This is by way of an explanation of why my blogging is now more infrequent. It follows on from my earlier posts (see end) about my severe osteoarthritis, ankle fusion surgery and the death this summer of my mother.
Bottom line, I'm now a LOT older than I was when I first started this blog.Earlier this month I celebrated my 68th birthday - and I can no longer kid myself that I'm a spring chicken even if my face and chin(!) have gone back to looking like they did many years ago!
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| An outing for a birthday treat at Kew for my birthday |
I'm also having to work very hard at both:
- exercise for recovery from my surgery
- keeping fit to prevent (hopefully) the osteoarthritis in both my hips from getting worse.
Consequently I'm now fully committed to daily exercise including a walk which takes quite a bit of time out of the day and makes me feel rather tired when I get back home.
For the uninitiated:
- recovery from my surgery takes at least 12 months before I get to the best place I can be - but ONLY if I work at my exercise!
- PLUS appropriate exercise and weight management are now very much recommended by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence for self-management of the symptoms of osteoarthritis – advice which is strongly backed up by research evidence. SEE:
My regular daily exercise now means that:
- I can now carry my stick rather than use it all the time.
- PLUS walk further than I've been able to do for a very long time - so long as I have regular sit down breaks!
- AND I can now walk up and down slopes which I couldn't do at all for a very considerable length of time after surgery. I still have to avoid sideways slopes which are impossible with a rigid ankle!
But I still need a stick for uneven surfaces and for getting up and down stairs.
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| Walking down a steep slope - slowly - at Kew! |
HOWEVER I still suffer from being VERY stiff at times and experience major balance issues when at home. It's very odd - walking now makes me feel normal, whereas I sometimes struggle to walk at home after getting up from a seat!
Sometimes I can combine exercise with visiting art exhibitions - and I expect to be doing more of this over the winter as the weather gets worse. The nice thing about art galleries is they have seats!
Bottom line though - I've got much less time for blogging.
It's a good discipline though as it makes me think which is also good exercise for the brain - so I won't be giving up.
However the reduced rate of blogging is likely to continue for the foreseeable future.
Mainly because there's no chance of my severe osteoarthritis going away. But also because I need to get fit for and then recover from my next surgery - which is a shoulder replacement (which I've needed for the last 2 years!)
I now need to work out how I'm going to blog while I spend six weeks with my arm in a sling and then a have whole bunch of new exercises to learn and do during recovery!
I'm wondering whether I should start doing videos or podcasts and speaking the words rather than writing them! Anybody with any tips - I'd love to hear from you. (see contact me)
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