I have been to my second opinion appointment at Walton last week and have some great news to report.

I decided to go for a second appointment because my last NS wrote me off with physio and rehabilitation even though I still had progressive symptoms with regards to motor function in my hands and fingers, lots of pain in my upper spine, muscular pain in my back and neck and constant heavy fatigue, due to lack of sleep but also because everything that I did seemed so much harder to do.

I went to Walton and saw a great Registrar who wanted to carry out a full body MRI to rule out any issues further down my spine. (This had not been done previously......which I was slightly worried about)

I haven't been on the blog for a while, and for that I need to apologise. I have returned to work recently and have been putting all of my time (and energy) into this for the time being.

To be honest, I have been too exhausted and too busy to do much else other than concentrate on geting back into it.

My reasons for returning to work are just as much about taking my recovery to the next stage, just as much as trying to repair my financial situation, having been off work for around 18 months.

I originally went for the interview for the role 8 weeks after surgery last June 2009. I am not one to stand still. In the end there was a hold on recruitment until the end of December, and I responded to a call that I received and accepted the role more or less straight away.

The last 7 days has seen 5 friends from the Chiari forum attend appointments for decompression surgery. Two of them have already been sent home after a very successful surgery and a very fast initial recovery proving just how effective that having a positive attitude can really help. Two unfortunately have had their surgery postponed until later in the year and early in the new year, yet remain positive. Another has had a troublesome time with their own surgery, but today I hear that they have made lots of progress over the last 24 hours and are being told that they can contemplate going home.

I think all of us have experienced the start of the cold weather this week. It can be a real issue for those if us with already aching muscles and joints.

For those of us with relatively new surgery scars it can be painful too!

So, is it just that we need to apply common sense when we venture out, or do we need to exercise a little more preventative caution?

From my own experience, it is often too late to do much prevention when we are already feeling the effects of cold. Some people fall victim because they are fashion concious and some because they are just ill-prepared. Feeling the cold means that you are at risk of suffering more pain and stress than you need to.

Tomorrow marks the day when 3 of my friends should undergo decompression surgery, I am saying "should" because for one of them tomorrow is round two after having their surgery cancelled last week at the last minute. For another, they have their own round two on Friday after a similar story.

Four people in the same week, three of them on the same day and they say that Chiari Malformation is a rare condition?

I wish Ian, Laura and Rachael the best of luck for tomorrow and Suz for Friday / Saturday! I will be thinking of all of you!

Remember water and PMA!

Well, its been all go here! Apologies for not posting, have been trying to sort my life out a little.

I have never been this busy even when I was working!

More will be revealed at a later date - but suffice to say the future seems bright!

I also seem to have hit a brick wall or at least the pain barrier with posting and driving the blog. It takes a heck of a lot out of me, and sometimes I just need to sit back a little and take a rest from it.

If anyone would like to help out and possibly "guest post" some articles on here, then that would be awesome!

I am still looking for stories, especially those from carers or parents or partners of sufferers? Please consider helping out this way as it is an amazing tool to help others connect.

Well, the day started off really well!

@beverleyknight sent me a Twitter mention that she would be very interested in buying my mother-in-laws book on 60's Student Nursing for her sister-in-law who is a Nurse!

Then NHS Choices gave me the chance to become an official blogger on the new NHS Choices blog site!

Then I was sent my server stats for my blog! 3733 visitors and 15097 page views!

on top of that I seem to have come out of the other end of a cold / man flu / chest infection - I feel great!

Talk about on a high for a Monday morning!

Well, I couldn't be more proud of my Mother-in-Law Beryl.

She has written a really interesting and very funny book about her experiences and exploits as a Cadet Nurse in the 60's.

It really is rather good to be fair......not 2 words that a guy usually associates with his Mother-in-Law!

"The official sales blurb"

Well, its been a mixture of all kinds of stuff going on....some positive, some negative and some just downright mediocre lol

Ended up in A&E last weekend and had to wait 4 hours in there to be put onto a nebuliser - I wan't the only one either..... mind you, I had asked when I went in could I bet put on one! I did have severe breathing difficulties at the time. Oh well.......

Had a run in with a "Twitter Guru" who basically spat his "cyber dummy"....great reaction, showed him up to be a hypocrite with all the hype that he created from it! I then penned an article on brand protection on the back of it.

I have been wondering for the past few weeks why I have put so much weight on......then I read in an American forum that they blamed their use of Amytriptlene. Well, as usual, I always take the hype with a pinch of salt......so i checked it out in Wikipedia.

Well, blow me down with a feather! Or rather not so at the moment hehehehehe

It does report that there are side effects with weight gain.............so off to the GP I go tomorrow, not with an order for a repeat prescription, but with a question asking for something else.