But since I’ve done my exercises, and I do them every day, that the physio gave me, that’s made a big difference. And sleeping at night, I’ve got better pillows.

Tell me more about those exercises that you do?

Yes, the exercises, they’re quite simple, they’re the neck exercises. And it’s pulling your neck in to make a double chin. You do that about ten times. And then you go back and forward and then round to the side and I do that every morning. And that helps to free the neck. And I do a Pilates exercise on the floor, which I haven’t got room to show you but I could show you, which is extremely good for the shoulders and the neck. So I do that and as I say I’ve got my routine that I do so I exercise all the body. Keep it all sort of supple.

Yes keep my body supple. My back is straight and as I say it is just that bit on the neck. But I’m concerned that I’d hate to have too much of a hump. That, you see people where it, it humps at the back sobut I think by doing exercises and I do them for ten, fifteen minutes every day before I do anything else. And it does keep you supple.

Now appearance. If you are misshapen as I am. I’ve got the Kyphosis of the back, the hump back to put it in blunt words and may I say here and now I did not know that was coming. I didn’t experience any discomfort or pain which is very difficult to comprehend but it’s true. And it was only when I, after a little while with reaching up into I’ve got fitted wardrobe which I had done after I’d been looking after mother and came back here. I had my house restructured so I didn’t have to get on steps or stools. And it was only when I was reaching to something high in the fitted wardrobe that I realised I was having more difficulty getting it down. And so clothes and being quite a difficult thing.

What were your feelings when you realised that you were developing the Kyphosis? How did you feel about that?

I didn’t. Well I was feeling fine. I didn’t feel any difference it’s just that I suddenly knew that I, my shape had gone with no discomfort. it’s inconceivable really so that indicates how aware you’ve got to be.

And tell me about losing height you said that you have lost quite a bit?

Yes. Well I don’t know when I lost that, I mean it gradually has gone, I suppose I don’t really know. The first time they measured me I was four foot nine, but I mean I’ve lost a bit since then.

And now?

Well recently, I say recently, probably six months or more ago they measured me again. I was four foot six.

As I say my normal height was five foot six.

And how did you feel when you started losing your shape and

I didn’t notice it. I didn’t notice it for a long while. It was only, the first thing I really, that really drew it to my attention was that I had nightdresses which came down to here and before I knew where it was they were trailing on the floor, and I thought oh well my nightdresses can’t have stretched because they were cotton and you know, they are not like wool or anything like that that would stretch and I thought oh well it must be me shrinking. It was then that I asked them about it, and then they started measuring me.

Okay, so it happened quite gradually?

Oh yes, yes. It did. Oh it must have been a good five or six years that I was to-ing and fro-ing and not really being told the full story, of it, and what it was. I wasn’t given any idea.

What do you mean, do you think that you were not being told everything?

Yes. No it wasn’t being explained to me.

I asked different people, but you don’t get a straight answer.

Do you remember what you

No I can’t remember much.

Were you worried about it?

Not particularly at the time. Because it wasn’t particularly painful. I didn’t seem to be in any great deal of agony of pain. Well then you don’t notice it you know.

So you started noticing just when your nightdresses were longer than

Yes.

Okay. And did you have problems finding clothes to fit?

Yes.

After a while, yes.

I can’t wear a bra now. Because my back is a lot bigger than my front [laughs]. And then they don’t, you know, I can’t get comfortable.

Well. I suppose it’s got to be 15 years ago now. Yes. Yes. But the other thing is that because I’ve got this it’s very difficult to get clothes that you look, well that you feel alright in. You know you’re never going to look like a model but nevertheless if you’re comfortable you get more confidence. And I mean there is a certain firm that I, nearly everything I posses is made and supplied by them. And what I’ve got on today is but the thing is this, they have a great facility for altering and sometimes I’ve actually paid as much for an alteration to get. I once bought a skirt and a pair of trouser and like a 7/8 jacket and it cost me as much to have one of, to have those altered because they all needed something, arms or waist. And it cost me as much as buying a new single article. And I think people, they often say to me, Oh you look nice. And I think to myself, yes but I, are you prepared to pay for the alteration. Because it is expensive but as far as I’m concerned there’s only one way.

Well, as a result of the four discs slowly collapsing I haven’t had a waist line for about two and a half years so all my skirts, with the exception of two tailored skirts, all my casual skirts now are elasticated waists. And I’ve always enjoyed using a needle so as I said, apart from two expensive tailored skirts, all my skirts are elasticated waists. I’ve altered all of them. This pair of trousers I bought these with a zip and a waist band and I wear these to death but all, all my garments with waist are now elasicated.

