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In this episode of Wellbeing Interrupted, I sit down with Erin Buck to share her story of living with a debilitating back injury that changed her life overnight. Erin’s journey is one of resilience, adaptability, and finding new purpose in the face of chronic pain, surgeries, and mobility challenges. 

 

Erin’s experience sheds light on what it takes to rebuild a meaningful life when faced with health challenges, and her insights will resonate with anyone navigating life-altering injuries and chronic pain. 

 

Living Through a Sudden Back Injury 

 

At the age of 40, Erin’s life changed when she developed severe back pain that escalated into a ruptured disk and debilitating nerve damage. After multiple back surgeries and repeated setbacks, Erin also experienced foot drop, a condition that affects mobility and balance. 

 

Erin shares the physical and emotional challenges of adjusting to life with a back injury, including the fear of further pain and the decision to use mobility aids like a wheelchair and leg brace. Her story highlights the importance of listening to your body and finding ways to adapt to new physical realities. 

 

Managing Chronic Pain and Daily Life 

 

Living with chronic pain has forced Erin to make significant changes to her daily routines. From using pain management strategies to carefully balancing activity and rest, Erin explains how she navigates the physical toll of her condition. 

Her experience also sheds light on the emotional impact of chronic pain, including the isolation it can cause and the fear of aggravating her injuries further. Erin’s story is a powerful reminder of the importance of prioritising both physical and mental health when living with ongoing pain. 

 

Finding Purpose and Starting a New Career 

 

Erin’s back injury led her to pivot away from her teaching career and a beloved dog walking business. Determined to create a new path for herself, Erin launched Bizzy Bee Bolly, her virtual assistant business. 

This shift not only allowed her to work from home and accommodate her health needs but also gave her a renewed sense of purpose. Erin’s story highlights the possibilities of redefining career goals to align with both health and passion. 

 

Overcoming Stigma and Advocating for Yourself 

 

Throughout her journey, Erin has encountered misconceptions and stigma around invisible injuries and disabilities. From using a wheelchair to managing her pain, she has learned the importance of advocating for herself in medical settings and beyond. 

Erin’s story encourages others to take control of their healthcare, educate themselves, and seek support when navigating complex conditions. Her determination to adapt and thrive is a testament to the power of persistence and self-advocacy. 

 

The Importance of Self-Care and Connection 

 

Erin emphasises the value of self-care in managing chronic pain and staying connected to loved ones. Whether it’s attending regular spa days, walking her dog, or taking time to rest, Erin has found ways to prioritise her wellbeing while still embracing life’s opportunities. 

 

Her journey is a reminder that even small steps can make a big difference in maintaining physical and mental health. 

 

Final Thoughts 

 

Erin Buck’s story of living with a back injury demonstrates the strength it takes to adapt, rebuild, and find new purpose. Her experiences remind us that while health challenges can change the direction of our lives, they don’t have to stop us from moving forward. 

 

From managing chronic pain to creating a fulfilling career, Erin’s journey is an inspiring example of resilience and determination in the face of life’s hurdles. 

 

Shows Resources 

 

• Website: www.bizzybeebolly.com 

• Instagram: @bizzybeebolly 

• Visit Hurdle2Hope.com/stories  for more inspiring stories of resilience and healing.  

• Wellbeing Interrupted Episode 45 Building a Meaningful Career 

 

About The Guest Erin Buck 

 

Erin, 48, lives in Cheshire, North West England, with her high school sweetheart and their two grown-up sons. Her life took a drastic turn after a back injury ended her teaching career, challenging her sense of identity and purpose. Driven by inner resilience and a determination to prove her value, Erin reinvented herself by building a business that adapted to her new reality. 

 

Today, she runs an award-winning Virtual and Social Media Assistant service, dedicated to helping freelancers, small businesses, and entrepreneurs overcome overwhelm and reclaim control. Through expert advice, practical support, and accountability, Erin empowers her clients to thrive, proving that purpose and success can be found even after life's most unexpected challenges 

 

 

Episode 49 Transcript Hurdle2Hope® Stories: Meet Erin Buck Living with a Back Injury 

 

[00:00:00] Teisha Rose: Hey there, Tisha here and welcome to episode 49 of Wellbeing Interrupted. I come to you today not from the caravan. I've actually ventured down to the seaside. I'm staying at my parents' house because today I needed good wifi. Just finished facilitating a workshop for an organization working in the disability sector. 

[00:00:30] So that was a really great experience and something I'm really looking forward to doing more of in 2025. Today though, I've got a great guest for you. Another Hurdle2Hope story. This time we're talking to Erin Buck. Erin, shares her story of living with a back injury and not a small little, you know, back injury that you go to the physio and all is okay. 

[00:01:02] So her story is quite amazing. What I like to do is have people on this show that go through some of these really difficult times because But then somehow find it within themselves to keep moving forward, to pivot and do different things, I guess, in their life. So I'm not going to give you too much information about Erin because she shares in her own words about what she's been through and what she's doing now in her life. 

[00:01:34] If I give you her bio now, it's It will spoil, it will spoil the surprise. So yeah, have a listen. I love this conversation and stay till the end as I'll come back and give you more details as to how to connect with Erin, what her business is now. And yeah, I hope you really enjoy this episode. Welcome to Wellbeing Interrupted, the podcast dedicated to exploring the transformative power of a healing mindset. 

[00:02:10] I'm Teisha Rose, your host for today. and the founder of Hurdle2Hope. If you're on a quest to not just survive but thrive after a life changing diagnosis, then you're definitely in the right place. Living with MS and now stage 4 breast cancer has taught me a vital lesson. In the face of a life changing illness, our mindset is everything. 

[00:02:37] Each week I'll share insights, tips and strategies to help you build a happier, healthier, So let's begin your journey from hurdle to hope, starting right now. So thank you, Erin, for joining me on this episode of Wellbeing Interrupted.  

