Thanks for your good wishes. He rang me this morning, still in the assessment unit - he's on strict bed rest, has had bloods taken and MRI is planned asap. He didn't sound too bad, he's not in pain at least, but he does sound down, hardly surprisingly. I even got some sleep last night. I've been worried things were getting worse for some weeks now - he'd not had any pain to speak of till about 6 weeks ago, but the back pain has increased since then. He'd only been on cocodamol for a week before having to move on to slow release morphine on Thursday- it's been so quick. I'm really scared for the future....trying not to think about it for more than a few minutes at a time, and get on with ordinary things, to avoid climbing the walls. The GP did give me a few low-dose valium for if I get too desperate - I plan to have one tonight, in the hopes of more sleep. It would happen at the weekend, when the PCUK nurses - who I've found really helpful this past week - aren't reachable.