I do it because I think, Right. I’m not going to going round looking like a sack of spuds But that I find extremely irritating that it’s had so much effect not my body weight, but my body shape, you know. I’ve never had a pot at all. I had a very strict gym mistress in my secondary school and had a very strict anatomy teacher through my orthopaedic nursing and I was always proud of the fact that I never had a pot. But since my waist line has gone I have to be I have to remind myself, you know, to sit up straight and relax while I am sitting up straight with my back well supported. This chair is extremely comfortable. it’s supporting me right where I need it, you know. But that I find very, very irritating, the fact that my body shape has altered.

So you are conscious of your body shape?

I am conscious of my body shape, yes. From the front it doesn’t look any different, you know, but from the back, yes. Apart from the fact that I have one leg longer than the other because of the Scoliosis now I am conscious of my body shape. I’m not looking for an hour glass figure, please, you know, I’m seventy next birthday for God’s sake [laughs]. You know, but I am conscious of the fact that I don’t want to be seen as to be stooping and things, you know. I just don’t want to end up like that.

Have you talked to your doctor about it to the consultant?

I haven’t, no. I haven’t but I have spoken to nursing colleagues and girls on the support committee. I’ve spoken to other osteoporotic ladies about it but I haven’t spoken to anybody in the medical profession.

I’ve Shrunk.

You have shrunk?

[Laughs] it’s very embarrassing because one of my grandsons is over six foot six and I have shrunk. And I really do feel little you know. And he’s absolutely sweet. And he says, Come on along little granny [laughs]. And he’s striding up the road and there’s me going? To try and keep up. But there, there we are.

Does it bother you or it’s just?

No.

No.

It, that’s one thing about getting to this age, when, it, those sort of things don’t worry you any more. They really don’t. Not least, there again we’ve talked about it, things like this and lots of things that when you were younger, would have bothered youdon’t’ bother you now.

Like what?

Oh, I don’t know
Body image?

Yes, I suppose so. And I think to a degree years ago there were some things that you wouldn’t have perhaps spoken up and said, Well I think so and so when you knew that it would cause the other people to either be surprised or offended or whatever and now if you feel like that about something you jolly well say it. And you do have this sort of thing that you’re more, in some ways, you feel more independent in as much as you don’t have to go along with the crowd. You can say, Well I don’t want to do that or I don’t agree with that Or, I think I’ll stick to my opinions over this and you can all do what you like but this is what I think And this is something that you could, you can do with, really without, almost without thinking about it. Whereas if you were in your 20s, 30s you would have thought, Oh well I’ll just keep quiet and go with the crowd [laughs]. And this is, it’s, like quite different feeling.

I never had any physiotherapy after the operation so I never really… All my muscles have wasted away. All these muscles in my, in the centre of my body have just wasted away.

The other thing is because I used to be four inches taller than I am now. Part of the osteoporosis was my, when my spine collapsed that, you know, obviously I’d lost height. Now my organs have, have collapsed down as well. So I’ve got now a bulge in the middle of my stomach which it looks like a beer belly but it isn’t. That’s where my organs come out and that’s, that’s a really big, that’s a big discomfort. So I, you live with that as well and that, that’s.

All the muscles that have wasted away. Had I probably started working those muscles a bit earlier after the operation. So now my back muscles and my stomach muscles are really and it’s too painful to, to actually exercise them now. I can’t breathe in. If I breathe in using my muscles in the middle of my body I get a burning and that burning never goes away. it’s like a cramp and it, it really is a sharp cramping and that’s where my muscles have literally just wasted away. it’s got like dystrophy, just, just gone. So I, you know, it’s. It becomes sort of like a big swelling which is unsightly.

But you feel that sufferer somehow embodies better what you experience?

Well yes because you see. I’ve mentioned to you all the ways it affects me. Well I’m not suffering because of the pain. I get discomfort and I think I’ll get more as I get older talking to my doctor last week because my body is. My, my body really is out of alignment is the word, I would thought, as I’ve got the Kyphosis so that my ribs and everything will be affecting the other parts, organs in my body. And I know that it did with mother. So that I’m prepared for that. But I still feel that sufferer is a better application as regards to me [laugh]. I’m really quite strong. I mean although they were on about patients quite a few years ago now I’ve not altered. I, I still stick to sufferer. I’m frightened to say it out loud but that’s how I feel.

What has the doctor told you about the Kyphosis and how it will affect you?

No well, I. He hasn’t told me anything but I, see I’m. I’ve been to a lot of conferences. Well I’ve been abroad quite a lot for pharmaceutical companies. They’ve sent me abroad twice, twice in Vienna, twice in Rome, one in Berlin and there’s some, one in Jersey and as well as two or three in London. And so I’ve learnt a lot from listening what’s going on to others as well. And I mean I knew from my own mother. You see she lost. If you lose the alignment it’s going to affect your organs because they’re going to be misplaced or disjointed, out of alignment. And I must say this though, one thing I’d said I’d been abroad for pharmaceutical companies but one thing and I think I might have mentioned it, that the worst patients I’ve ever seen for all kind of deformity have been men.