[00:02:59] Erin Buck: Thank you for having me. I can, I don't know if I can class myself as an international speaker now that I'm speaking to someone in Australia. 

[00:03:05] Teisha Rose: Yeah. So let's share with everyone, where are we talking to you?  

[00:03:13] Erin Buck: So I'm in the UK. I'm on the northwest side of the country. Um, if people know Manchester, I'm about 30 minutes drive south of Manchester and an hour and 50 minutes by train up from London. So I'm in the middle of those two bits.  

[00:03:32] Teisha Rose: Yep. And so as we've just entered summer, I'm assuming it's getting cold over there. 

[00:03:39] Erin Buck: Yes, it's, uh, it's freezing. It's absolutely freezing. I'm supposed to be in the office today, but I looked outside and I thought, no, I'm going to stay at home and have the heating on and cuddle the dog while I'm freezing. Perfect.  

[00:03:52] Teisha Rose: Perfect. Um, so I guess let's start by sharing a bit about your story. So you're here to talk about another Hurdle2Hope story. 

[00:04:03] And I was really drawn to your experience of life changing at 40. So yeah, share with us what happened.  

[00:04:13] Erin Buck: So At 40, I turned 40, uh, big party, everything, you know, I believed all the cards that people say, life begins at 40. And just after my 40th birthday, I felt a twinge in my back, uh, and it hurt, but then it went away. 

[00:04:29] And I thought, oh, you know, and then over the weeks it was getting worse. Um, so this was in April. of, uh, 2016. And then by the May, I went to, I was a teacher, um, and I went to the head teacher and said, I'm going to have to go home. I need to take some really strong painkillers, uh, cause I'm in agony. And she was like, right, yeah, yeah, fine. 

[00:04:52] So then I signed off sick and started looking at what was going on. It was becoming debilitating. I was only getting comfort by being on strong painkillers and lying flat on the sofa. By the July, I was in a wheelchair. Because I could not put any weight on my legs anymore because of the burning pain that shot down my leg. 

[00:05:12] And I'd had MRIs along this time and everything. So we discovered that my disc had ruptured in my back and the insides of it had come out and were pinching the nerve in my back that leads down the right leg. So normally what they do is they hope that discs, the insides, once less aggravated, would go back into the disc and then it can seal back up again. 

[00:05:37] It can be self healing. But if that inner side bit stays out, it can't reseal. So I was just getting worse and the nerve was beginning to die because it was pinched. So then by the August, I had operation back. Number one. And what they do, keyhole surgery into your back and they cut away the insides that is outside the disc and then hope that the disc will heal. 

[00:06:01] Instant pain relief, instant back up standing. It's, it's, it's sort of like a magic trick. You go in a wheelchair, high on morphine, you wake up, think, Oh my God, relief. And you can stand up and walk again. So that was fantastic. I had a new Lisa who suddenly liked walking a lot, wanted to walk everywhere because I hadn't done it for months. 

[00:06:21] Um, I had to be, I had to take some time off work to build my strength back up. And when I went back, it was, I looked around and I thought, I don't enjoy this job anymore. I'm very, I was very fearful of bending or doing something. And when you're working with primary school children, you're bending over tables and that. 

[00:06:41] So I decided I didn't want to do it anymore, but I wanted a healthy job. And I love dogs. So I started, um, running a doggy daycare weekends. from my house because I didn't want to put my dogs in kennels. I wanted So I thought there'd be other people out there that's like this. So with my new health, I was walking dogs. 

[00:06:59] I was really enjoying it. And then, um, one day I went to walk and I bent over, sitting on the sofa, bent over to fasten my shoelace when a pain shot through my back that I could only describe. It felt like a knife had gone into my back and dragged up my spine. Not that that's ever happened. But that's how it felt. 

[00:07:20] Instant, you read about it, instant clamminess all over. And luckily my mobile phone was next to me at the time. I couldn't move. Rang, um, I was on my own in the house. I rang an ambulance. I rang my friend and begged her to come. She arrived. She was ringing the ambulance and they came and I ended up having gas and air, morphine, um, emergency surgery. 

[00:07:40] Because what had happened, the same thing had happened again, but it had been abrupt and I was getting called a requiner. which is where the nerve is dying really quickly and you're going to become bladder and bowel incontinent if they don't act quick because it's just killing the nerve. So it was an emergency surgery that was operation number two. 

[00:07:59] Woke up, instant pain relief. Oh yes, I can do this. This is brilliant. Consultant said, um, this should never happen again. There's barely anything left in that disc now. Um, So you should be okay. So fine, got on with my job, really enjoying this dog business, when I suddenly felt pain, but not abrupt. And I turned to my husband and said, I recognize this pain. 

[00:08:25] This is the same pain. I'm telling you, I'm deteriorating again. No, it's in your mind. You're scared. By this time, I was very scared about doing anything because I just didn't, the, the second time, the pain you felt from the second instant that happened. It was, I can't ever go through this again. And so I stopped doing things. 

[00:08:42] I stopped dancing. I stopped going on walks. I just looked after the dogs. Um, and I, again, I deteriorated, went for another MRI and it had happened a third time. So I got sent back to the consultant and to the consultant who said, you know what, you'll be the first person I've ever done three on. It's like, oh, well, I'm glad, you know, I can tick your box for you. 

[00:09:04] Had a third operation. Uh, again, felt great. Uh, and then I was told that, okay, your back's very fragile. We cannot do this again. You've got so much scar tissue. If this happens again, we're going to open your whole, we're going to have to open the whole back and put a cage in. in your spine. So what we want to do is we want to prevent this from happening. 

[00:09:25] So I continue to look after the dogs. Six weeks after my first, my third operation, which was in January 2020, so you can see where I'm going this particular year, I went for a walk and when I came back I said to my husband, I can't feel My toes feels weird. And we said, all right, well, we'll wait and see how it goes. 

