Various updates

We're a little over three weeks into our new regime now. I've lost half a stone (7 lbs), DH says he feels healthier, and I told you last week what it's done for his sperm. We both feel better for having small, regular meals and not eating a big meal too close to bedtime, and we're enjoying having more spare time in the evening - though I still have to find time to cook his lunches, so not all my evenings are freed up.

On Friday, we decided to treat ourselves and have fish and chips for supper when we got home from work - something we quite often (used to) do on a Friday evening. I found the fish almost unbearably greasy, and we both had trouble getting to sleep because of the heavy, full feeling in our stomachs. That's a 'treat' we won't be having again for a good while.

This weekend I took the time to plan our menus for the week and make out a shopping list before going to the supermarket. I went through a stage of being very good about this last year, and it definitely saves us money and avoids waste. I'm going to try to get back into the habit of doing it every week, as I've been a bit lax recently.

I haven't whinged about my back recently, but it's still giving me a lot of trouble. The back itself felt much better, and I was hoping to get back to the gym, but over the last week I've had increasing pain in the back of my right leg. It's not constant and is considerably less debilitating than when my entire back was in spasm and I couldn't even turn over in bed, but I have very severe shooting pains in my leg whenever I move in certain ways - for instance, I currently find it almost impossible to bend down and pick anything up off the floor, so if I drop anything it stays dropped.

My wonderful osteopath started her maternity leave last week, so yesterday I saw her locum for the first time. I think she's going to be equally good, but she's a bit more tentative at the moment - it must be hard to take over someone else's practice temporarily. She said some other back and leg muscles have gone into spasm and are so tight that one session wasn't enough to relieve them. The pain in my leg is referred pain from the same ligament that caused my back to seize up a couple of weeks ago, so I've got to apply ice and heat alternately to my back over the course of today and then see her again tomorrow.

It's an odd feeling, because anything I do to try to protect my leg does absolutely nothing to prevent the shooting pains, which are caused by certain movements of my back. When you have a pain in a particular place, that's the area that you try to protect, so it feels strange to try to remember to move my leg normally and protect my back instead.

AF showed up right on cue on Sunday, so I'm going in for a day 3 blood test this morning. I had hoped to do a day 2 test, but I couldn't go into London today because of my osteopath's appointment. I should have the result of that by tomorrow evening, and that will inform a lot of my plans for the next few weeks - like when I book the hysteroscopy, whether I have the immune testing, and what I do about work.

And as for work - well, nobody's more surprised at this than I am, but I applied for a new job yesterday. I'm not sure it's the right time to move, and there are all sorts of reasons why it would be easier to stay put, but the job opportunity is very exciting, and the sort of thing that comes up once in a blue moon. I told the recruitment agent that I'm not really looking for a move at the moment, but that it sounds so interesting that I'd like to know more about it. She's putting my CV forward and we'll see what happens, but I don't have to make any firm decisions at this stage.

So, interesting times are ahead, and I have no idea what I'll be doing in six months' time...