Not a good night sleep last night.

I woke up in the middle of the night with all the ankylosing spondylitis pain.

Sharp stabbing pain in the lower right pelvis just like it used to be but perhaps even more angry. Also pain in my lower left ribs which is also quite strong.

I spent some time rolling from side to side, probably for an hour or two, trying to get back to sleep and dozing.

Then incredibly the symptoms seemed to relieve themselves a little bit and I actually managed to get back to sleep.

I found myself sleeping in quite late as I obviously hadn’t set the alarm. Woke up at 9 am.

When I got up I felt terrible back wise.

The lower left rib pain with still there but less intense but the right pelvis pain was extremely bad and it was hard to walk and make it to the shower.

As usual the heat from the shower did help and I’ve been able to walk a little bit on it so it’s not quite as bad as that night where I was pinned to the ground.

It is a really bad one though and I’m contemplating taking ibuprofen.

It’s such a shame and I feel really gutted as if I’ve some had done something wrong or that maybe the diet has failed.

But deep down I feel like this is normal and that I’m only just over a week into the diet and that all of this stuff hasn’t left my system.

Maybe this horrible bacteria is fighting my system as it starves and dies.

The amazing and positive thing is that I did manage to sleep despite the pain and I have felt better than I ever have done for much of the last week.

So I just need to keep plugging away and be more vigilant than ever.

My smoothie this morning was definitely just fruit so that was good. Sitting at my computer wasn’t too painful and interestingly when I stood up briefly sitting the pain wasn’t too bad for the first few seconds.

I decided to go out for my walk at about 12 after spending some time researching TENS machines.

It does really sound like that are worth looking at but the interesting thing I’ve noticed is that they only really seem to work, according to the reviews, when they are switched on.

This is interesting in the sense that you could use it to get yourself out of bed and get going. This is often the main thing you need to do. Just get the body moving to get some kind of pain relief.

So I’m doing the usual thing of researching various different companies and it seems I’ve locked it down to two.

One is a company that’s British and is endorsed by all the hospitals but looks quite ugly and only the expensive version is rechargeable. The other is very slick looking and Chinese made. It is probably about third cheaper and looks like it might be smaller and more convenient.

I’m keeping them in my basket for now and we’ll make a decision later.

I put a load of that heat cream on my lower right pelvis and then headed out for a walk.

It was very painful at first but as I got moving it started to improve and I’m not having too much trouble walking at the moment.

At this least this is one technique I can always try and fall back on. The cough is bad today though which is annoying.

It’s interesting, I’ve just come home from the walk and it feels like the pain has almost completely gone. If this is as a result of the diet then this is a massive improvement.

Lunch was nice and I had the same thing as yesterday. Salad and egg with bacon in it and a large mushroom that had something tasty crumbled on top.

Had to go up for a nap in the afternoon but didn’t really sleep.

Went out for another walk later.

My back really isn’t great today but it has been impressive in the sense that I haven’t had to take any painkillers. Also once I’ve got going I’ve not found it painful walking.

I’ve just been aware that maybe a 2 or 3 out of 10 level but the pain is there in my right pelvis.

About midway through dinner which was the meat stir fry again I could feel my back go on the right hand side.

I wonder whether this is in part due to stress today. Probably more likely is that I’d already had this flare up earlier today and that this was just an extension of that but I do remember feeling some sort of activity down my pelvis, as if if my blood was is somehow elevated.

It was really bad pain and it was on the right-hand side and it was so severe that when Kat went to bed and I got up I couldn’t move very much and had to text her to say that I needed to say goodnight to her here rather than come up.

Ate a load of salami and cheese and took 3 ibuprofen and right now it’s feeling quite a lot better. Hopefully that will see me through getting some sleep tonight.

Going to go to bed now and pray that my back is alright. If it feels ok in the morning I’m going to take two more ibuprofen at lunch time and at night.