[00:09:46] By lunchtime, I said, take me to A& E. I cannot feel my foot. By that night I was, blue lighted back to the neurology department and I'd got a foot drop. The damage and the scar tissue in my back, it just damaged my nerve irreversibly. So what I have now, I don't know if it's called foot drop in Australia, but what I went, I, It's as I lift my foot up, my foot will drop. 

[00:10:12] I have no feeling in my four toes, but I do have feeling in my big toe. And when I lift my foot up, it sort of hangs to the right. So when you're walking, it's like a floppy foot. So if you're walking, you fall over. So I don't fall over anymore in the house because my body has come to use, know what it's like. 

[00:10:32] But when I go out, I have to wear a leg brace that slips underneath my foot and goes halfway up my leg. Um, to hold my foot up so that I don't face plant it often when it first happened. From that, because of the scar tissue and the three operations, I have permanent pain across my lower back. If I do things that are that aggravate it. 

[00:10:56] I start getting the burning pain back in my leg, so I have to slow down and try to let it settle again. So with that comes fear again. You know, I have a very fit husband who wants to go walking. I can't walk as far as him because it'll aggravate the pain. So it's like management. So I'm on pain medication. 

[00:11:17] I, um, try to keep on top of things because of the fact that my back's still. Unstable. So I'm constantly thinking about that as well, trying to avoid, you know, having operation number four.  

[00:11:34] Teisha Rose: Wow. That's huge. And so. What was the time period? The last operation was in 2020, did you say?  

[00:11:43] Erin Buck: Yes. First operation was 2016. 

[00:11:46] So over a four year period, I had three operations and two epidural steroid injections to try to take the inflammation down, um, and changed my career twice.  

[00:11:58] Teisha Rose: Wow. And Let's just talk a couple of things. The actual foot drop, that's really interesting because I live with MS and that's definitely a symptom, um, with MS. 

[00:12:10] And it does, it creates this fear. I'm always scared and so tense of falling. Um, and yeah, because you just don't trust your feet. And sometimes if I am tired, I trip up on, especially now living on a farm,  

[00:12:25] Erin Buck: there's lots of foot drops. So I use a walker. Definitely being tired. Definitely tired sort of affects it and I always see it as sort of like you hear about you know when people are blind They get used to their environment So when I first started the amount of times I tripped over the floor or the stairs and I fit I call it face planting Hit the floor. 

[00:12:45] Yeah in my own house where that never happens now because of I can sense that I've got used to it, but like I said, the minute I go out, if it's icy, I'm scared. If it's uneven ground, I'm scared. If it's on a slight slant in the diet, in the. Angle to the way that my foot drops. I'm scared because if I put my foot down wrong, there's no strength in my foot and my ankle. 

[00:13:09] I can go over and then it's just like embarrassing as well as, you know, worried that you're going to hit and I'm going to pull my back again. So it's fear is a big thing when you sort of start with a disability. It is. Yeah, you're just so scared to do stuff. But what I didn't say is when the dog business, when they had the foot drop, that was it. 

[00:13:30] The consultant said, you can't walk six dogs anymore. Now that was the perfect job. I was so happy when I had that job and I had to give that up. So this had gone to February, 2020. I'd just lost my job. Just being told I was disabled. I'd had four years of, luckily I live in a village and I've got very good friends, but four years of being stuck inside on a sofa. 

[00:13:55] The amount of binge TV watching I did, you know, I watched everything. Um, But it affected my mental health. I'd been trapped in a house, more or less, trapped. And I was only 40 to 44. You know, I was still young. I still had young kids. Well, they weren't young. I mean, Luke was 16 when my back went the first time. 

[00:14:13] That, my eldest, he did his exams. While I was going through the whole being in a wheelchair. And the day he had to go collect his results was the day I was taken to hospital for my operation. So he didn't have parental support when he went to pick his exams up. Never complained. It was so good. So good. 

[00:14:31] Teisha Rose: Yeah, no, that's tough. And what. Is also really, um, difficult to process is being in the wheelchair, you know, no matter what, that experience, if you haven't been in the wheelchair for, because you need to be in it, it's,  

[00:14:51] Erin Buck: It's really difficult. I delayed it as long as I could. We had to, um, I had to rent a wheelchair because I literally, I was trying to still walk, but every time, I mean, I can remember being in a shower, I would, I was like a flamingo. 

[00:15:04] I had to start standing on one leg because the pain was still there, but my mind told me that it was worse if I put pressure on my leg. So I would stand having a shower or if I was making a brew, I would be standing on one leg to try to take the pain away. Um, So then when we were going on holiday and going on walks, it's like, well, I can't do anything. 

[00:15:23] I'm going to be left behind. The only way I'm going to do this is by getting in a wheelchair. Rented a wheelchair and it sat there in the room staring at me for days, you know, and I cried a lot. I didn't want to be in a wheelchair. I didn't know why this was happening to me. What had I done wrong? What could I have done differently? 

[00:15:40] And I don't want to be in that chair. I don't want my kids to see me in that chair. Um, but eventually it was either get in that chair and go out with your kids. I'll stay at home on your own. So I had to, so I, so I got into it, but yes, it's, it's, it's not nice to have to accept. You have to go into one. 

[00:15:59] Teisha Rose: Yeah. And how did you find it in terms of the reactions of others? Um, because that can be eye opening. as well. Strangers more so than loved ones.  

[00:16:10] Erin Buck: Yeah. Um, I found that people that I know or friends and people in my village and everything were very helpful. They, you know, they, they knew me, but when we went on holiday and When you check in at an airport, to get to the gate is too far for me to walk. 

