Nightmare!

Nightmare! I have often said that my greatest fear is being laid low and unable to care for all my animals. Sadly it became a reality this week but thankfully nowhere near as bad as I imagined at first. I have been having problems for a few months with my back and only recently had an MRI scan, my follow up appointment with the physiotherapist is actually this afternoon. Since visiting a chiropractor last Friday I had been in constant pain but on Wednesday I got up and collapsed in agony on the kitchen floor. My hubby had to call an ambulance as I couldn't move for the pain. I was given a cocktail of drugs at the hospital and released later that day but I have now been ordered to rest and quite frankly with all the medication I don't feel up to doing much anyway. My back is still really stiff but the pain is very much reduced. I'm told it is 'just' muscle spasm and hopefully I will be fine next week. I intend to resume posting orders on Monday but I am clearly going to need to take it easy for the next week or so. My work is actually very physical with a lot lifting so I am going to need help from my family and friends. This would have to happen when our daughter is on holiday for the week! She is probably the only person who could actually help with the animals, everyone else in my family is terrified of them!

I now have 16 baby Corn snakes and I've had no interest whatsoever so I am hoping that a local snake enthusiast will take them from me later today. I can't drive with all the pain killers that I'm taking so I'm relying on hubby to ferry me around before he goes on late shift today. Therefore I will have to take the snakes to the physiotherapist as there won't be time to go home and collect them before he goes to work. The lady already thinks I'm a nut case as when she examined me last time I had a piece of shed snake skin on my tummy. It had been in my pocket but obviously slipped out and attached to me.

I was in such a panic when I was carted off to hospital on Wednesday morning, all I could think of was that some of the bugs still hadn't been fed since I got back from holiday last week but thankfully hubby helped me sort them all yesterday. He even had to collect leaf litter for me as I couldn't bend down. I am a lousy patient, I don't like delegating, I would far prefer to do everything myself but I can't tell you the pain I was in. On Tuesday evening I honestly felt like I was in labour and about to give birth!

I think I am coming to the realisation that life has got to change. My hubby is starting a new job next month and I then need to look at what I'm doing. I will certainly keep going with the online shop but I will most likely do some bug parties and perhaps even some school visits again. I think I need to reduce the number of animals that I keep. Most of my time is spent caring for all my creatures and I get paid absolutely nothing for it. There are many times when I just don't have enough orders to warrant all this work. I have certainly decided that I cannot cope with the huge number of emails that I receive. Many of the emails are asking questions that could be answered by looking on my website and many have absolutely nothing to do with me. I need to encourage people to phone me, it is so much easier and quicker. I hate to ignore emails but I have got to the stage where I have to. I don't mean sensible, relevant questions and I don't want people to stop letting me know that their order has arrived and everything is brilliant (I like those emails). I would really like to encourage more people to call in and collect orders. It is nice to meet up and have a chat and it means you can choose your animals. I have had a few people call recently.

I did get my hubby to help me with the Train millipede cage yesterday, he had to lift it off the shelf and slowly tip the substrate out into another container. I meticulously went through everything and was very disappointed to find just the one baby millipede that I saw last week. I was hoping and anticipating finding lots of little ones in the leaf litter. They are very difficult to breed so I suppose one baby is a step in the right direction but it was very disappointing and surprising too.

I once again have several 'very obviously' pregnant scorpions of various species. I honestly don't know what they need to induce a birth but movement certainly seems to play a part so I intend to drive them around with me next week and fingers crossed this will 'get them going' (no I won't be taking them to physio this afternoon, I think that might be a step too far).

I'm off to lie down again now, honestly I can't stay awake. I have had a stream of visitors and they say I'm like a different person, they have never seen me so chilled. I feel like I've had several Bacardi and cokes.