I’ve been living on my own for four months now. Can you believe it? Four. Months.

In that time I’ve been very restrained and only been to IKEA twice, fallen and cut my head open once (I’m fine by the way), and used a dishwasher for the first time in my life.

You’d think after 30 years of living with cerebral palsy I’d have learned to manage my energy levels in a way that keeps my pain levels to a minimum, but I have most definitely haven’t. I’ve had a couple of pretty big pain flares in the last few months. I guess this was kind of inevitable.

I’m doing more for myself than I’ve done before so of course I was going to have to learn what my body’s daily limits are. I guess the only way to learn that is to overdo it. The problem is that I, and so many of my other wobbly friends, learn these limits but don’t always stick to them.

For me a least, that I like to do everything in one day in case a pain flare starts tomorrow and things get on top of me. Rationally, I know this isn’t the best approach.

In the meantime, I’m starting to compile a list of tips and tricks that make managing pain and energy levels easier, which I might share here at some point. I’m due to go and have an ultrasound in a couple of weeks to see if I’ll benefit from having another steroid in my hip, and I’m on the waiting list to have a telephone consultation with my consultant to talk about pain management.

So far, I think I’m doing okay.