[00:16:28] I can walk it, but I'll then be in pain for the whole of the journey of the flight, and then I've got to take stronger painkillers, and it's not a great start to your holiday. So, I always sit in a wheelchair, and I wanted to go and buy some Jo Malone perfume, and my husband pushed me in, and I was looking for a particular perfume, and I asked the lady If they had stocked it, cause my friend had got, um, something and I wanted that. 

[00:16:55] And instead of replying to me, she made eye contact with my husband behind me and answered him. And then when she did talk to me, she talked slower and I just sat there thinking, no, I'm imagining this. This is really strange. This is weird. And they said that they didn't stock it. And we came out and I said to my husband, was it me? 

[00:17:14] And he went, Nope, no, exactly what you're talking about. She was talking to me and she didn't really, she didn't direct it to you at all. And she talked to you like you were thick. And it was like, wow, I've never experienced that. That is, you know, I wanted, it felt like getting out the chair and going back in standing up and saying, but I didn't, I was on holiday and I wasn't allowed to argue according to the husband. 

[00:17:35] But yeah, I didn't realize that that. happened, you, you can try to, I said to this before, you can try to be inclusive and you always say, you know, walk in a man's shoes and try to be empathetic and stuff. And I think you can to an extent, but I don't think that anybody completely understands how they treat people or how it feels until it is actually happening to them. 

[00:18:02] You can only try and guess. You can't ever know the similarities.  

[00:18:08] Teisha Rose: Yeah, I agree. And I think, um, people were chatting off air earlier on, and I think people just do it automatically and not being aware. So I think these conversations are so important because it creates that awareness. So next time you do see someone with a walking aid in a wheelchair, You know, look, look at them, chat to them and not to whoever's there. 

[00:18:34] The other thing  

[00:18:34] Erin Buck: that I learned is I used to park my car on the curb. So in England, you've got your paths and the roads are quite small. So you would pull your car up so that two of your wheels are on the curb and the rest are on the road to leave room for the car to go past. Always done it. Always done it. 

[00:18:50] Until I had to use a mobility scooter and it was like, What the hell? I can't get past, as on a mobility scooter now, that's not for road, it's just for paths. I then have to now get off the kerb to go around the car on the road to get back up on the kerb, but there's no drop kerb. So I'm having to get out of the mobility scooter to hoik it back onto the kerb. 

[00:19:13] Now if I was lucky in the fact that I could still walk, if it's somebody that has absolutely no chance, They can't walk past the car, they can't, you're making them go on the road. So it made me aware that even, you know, beforehand I'd never realized, I didn't pay attention, I didn't think. Because you don't, you know, you're busy, you, you go in the shop, you're going to park your car quickly and get out. 

[00:19:34] But, um, yeah, that opened my eyes a bit, so I don't do that anymore.  

[00:19:38] Teisha Rose: Good, good. And you talk about pain. How do you cope with that? So, um, yeah. Some days I  

[00:19:45] Erin Buck: do, some days I don't. Yeah, okay. Some days, when it's really, really bad, there'll be, luckily my job, I work from home on a computer. So I can, well, I work from the office and home. 

[00:19:57] So I have a very good chair in the office. I work from home so I can, I can, I've got a little table in front of me, like a little dining room table, like a little foldable table. So I can sit up on my sofa with a heat mat on my back. If I then want to lie down and work, I've got a desk that tilts so I can lie flat on my back and have the heat mat on the whole of my back. 

[00:20:18] So heat really can help. And then I have daily medication that I take a lot of. Um, I take nerve blockers to try to stop the nerve pain. Um, I take. permanent sort of anti inflammatory to try to keep the formation in my back down. And then on top of that, I then have an extra as and when pills that I take that I try not to take until night time. 

[00:20:43] So when I get up in the morning, as if I'm on a good day, I can, um, I just take my normal medication and I can function as if I always would. I'd go to the office, I'd go do my work. By the end of the day, because I've been sat up or I've been walking or it sort of, it gets worse so that I then will take those really strong painkillers at night when I'm watching the TV and I never sit up. 

[00:21:09] On an evening now, I will be lying flat on the sofa, um, just for relief to take, well, gravity or whatever off my back. It doesn't help as well because of my mobility being restricted, obviously that means I gain weight. Gaining weight is put more strain on your back. Then you get told, well, you need to exercise and lose weight. 

[00:21:30] But yes, if I exercise and I'm moving, then I'm causing more pain. So I always describe it that I feel like I'm in a, in a, in a plastic tube and there's only certain things I can do. And if I tried to get out either way of like make a bit of a push, then the pain comes back and then I quickly go, Oh no, I can't do that. 

[00:21:48] And I come back into my restrictions because it's like, I don't want to go there. I still remember, I remember the pain in my back more than giving birth because it was that extreme. So the minute I started to feel the same symptoms, I go, no, I can't do that. Can't do that. So, yeah. And then some days it's just really bad. 

[00:22:07] Like, when it's constant and there's no escape from it, that's when it affects your mental health, I suppose, where, you know, you sit there and you think, well, this is not how my life was supposed to be. And, It just gets you down. It's, you know, it just, it's like, Oh, I want to do that, but it hurts. I just hurt so much. 

[00:22:27] Why do I hurt so much? And so then you find that you can, you just take yourself away. So it's a day by day thing and lots of different strategies and medication and knowing your limitations, but then at the same time pushing those limitations in a, um, regulated way.  

[00:22:47] Teisha Rose: Yeah, and that's been a very common theme in my discussions with different people is that balance between being really determined, but then sort of self care as well. 

[00:22:59] So and being a bit stubborn to push through and making sure, yeah, it's hard though.  

[00:23:05] Erin Buck: Yeah, it's you. You see things and like I say, you have an idea of what you are going to do. So my husband's really fit and he likes going, walking. I live in the countryside. Uh, you had dogs. I walked across fields and up hills. 

