Due to some significant changes in my life, I think it is worth explaining what is happening and how that is likely to affect Aurora in 2024. I hope it might also inform others facing similar circumstances.
I suffered severe problems with my back and my left arm from the beginning of 2023. Due to deterioration of the intervertebral discs in my neck, my vertebrae are compressing in a couple of places and pressing on the nerve roots, causing a lot of pain in my back and down my arm and resulting in muscle weakness. Weirdly, I could lift, but not pull or push with my left arm. After various consultants, spinal MRI scans, etc., I was scheduled for an operation in September 2023 to remove part of a vertebrae in order to relieve that pressure, albeit with a small percentage chance of making things considerably worse.
At the start of August 2023, I was made redundant. Maybe not the best timing, but leaving had an unexpected positive side effect. Immediately following my departure, my wife and I spent a month travelling in our motorhome. By the end of that month, the pain had almost entirely disappeared and I had regained most of the strength in my left arm. After speaking to my spinal surgeon, he advised that I must have been severely stressed at work (even though I didn't realise) and that was causing inflammation in my back, which made the physical problem a lot worse.
I'd also made a lot of changes in my working environment in the meantime, such as getting a better chair, making sure the monitor was the right height and working in the centre of the screen, not the left, so my head wasn't always turned. Given the pain was now minimal, we decided to postpone the surgery. That seems to have been a good decision, because I can go weeks with only minimal pain medication. Even when it comes back, I can usually track it to a source of stress - dealing with the call centre for the bank for example
- or unusual physical activity, like helping my daughter move house.
I did look for other work, albeit without any great enthusiasm to go back to a similar type of job, but before Xmas my wife and I decided to do something else entirely, and we have been getting ready since then. From mid-March 2024, we are going to be living in our motorhome full time for at least a year, with the intention to travel around the UK and over to Europe, mainly wandering around quaint villages or sitting at the side of lakes with good food and wine. It's a much healthier, cheaper and fun lifestyle, with far less stress. All our furniture is going into storage and we are currently selling the wide variety of items that we haul around from house to house but never actually use
All of this has been very good for Aurora in recent months, as I have been able to spend a lot of time on recent versions. From mid-March, that may change. I will have a laptop and plenty of free time, but part of the reason for the trip is exploring and spending a lot more time outdoors. In terms of work, we are good for a while anyway due to savings, but I'll be looking to do something new. I won't be trying to monetise Aurora - as that will remain a hobby. Perhaps I'll look for some short-term programming work (if anyone needs a part-time, remote-working developer, let me know
), or maybe I will finally get around to writing a book. We've discussed creating a travel blog and trying to make a small income from that, as my wife is already a known blogger in the crafting world and we both love to travel. Whatever we do, we are in no rush and our objective is to have a lifestyle we enjoy, rather than trying to maximise our income.
I've learned in the last few months that stress causes very significant physical symptoms; it isn't just 'in your head'. So I hope if anyone else is suffering on-going physical symptoms such as back/limb pain or muscle weakness (but also headaches, tiredness, etc.), they will consider if it might be stress-related, rather than having a purely physiological cause, and take appropriate steps to address it.
I'll update in this thread when we finally get on the road and post a link to our blog if we get around to creating it. In the meantime, I will try to get one more Aurora release out before we leave, mainly to address any outstanding bugs.
