My 25th birthday today.....yeah right!    I feel older than I actually am but that's probably just all the editing Def Leppard and Man Raze images that I've been immersed in for the last three weeks..  Finally got it all finished though.    Last year on my birthday I woke to a hurricane threat, six inches of water flooding my courtyard and a knackered refrigerator that clapped out during the night so I figure that I'm ahead this time.  Just got the new Iphone 3GS as my Blackberry started in it's death throes the last couple of weeks so I thought I'd treat myself which is something I never do.  Daisy seems fascinated by it for some reason and has been learning along with me....

   

Spoke to Joe Elliott who wished me a happy birthday etc, it's his 50th in a few days and he's going home for a short break in the tour.   Going out for a quiet meal and am then going home to crack the seal on a new bottle of Aberfeldy. 

Taylor Swift Fearless tour poster.  Main pic by Ash.

For several years I've suffered on and off with lower back problems and the pain literally has been a pain in the arse. March 2007 at my doctor's recommendation I started to exercise again, eat right and take off some weight to alleviate the strain and pain on my weak discs. 35lbs lighter and an abdomen tighter (hey that rhymes!) I'm doing much better but am still having painful flare ups. I'm too young to have fusion surgery which they don't want to do and the painkillers just make you drool and want to hug everyone!

So the last three weeks I've been having acupuncture treatment for my lower back pain. Three times a week at 7am I've been baring my arse so that the very nice Dr Thomas can stick needles in my lower back for 20 minutes at a time. Some sessions involve just the needles and then others the needles are hooked up to wires and electrical pulses are run through them to stimulate the affected areas and promote blood flow to help heal.
   

The short and thick of it is that I'm actually starting to feel a difference and improvement and the day to day pain is much less than previously. Now I'll be the first one to admit that I thought acupuncture was a load of tripe but the Chinese have done it for a thousand years and it's still going so...... At least they did something useful that didn't contain lead paint eh? Ha! Seriously though, if you're having lower back pain and haven't explored the option of acupuncture then at least research and consider it. Here's a couple of links that have interesting information.

Acupuncture Today

American Academy of Medical Acupuncture

Yours with a prickly bottom, just hanging at the house with Daisy...

ASH