[00:23:19] Whereas now if I walk up a steep hill, I'll be in pain by the end of it if I walk on the flat, but too long. My pain will be aggravated. If I walk too fast, my pain will be So I've now got to the stage that I know that I can walk the dog around the block at this pace, get some fresh air, but that's not the pace that's going to lose weight. 

[00:23:40] So it's like You know, it just feels like, it can make you feel like you're failing a lot. You're failing at keeping healthy, you're failing at doing what you feel a 48 year old woman should be able to do. So then that affects, it's like, so it's not just your body anymore, it's the whole thing. It's your mental health and the body that you have to deal with when you're in a lot of pain. 

[00:24:04] Teisha Rose: Yeah, no, it's tough. Um, like pain is so hard to think clearly through pain as well, um, as well as, yeah, and I think the isolation as well when you're not well, um, and I've got  

[00:24:18] Erin Buck: to admit, when COVID happened and the UK went into lockdown, that happened two weeks after I got out of hospital with my drop foot. 

[00:24:27] So we were all in lockdown and all my friends were like, Oh, this is horrible. And it's just like, no, it's not actually for the first time, you're all being what I've done for the last four years. So I feel like I'm on an even playing field now. So I've got to admit, I loved lockdown. I loved it because it was like everybody else, you're now all experiencing what I've experienced, what I found hard. 

[00:24:49] And I don't resent that it happened, but when COVID hit, Lifted and everybody was able to go back out. I'd only experienced this two weeks before going into into lockdown. So now I, I'd never had a chance to process it because I hadn't been allowed to go out and learn to walk with my brace and everything. 

[00:25:08] And now all of a sudden, all my friends were raving about how they were going here and they were going there and they were going to do this. And it was like, I really felt being left behind. Not through, like I said, nobody made me feel, it just felt like I was left behind and I was then coming out going, Oh, well, before COVID, I could do this and now I can't do this anymore. 

[00:25:29] So it was like a definite, you know, before and after COVID is how I see it. What I could do before, or I could say before and after 40, what I could do before, what I can't do now.  

[00:25:40] Teisha Rose: Yeah, that's so interesting with COVID. That is, quite a few people have said the same and I'm exactly the same as well. It felt like it was our way of people experiencing, you know, what we're going through and I'm, I'm the same. 

[00:25:54] I, I enjoyed it. It meant all of a sudden companies that wouldn't let you work from home, all of a sudden were asking you to because it was better for their bottom line, you know, but now not, and then wanting everyone back and then people with illnesses are being left behind. Behind a game. Um, so, and  

[00:26:11] Erin Buck: people have had more illnesses from Covid as well. 

[00:26:13] You know, you've got long covid. Now that's a debilitating thing that it has to be, life has to be a hybrid now. It has to be more inclusive. I mean, it should have been more inclusive in the first place, but it now it has to be because there's more and more of us that are not able to do what we did before. 

[00:26:31] Teisha Rose: Yeah, and you've touched on it as well in relation to your career. So you were teaching and you were loving teaching?  

[00:26:42] Erin Buck: I did. I did until my back went the first time. Yeah. Um, it was a really good job to have while my kids were young. I could relate to the kids because they were the same age as my kids. I wasn't out of touch with them. 

[00:26:54] Then having the break and going back, It sort of shifted the thing of, it had become, I don't know what education is like in Australia, but it had become about, a lot more about appraisals and what you could, you know, not about the kids anymore and not through the faults of the teachers, but from higher up with government and everything. 

[00:27:14] And then I just thought one day, I don't enjoy this anymore. I'm not doing what I'd started out to do. It's more about marking and achieving things than actually having fun and teaching the kids about history. So that sort of started with me, but my husband knows that if I just stopped with nothing to do, that would affect my mental health. 

[00:27:36] So he pushed me to, well, think of an alternative, think about what you like doing. And if you can, Get another job and fine, give up the job. And that's when I had two dogs at the time. And so that's when I started the dog business, which I really, really loved and it kept me fit. But then when the consultant said, you can't do this anymore. 

[00:27:54] You cannot walk six dogs with your back. If your back goes. the fourth time. You need to think about it. So, in June of 2020, I was sat there through lockdown and I thought, I'm not ready to just sit and watch TV and crochet, though that's what I do. I'm not putting crocheting down. I do do that. Um, I, I sat and thought, well, I need to do something. 

[00:28:17] No job is going to employ me and allow me to lie while I work. And no job is going to let me take time off when I feel like it to go to the hospital, because I go quite a lot at the time. Um, so I'm going to start my own business, like I did with the dogs, but what can I do that I can work from home and I can be fully in control. 

[00:28:39] So I Googled what job can I have from home that involves organizing, computing, and I think productivity. And it came up with virtual assistant and I thought, Oh, what's this? So I looked at what virtual assistants do and at the time, because It's changed over the years I've been a virtual assistant. It was, um, very admin based for companies. 

[00:29:07] Now because COVID had happened as well, a lot of businesses had to get online fast and haven't got a clue how to do it. A lot of craft businesses or, you know, Women like me that were in their forties that needed to make money that would normally have had a shop or go out to markets on stalls and stuff selling what they'd created. 

[00:29:28] So I thought well that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to be a virtual assistant but not for corporate. I want to help. You know, women and smaller and people like me. So I did, I designed myself a logo and I got myself on social media. Now I was already on social media and I've always liked it and I just started advertising myself. 

[00:29:47] I've evolved since then where I now, I just help freelancers as a whole. So self employed, freelancers, people that run small businesses that maybe only have one or two people in it, they're not big and they don't have a big amount of funding. They can hire me by the hour and ask me to do something. And I'll do it for them quicker because I know how to quickly get in it. 

[00:30:09] It's a bit slow to set up to begin with, but it gets faster. Uh, and from that, I grew this, I grew this business. I now, uh, I'm outsourcing to other people because I have too much work. So it really took off and, you know, it's paid for my holidays and it's given me a better life. It's helped. Um, It's helped me feel useful. 

