BACK TO IRAQ - blackrat - @ 20six.co.uk

BACK TO IRAQ

Hello world. Thought I'd bowed out, did you? Tell you the truth, I had. What with the changes that are hanging over 20six like the sword of Damocles and the mass exodus of Old Skool bloggers to the four corners of blogsville, I was ready and willing to join the flood, seeking pastures anew on WordPress. Still am, come to think of it.

But all that was before I was struck down by the return of my sciatica, the same excrutiating and all-consuming pain that afllicted me and so blighted my summer throughout last August. For the past ten days or so, I've been laid up, unable to move, unable to sleep and unable to escape or alleviate the pain. So once again, I'm drugged up to the eyes, lost in a sea of opium-induced drowsiness as the various drugs in my pain management regimen fight for supremacy in my central nervous system. Oh, and I've now got a referral to an orthopaedic surgeon too, so hopefully I can discover what's causing these intermittent bouts of intense pain.

Ironic really, as I spent the day before the onset of this particular episode with an eminent neurosurgeon, planning the logisics of a forthcoming feature which will see me shadowing him for a week as he performs brain surgery, talks to patients, and looks in on them in intensive care. Should be fascinating to say the least.

Otherwise, I've spent an awful lot of time working up forthcoming assignments, trying to put into place the neccessary arrangements for me to get where I need to be, with the right people, and at the right time. Oh, and along the way, making arrangements for the builders to move in for six weeks from the beginning of April to address the small problem of our house literally slipping away from under us. That little hiccup will require us to vacate the premises for a few weeks, so we rather have our hands full at the moment.

Thankfully, there seems to be some light at the end of the tunnel for me pain-wise, which is just as well as I'm going back to Iraq next week. The date had been pencilled in my diary since the tail end of last year, but it's taken until this afternoon for the neccessary approvals to come though. They have though, so myself and the man from The Times will fly out to Kuwait next Wednesday night, the first stop on the lengthy process of getting us into theatre. Only a short trip this one, but it looks like being action-packed and given what I know of the itinery, fascinating too. I'm due home on the 5th, but just two days later, I've got another assignment which will take me to the northern-most tip of Norway, way up in the Arctic Circle to watch the Royal Marines undertake their cold weather training. Brrr. So, desert to arctic within a week. Never let it be said that my life isn't about extremes!

Looks like this is going to be a busy weekend for me as I'll have lots of last-minute packing to do, plans to make, and things to buy. Oh, and it would be nice to try and live a little in there somewhere too, as I haven't done much of that in the past week or so due to being in so much pain. I shan't make any more lame promises of 'service returning to normal' because I won't be able to keep them. I'm definitely planning a move to WordPress which I shall facilitate upon my return, but until then, this is where you'll find me. A toute a l'heure

24.2.06 16:24

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