Good morning early birds!

[waterboatman]

It's Friday! Time to get ready for whatever you are doing at the weekend.

Cloudy still this morning.

Have a happy day everyone.

[lcg]

morning dave. is that you in your avatar, you handsome devil? x

[sunny-dave]

Yep - that's me in my biker gear - the yellow elephant will be back later after a break for emergency cream bun therapy :+)

[Sir Alec]

lcg76. I have been to endless docs. The Barnsley pain clinic gave me acupuncture that I had to use 2 trains and 20 mins of walking to, useless. Then they gave me a tens machine. I tried every possibility. Nothing worked. They told me that that was all they had, so I put up with it.

[lcg]

ahhh.....so you are a biker. all the men in my family are too. my 19yr old son has just got his first bike and it's scaring the bejesus out of me. he is slightly sensible, but it still worries me greatly - especially as his first winter is coming up. what plans have you got for today? i am going to sofa surf, but later i am going to attempt a stagger to my local post office. gp said i had to 'exercise' my back (so i hope nobody laughs at the way i walk!) x

[Sir Alec]

Good grief, sunny dave! You are very brave. If I put a photo of me on here, no man would ever speak to me again!

[lcg]

alec...that is not all they have at all. there are plenty of medications that you can try for your pain. also, i had a quick look online and it does seem that severe pain can be a side effect of the lith.....(sp.) that you had. it also says that it should be explored further by the urologist as well.do what i did.....go and see your gp and state it is not good enough and you want to be assessed again by both clinics. if you keep going back for the same thing, they might get fed up with you in the end and refer you :=)

[sunny-dave]

Slow start here - but will walk the dogs a bit later and take the long route to a quiet pint in the local (well the short route is only about 50 yards).

The bike needs a proper, long outing to blow the cobwebs away (mine and its) ... next week perhaps.

[sunny-dave]

Morning Sir Alec - not brave - but have adopted a 'take me as I am' policy over the years.

The pain stuff is very difficult - I spent years as a teenager with 'growing pains in the back' - turned out to be an intermittent kidney blockage which was then solved by a single (nasty but effective) operation.

Keep plugging away - as Lisa says they will eventually refer you up the chain for more specialist help/diagnosis - and there are new pain relief drugs & therapies coming along all the time too - ask about trials if you get any opportunity.

[lcg]

sounds heavenly, dave. i'm chuffed this morning as i have managed to claw back £37 from my energy company. they estimated our electric bill and my direct debits more than covered it. i was completely broke....so every little helps (and it feels like a small victory over them!) x

[Sir Alec]

I have been waiting for gness to show up, which she normally does. If she turns up can some kind person pass on a message, please?
Gadget Man starts on Monday at 8.30pm and it stars Stephen Fry.
Sorry if you already know, but I wanted you to know!

[Baldric]

Morning all, Blimey it was that cold when I took the dogs out about 0700 that I had to snap one of them off a tree, back home now, coffee brewed, papers at the ready and hopefully a busy day at t'mill.
Hope you all have a good 'un.

[gness]

Morning all........couldn't get machine to wake up this morning.

SirAlec....thank you thank you!!! Have been away and haven't seen ads for future programmes. Didn't know about Stephen Fry....You're a star... xx