[00:30:28] I say on a lot of my talks that when I was sat there depressed, thinking, well, my kids have grown up, so my, they don't need me as a mum. My husband is very self sufficient. He's not one of the men that needs his wife to do things for him. In fact, he does most more of it than I do. Um, so I'm not a housewife. 

[00:30:46] And I now cannot earn. So what's the point? What is the point of me? Because I don't feel useful. I don't have a purpose anymore in my life. So by starting the job, it was my way of giving myself a sense of purpose, of helping other people achieve what they wanted to achieve. And along the way, obviously, yes, I earn money, therefore that also gives me a purpose and it gave me back my confidence. 

[00:31:12] And I still have dips when I think, Oh my God, this is too hard or I'm too tired or I'm in too much pain. But you know, without my business, I think I would have been a lot worse off. It was, it, it, it gave me something to focus on instead of feeling pity for myself. I was able to focus on, well, I can use my brain If I can't use my body and I'm gonna do it that way. 

[00:31:36] So yeah. So that's when I started Busy B.  

[00:31:38] Teisha Rose: Yeah. And I love, so the name of your business is Busy B.  

[00:31:44] Erin Buck: Yeah. Busy. I was very, I thought I was very clever, but this was before I knew SEO. So my business is busy B and I wanted it to be, I think it's an Oman or something. The name Busy. Sounds like Biz Busy. Yes. So it's spelled B-I-Z-Z-Y. 

[00:32:03] BEE, Virtual and Social Media Assistant, because clients came to me for one thing and then said, Oh, but I really like your social media. Can you help me with the social media? Or, um, I'm not consistent on my social media. Can you make me accountable? So, you know, we have sessions so that I make people schedule stuff or I make them create it and I schedule it so it's done. 

[00:32:24] So I started helping people that way. Yeah. And I created Busy Bee. Busy Bee. I chose a bee because Cheshire is famous for its honey. And Manchester is famous, ICON is the B and that's where I went to university. I don't live far away from Manchester so I thought it has to be a B because it's just everywhere in my life. 

[00:32:41] So yeah, so I decided to do that instead of starting with my name because in the back of my mind I thought well if this does take off I am going to want to hire help, uh, and I don't want to do it just in my name so I have it as a B. Brand, I can then separate myself from the band. So I'm still, I've got my business brand, I've got my personal brand, and then there's me that's coordinating it all. 

[00:33:06] Teisha Rose: That's great. That's great. And do you think, you know, going through all you've gone through, do you think sometimes it almost gives you The freedom to make changes, like if you hadn't have had that happen to your back, you possibly would have not particularly enjoyed the direction of education, you know, where that was going. 

[00:33:29] But you may have stuck at that more so than thinking, well, yeah.  

[00:33:36] Erin Buck: Yeah, I think that I might have gone into the dog business because that had been something I wanted to do, but I would still be walking dogs now. If my back hadn't gone, I would still be having a dog business because I absolutely loved that. 

[00:33:48] I was not stressed. I was fit. I was healthy. I enjoyed it. They got dropped off at eight o'clock in the morning. They got picked up at six o'clock at night, so it didn't bug any of the family. My house was the cleanest it's been, even though it was full of dogs, because I was constantly cleaning in between the dogs. 

[00:34:03] I got to, I mean, They were like children. It was definitely like a baby daycare because they came, they had their breakfast, we went for an hour's walk. We came back, I would clean, they would nap. We would do a bit of training, we'd play games, then, uh, I would clean and they would nap. And then we'd go for another very long walk in the afternoon. 

[00:34:24] And then from about three o'clock, I was able to do my paperwork or, you know, do my house, uh, admin and stuff while they laid all over me. And so I've got loads of pictures of where I was able to lie on the sofa and I'd have a shih tzu sitting on my chest. I had a Jack Russell sitting along my legs. I had my Labrador sitting at my head. 

[00:34:47] I had my Tibetan Spaniel down one side and I'd had a cockapoo on the other. So I was like completely surrounded by these dogs and I was so warm and it was just, it really does, animals are brilliant but dogs, it's like, I've got a dog now as I'm talking, sat next to me, which is my dog, and just stroking him and just, it was just very zen, as I could put it. 

[00:35:09] I was very, I was calm, I wasn't stressed about anything. And I just felt great. So it did feel, I still now, well, I'll come across a post on Facebook from the dog business that was at the time or in my files and stuff. And it still is a bit of a wrench. It's still a bit sad because I'd found the job that I really think would have made me happy and I was no longer able to do it. 

[00:35:33] Luckily, this job makes me happy too, because I'm Like I say, it lets me do stuff. It lets me feel useful. It lets me just keep my brain busy so that I'm not sat watching more binge worthy telly.  

[00:35:46] Teisha Rose: Yeah, and good on you because it is really hard. If you love your job, and I was a bit like that. I had a career change, became a social worker, loved it. 

[00:35:56] My health didn't help. Went downhill. It was too stressful for me. Mm-hmm. And it's like, then you think, okay, I've got to go back and work out, you know, another career change. But good on you for doing that. And that's what I want people listening to this episode to get out of it as well, that we can pivot, you know, our. 

[00:36:16] Health might go, but there's always different options and we need an open mind.  

[00:36:22] Erin Buck: Absolutely. I've always wanted to sort of be truthful about the fact is, yeah, you're going to have really bad days where you just, you can't move and you just got to be, you know, kind to yourself and say, okay, this is a bad day, but it's a day, it's only a day and tomorrow I might be able to do something. 

[00:36:38] And, you know, you just take, you've just got to take the time, but to know, it doesn't matter what age you are or what your, uh, disability or whatever you're going through, there's no reason to stop you from doing what you want to do. You just might have to take a different path to get there, but you can still be useful. 

