wards I was in, from the Ward sister, all the way down the ladder to the cleaners, they were every single one of them, wonderful and made what was a distressing time for me, easier to cope with.

Sadly, I can't say the same about the doctors I dealt with.

To cut a long story short, I went into hospital in agony, and was constantly told I simply had sciatica, which for people who have not had that, is the trapping of the sciatic nerve which runs from the spine down each leg and can be quite painful.

What I actually had was something far more serious, although I only found that out at 1am, 7 hours before I had major surgery on my back to remove 2 shattered discs and removal of significant amounts of bone off 3 vertebra.

While the clowns had been telling me I had sciatica, something that they had been telling me since October, the reality was much more serious, and it is only a miracle that I was able to walk out of hospital, on crutches, but I walked out. It is only luck, or fate looking after me, that one of the many shards of disc that had calcified and turned to razor sharp bone, did not slice through my spine and render me paralysed from the mid chest down.

I'm recovering from the operation, and the fact that I have no feeling and little control of my left leg, and that I am on large amounts of morphine to control the pain from my damaged spine and nerves, and although I am grateful that the worst didn't happen, I am also angry that I was let down so badly by the doctors who should have spotted the problem quicker. for those that want to know, its a condition called Cauda equine.

Anyway, anger aside, I'm grateful I can walk, or hobble, and that I am back home, after 5 weeks of hospital food, its great to be back.

I probably won't be online very often, its difficult for me to sit up for any length of time, although I am sure that will get better over time too. I will be reading my e-mail though, so feel free to e-mail me, its the same as my MSN ID on my profile.