Seriously, how often do you get the chance to use a Shriekback song title as a medical reference?

By Way Of A Preamble
By the time I got back to House Needs-A-Name from the airport, I couldn’t stand or walk properly; Back pain had turned into not being able to put weight on my right leg.

A day or so later, things were improving, but not as swiftly as I’d like, so I went to a physiotherapist, and we worked on it.
All good.

It’s What Happens Next
Then my calf muscle started cramping up, I assumed because of the limping.

I mentioned this to the physio, who explained the difference between a cramp & actual pain, and seemed … concerned … by this development.
Then I mentioned that the sole of my foot had gone numb.
I never want to see that expression on the face of a medical professional again.

Diagnosis, after determining that I couldn’t do a calf raise on my right leg, was a disc bulge, and I was sent off for some x-rays right bloody now.

Sometime around then I also found walking difficult, or at least walking without a limp, which is what the physio told me to do.
This may have paid off when I had to visit WINZ a day or so later, to assure them that I was still job-seeking; At that stage my non-limping movement was down to steps about the length of my own foot, and very deliberate turns, and my case worker looked horrified. I didn’t know it at the time, but I was apparently placed on the “Leave this guy alone” list, based on not really being fit for work that wasn’t an acting role as ‘Zombie #17 – Slow-moving Longhair’.

Skipping To The Last Chapter
A couple of months of physiotherapy, an X-ray, a visit to a spinal surgeon, an MRI, and a whole lot of wondering what was going on in my back later, here’s where its at;

• There seems to be improvement – I can walk a whole lot better & further, and can do a wobbly calf raise on my right leg.
  There has been a slow improvement on the calf-raise front. When the problem first became apparent, it was like the muscles weren’t there; No response whatsoever. Couldn’t even support myself on it.
  By the time I saw the spinal surgeon, I could get maybe a centimeter of lift in the heel.
  Now I can transition into standing on the ball of that foot, but can’t hold it for long.
• I have another meeting with the spinal surgeon in a few weeks time, to go over the MRI results – I’m expecting, or at least hoping, that they’ll say that it seems to be coming right.
  At the first appointment with said surgeon, they said that they’d not be considering any form of intervention at this stage anyway, because these things can heal themselves over a period of months, and it wasn’t causing me significant pain/distress/impact. I’m OK with that.