[00:36:57] You can still have a purpose. You can just do it on your terms.  

[00:37:03] Teisha Rose: Yeah, a hundred percent. And then end up maybe with a bit more interesting life because you are doing all these things.  

[00:37:10] Erin Buck: I mean, I never thought I never had any experience of business. I was never going to run my own business. And then I started running my own business. 

[00:37:17] Never knew what networking was. Didn't think that I would join a networking group where I talked to, um, other people that are all over the world. and that I can call friends now. Never in my world did I think that I would get on a train, go to London and go to a huge conference. Um, but I did, you know, I'd never thought I'd win awards, anything like that. 

[00:37:40] So I would have never experienced that kind of life if I'd just finished with, you know, stayed with the, the dogs and everything. So, Yeah, it's not great. Yes, it's taken things away, but at the same time, I've earned things and experiences that I never thought I would have done without my business or without this path that I've taken. 

[00:38:00] Teisha Rose: Yeah, exactly. And it's not saying, you know, I certainly don't celebrate, you know, the different illnesses I have, but it's acknowledging, yes, some good has come out of that. And, and that does help your business. Emotional well being helps your mental health as well, because as you said  

[00:38:18] Erin Buck: Yeah, if you don't, if you don't, if you don't think like that, then it is all going to be bad days. 

[00:38:23] So you have to, and I have to take, sometimes I go on a bad day, something hasn't worked, or I'm in a lot of pain, and I just know I just need a couple of days to process it. And then I'd process it and then in a couple of days I'm back sitting up and going, right, okay, what am I going to do today? I need to make myself feel good. 

[00:38:39] So this is what I'm going to go do.  

[00:38:41] Teisha Rose: Yeah. And that's good lesson too, to sit with it and not deny those feelings. Like if you are feeling upset, that's okay. You know, because you will regroup. So I love that. And you mentioned too, you know, your world, even though you might be sitting at home and, or your world's opening up. 

[00:39:01] So, and that networking is important. Um, and that's yeah, connection. We're  

[00:39:07] Erin Buck: very lucky that we're now, us or virtual, um, Because obviously 20 years ago, this would never have happened. I would be on my own, well with my husband, but I wouldn't have had the opportunities to meet the people that I meet because I don't go places as much. 

[00:39:24] Um, so yeah, it's definitely, uh, it's The way that we are now with virtual has been a real great help to feel connected with people.  

[00:39:33] Teisha Rose: Yeah. Yeah. And do you find you can balance? So now, um, like we went through all the different medications and stuff, but do you do anything else? Like are you, I have I had this amazing massage on the weekend and went on a retreat and feeling very zen as I talked to you. 

[00:39:51] Um, do you do any other things like that for your wellbeing or?  

[00:39:55] Erin Buck: I do. We, we've got a big hotel chain spa that doesn't live that far. There's not that far away and they have some really good offers. And what I do is I save up my money and when they do their half price spa days, I'll buy three and I'll Book them in for one each month at the end of the month. 

[00:40:14] And these offers come around, around probably every quarter anyway. So it means that at the end of each month, I take myself off to the spa for the day. I turn my phone off. I take a book and I swim and I steam and I just lie and read. And the last time I went, which was on the 25th of November, I fell asleep. 

[00:40:34] Because I was that exhausted and my friends just put a towel on me and let me sleep for an hour and then woke me up to go for dinner. Um, so yeah, I, I do believe self care has to, it can't just be always pushing yourself to prove that you're just, that you're capable of doing things. Sometimes you do have to slow down and go, okay, people that are more able bodied, they slow down and they do things. 

[00:40:57] You know, for themselves. I don't tend to have massages anymore because I'm very nervous about anyone touching my back, but I used to love them beforehand. So I do tend to go more for facials and pedicures now. I can miss out the middle bit so that they don't, so that, so they don't touch those bits. And I do try to get out a lot. 

[00:41:17] Um, I try to walk at least once a day, you know, the dog, or get outside, because even if it is freezing over here, you know, like I said, I do live in the country, so I just have to find a flat path, um, and I get, I get outside to, to change the scenery, so that you're not always stuck in the one place.  

[00:41:35] Teisha Rose: Yeah, 100 percent and it doesn't have to be Massive Holiday or is this a change, isn't it? 

[00:41:41] Erin Buck: It is. A change is as good as a rest, to say, I think.  

[00:41:44] Teisha Rose: Yes. So looking ahead, 2025, um, what are you excited about? You know, is there, what's happening business wise or?  

[00:41:55] Erin Buck: I'm expanding my business a bit more so I, like I say, I've just took on somebody recently so I'm hoping to be able to, um, take on more work and delegate out to help her. 

[00:42:04] Uh, I've got three conferences I'm going to, one in Poole that's down near Bournemouth. Called You Are The Media, and I'm going to another massive conference called Atomicon in Newcastle. I've got my holiday in January because I take my summer holiday in January so I can go somewhere hot because when it's cold your joints hurt, especially if you've got, you know, my back is just much worse in the winter. 

[00:42:30] So we go to Gran Canaria for a week in January, or in the Canaries where it's Nice and the heat that I like, but it's warm and I, it really reduces my pain levels. So, and obviously lying on the beach is much better than walking around cleaning the house. So yeah, I feel less pain. So I like, I like, we do that and I'd like to have another, I'd like to have a second holiday next year, but I don't know if I'm going to aim for it. 

[00:42:57] End of the year, if I can. So. Yeah, just trundling along, keep on doing what I'm doing, uh, meet more people, get out there more.  

[00:43:07] Teisha Rose: Yeah, that's, that's great. And we'll put in the show notes how people can connect with you, but off the top of your head, what, what's your like Instagram handle and where else can people get in contact? 

