I was taken into hospital for a period as an inpatient and the pain was just extraordinary, it was like burning, it was just so intense and it was the kind of sleep [pain] I couldn’t sleep through. I couldn’t, I really couldn’t ignore it didn’t seem to be susceptible to the drugs that they were giving me. They were, they tried anti-inflammatories, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs which well, they appeared to suppress it slightly. Paracetamol appeared to reduce the pain slightly but, but I mean all these drugs only last for a few hours and then you’re back to square one. And having, having to count the hours and you know remembering how long ago you last took the dose and watch the clock and still not being on top of the pain.

‘Cos as I say, I just have to be careful, try and plan my days out as to what I do and if I know I’ve got a particular type of work like that then I perhaps dose myself up on a few painkillers just to get me over that, that sort of initial hurdle really;

But do you then feel the affects sort of the next day or?

Not normally no, no. It’s the painkillers normally sort of, if I know that I’m gonna do that, I sort of perhaps take them perhaps for a day if I know I’ve got something really sort of straining to do. But I don’t really feel anything else after that. The painkillers wear off and you’re fine. But you know if you don’t take them, you are gonna seem to suffer. Obviously with the strain of whatever else really;

I also sort of have now got to that stage where I know what’s going to aggravate it as well. So I’m able to take precautions that way so I’m going to do something that’s to me is aggressive to the joints I can take a few more painkillers or something like that and get myself sort of dosed up and I’m able to sort of cope with sort of most situations quite sensibly and helpful to myself sort of thing. And so that’s, that’s some benefit at least. At least I do understand, understand it a lot more sort of thing. I mean obviously than you did in the, the first case.

I don’t like it but it’s a case of having to. I mean I’ve never been a one for drugs, you know even a headache tablet, I wouldn’t take. But I realise now I have to, like I take painkillers cocodamol whatever you call them, you know I have to take them. I try not taking them every night, it’s only if I can’t sleep, then I will come down and take a couple. But on the whole I try not to;

So it’s generally at night that you take them?

Yeah, yeah ‘cos in the morning, I get up and a couple of hours, it’ll take for me to get back on, you know, on track as I call it [laugh]. And then I’m all right till maybe the evening.

I take Tylex painkillers when I need them as well.

And do you find you have to take many of those?

It varies, it’s up to six, six a day sometimes if it’s bad, but obviously when you’re not working like right, I always tend to, well I’ve tended to find now I can, I can manage it a lot better I can do things, exercise certain things, I’ve got exercise sheets where I can try and sort of exercise the pain out of it more than, than take pills and things like that, so I’ve done that more sort like, like swimming as well like right, which is pretty good a couple of times a week.

Use me mind a bit more like getting out of it, getting round it that way basically as opposed to just swallowing tablets all the time, but when it does get bad like right, out come the tablets and away they go like and they are pretty good yeah.

And how do you feel about taking them long term?

A lot better now than what I did do, I had a real problem with tablets years ago, I didn’t think, you know, like I said like a person who’d never taken in their life, I thought ‘God I’m taking all these pills’ and what have you and I have a cupboard, well a box full of pills and there was pills for this that and the other and you know it was a bit of an eye opener and it was a bit frightening really. But as of late, sort of the last year I’ve come to terms with it a lot better, and as the illness has sort of, as I say the last few months sort of died down a bit, I’m taking less tablets so it’s working quite well. I don’t feel bad about it at all really.

I’m perhaps a little more careful and I’ve got extra pain killing tablets that I can take if I’m having a really bad day. So if I know that I’m gonna to be doing a lot on my feet or something, I either kind of take some to pre-empt not getting in pain ‘cos if you’re in pain, you get tired more quickly or I just take them with me. If I, if I’ve done something before and was OK and I took the painkillers before, I sometimes as long as it’s not silly to, I try to do without them. I still take them with me just because if I always take them I’m never gonna know whether I can do stuff without them. So I mean I’m not, I try not to be silly about it and I you know, if I’m in pain I’m obviously gonna take them. But I don’t take them unless I am in pain if you can see what I’m saying [laughs].

Yeah I think I know what you mean, yeah.

Kind of you don’t know whether you need them unless you don’t take them sometimes, you know, ‘cos they’re the extra, they’re the extra ones on top of the, the Diclofenac that I take so I kind of I shouldn’t be taking them every day anyway so. I just take them when I need them [laughs].