I've been coping with a sudden, sharp, makes-me-yelp, lower back pain for about 3 weeks now that's not going away. It's like someone has silently sneaked up behind me, and shoved a stiletto blade into my right side! It's not the old, usual, familiar backache I've had for years, which comes and goes, and is managed fairly well by yoga stretches, etc.. No, this is something nastier, I think.

Anyway, my partner is now totally fed-up with my piercing exclamations and associated blasphemous utterances, which can erupt once or twice a day, whenever the silent ninja decides to give me a stabbing. Reluctantly, I've conceded that it's time to get some professional opinion on the issue. But from which professional group? It'll be private as our GP is snowed under.