[00:43:23] Erin Buck: It's dead easy because I was, I, uh, Whatever platform you're on, if you look for Busy B Bollie, because I live in a village called Bollington, not because I like the champagne. So that's B I Z Z Y B E E B O L L Y. And that's my tag on all social media. So you just have to put that in. Um, and my website is www. 

[00:43:48] busybbollie. com.  

[00:43:51] Teisha Rose: Excellent. Well, that does make it easy. That's really good. And Bolly, it sounded a bit like, you know, Bollywood. And I was thinking, Oh, that's really  

[00:43:58] Erin Buck: cool. I instantly thought of like champagne and alcohol.  

[00:44:05] Teisha Rose: That's great. And so if someone, because there are so many people that have back I don't know what to call it, you know, back issues or back, you know, ruptured discs or bulging discs or the constant pain and it is so debilitating and it can hit you, you know, as you said in your 40s when that's, you know, you've always taken for granted a healthy body. 

[00:44:30] So it's such a different experience. So, If someone was going through that, as they're listening to this, what would your advice to them be?  

[00:44:41] Erin Buck: Research your, definitely research what you're experiencing. It's different for different countries, but when there's so, the internet has got so much information. So when I started feeling the symptoms, I Googled. 

[00:44:54] the symptoms and I found the Spine Health Forum and it was able, it sort of, I was able to read other people's posts that described the same pain as mine. So I was able to generally figure out. whereabouts of what was happening and then I researched what I would need to do. So by the time that every time I went to the doctor, I was able to tell the doctor, okay, you're going to tell me to try the physio. 

[00:45:19] I've done that. And you're going to tell me to try a chiropractor. I've done that. And you're going to try and tell me, let's try these pills. I've done that as well so that I was able to push it forward quicker. So from the minute that my back first pain to August. It was less than six months, which is unheard of in the UK to get treated that quickly. 

[00:45:38] But that was because I pushed it. And I believe our, any medical profession is brilliant, but they are still human. So I would say be in control of your own health. Don't be obnoxious. Obviously they're trying to help you, but educate yourself. Don't just take their word and learn what you are experiencing and speak to other people. 

[00:46:01] that have gone before you, they might have tips of making your life a little bit easier because they've already done it and they've already discovered these things. So yeah, definitely research.  

[00:46:12] Teisha Rose: Yeah, that's great advice and the whole self advocacy and I like how you said, you know, not to be obnoxious because it is, it's sticking up for yourself, which is really important, but doing it in a respectful way because Others aren't necessarily out to get you, you know, it's just, you know, um, having that good relationship. 

[00:46:34] Yeah,  

[00:46:34] Erin Buck: absolutely. I mean, they've given up their lives, uh, years of study to help. They haven't gone into the medical profession purely for the money. Especially at lower level, um, you know, they're, they're working long shifts and they're trying their hardest to make you better. So help them by learning what you're going through so that you can understand. 

[00:46:54] So you're not badgering them with questions, but at the same time you can take on board, you know, being proactive with your own health when it's something started. Um, yeah, definitely don't just leave it into other people's hands.  

[00:47:07] Teisha Rose: Yeah, no, that's great Erin. And thank you so much for joining me because I think your story is really important. 

[00:47:14] I think this, you know, just in relation as well to how you've navigated and still done incredible things that you haven't just sat there in pain. Yeah. inside isolated, you know, that you have pivoted, you've had, you know, from teacher to dog walker to now, you know, um, Busy Bee Bolly. It's amazing. It's amazing what you've done as you've been navigating such pain. 

[00:47:45] And we know living with pain, it's hard to have a clear mind to do much. So you've done incredibly. I  

[00:47:50] Erin Buck: suppose that's another bit of advice you can have. Always look back at how far you've come. Because sometimes even I forget that. Sometimes I can sit there and think, you know, I'm 48 overweight, um, in pain. 

[00:48:03] And you know, what's the point. And then obviously like doing a podcast like this or hearing it from another person's perspective. It's like, Oh, hang on. Yeah. Yeah. At least I have done something. I have moved forward. I am not just sat living in pain. I am doing other things and you know, it's good to remind yourself that, you know, you are more than just your disability. 

[00:48:25] Teisha Rose: Yeah, well just keep playing this over and over whenever you doubt yourself. I'll give you a bit of a reel of the favourite lines throughout, so you can build your confidence because you have. You've done incredibly and I think that will help so many people dealing with pain as they're listening to us. 

[00:48:45] So thank you so much for your time. No, thank you for inviting me. You are welcome. 

[00:48:56] Okay, so hopefully you enjoyed that chat. I'm just loving speaking to people all around the world, learning from others as to how they approach their own health challenges. As Erin mentioned, if you wanna connect with her, go to busy. B b.com is her website, so busy, BI double ZY. B, B E E, Bolly, B O L L Y, and all of her social media handles are Busy B. 

[00:49:33] Bolly. Also, this conversation was really important in relation to your career in living with a health condition. I shared my own experiences of my career being impacted by MS and then cancer in episode 45, building a meaningful career through illness. So if you want to learn more about my story, more about my approach and why, Today, running a workshop for professionals working in the disability sector is really what I feel like I need to be doing. 

[00:50:15] So sharing my story, sharing insights and getting back to training and development, which is where my career started. In my twenties, but in customer service and telecommunications. So yeah, if you're after another episode to listen to, listen to episode 45. Also, if you enjoyed this story with Erin, visit Hurdle2Hope. 

[00:50:42] com. with a number two dot com forward slash stories on that link. There's so many episodes now of different stories that I'm sharing. As I said, I love this aspect of what I'm doing now and have a listen and learn from others. So you don't feel like you're alone. Otherwise, have an amazing week. It's not long now until Christmas, so if you're feeling stressed, listen. 

[00:51:12] There's always episodes. Listen to episode 48, all about holiday stress and trying to deal with that when you're also living with a health condition. Enjoy your week and I really look forward to chatting to you soon.