Towards the end of last year I started to more seriously think I should walk more but then the hip got worse so it didn't happen. But just after Christmas I got a fitbit. Well ideally it would have been at Christmas as it was part of my present from Kev. But as I hadn't told him what I'd wanted it came later. And I've been wearing it since I got home post op. It defaults to a target of 10K steps which obviously I wasn't aiming for but I've managed it yesterday and been not far off on several others. There's a certain irony that when it comes to my step count I'm doing better when I'm less than 2 weeks out from major surgery and am on crutches, than when I was allegedly fit and mobile! I even got a sneaker award, yay go me!
Obviously it helps that that pesky thing called work isn't in the equation now. The year I did the challenge at work was lovely as a walk at work in lunchtime meant park land, woods, lake. Macclesfield isn't as pretty. And even if I work more sensible hours I get home and want to eat rather than go for a walk. Especially in winter. So for now (as long as it's not raining ) I'm trying to get outside a couple of times a day. Today I went a bit further than yesterday and did start getting to think I'd gone far enough and have to get back. But I'd barely turned back when a lady stopped me to ask what I'd done. Cue a 15 min chat about how well I was doing and about her forthcoming knee surgery. It was quite nice but I was getting cold and trying to focus on how I was standing. And then when she did let me go I had the walk back. Those slopey driveways aren't getting any easier. One crutch goes up, the other drops away and I'm desperately trying to keep legs straight. My muscles must be cursing me. And I was cursing me too when I could see my road ahead and it felt ages away. By the time I was on that final stretch I felt like I was swimming in treacle. Was very glad to get back home. Apart from the fact that our doorstep is horrible. Not steps to the door, this is the actual threshold and after such a long walk (actually a short walk that took a stupidly long time) it's very high.
The immediate drawback to my walking is that from the end of my little close I have the option of turning right or left. Then that's about it until I'm up to walking a bit further. And I'm not yet. So it's going to be a little monotonous for a while. I could wander up and down the other small closes that make up our estate but I might look more like I'm casing the place. Though the crutches do make the getaway a little harder. Anyway this afternoon Kev was popping into town so I hitched a lift so I could walk somewhere different. We got to be slightly rebellious by parking in a disabled space. I don't like people using these but I also don't like people abusing them. Most spaces weren't taken and the one that was had an elderly lady in the passenger seat but she stayed in it while a very lively looking driver went into the shop. So I felt no guilt as I hauled myself out onto my crutches. I do find it ridiculous that we can't get temporary parking permits in the UK. Right now I'm in as much need of one as the people who have them, especially those who have them for a passenger who doesn't get out the pigging car. OK and breathe... Breathing actually was something I was struggling with a little while later. I was going to a shop that isn't far from where we parked but is down a slope. Which meant that on the way back it was up one. Though the slope was longer and steeper on the way back. But on balance is still preferable to the driveways that go across rather than with the way I walked. By the time I got back to the car I'd had to stop once for breath and knew I'd given my muscles a fair workout. Just lie back and admire that step count though :)
The other thing I bought (sorry, belatedly received) my fitbit for was to measure my sleep. Over the past couple of years my sleep hasn't been good. Sometimes I can put that fair and square to the darling hubster. He snores. Now I have no objection to a man who's a bit of an animal in bed. Just preferably not a sodding aardvark. And then some nights it's what's between my ears. My mind can go into overdrive. The shite I can lie awake trying not to think of is unreal at times. So I liked the idea of being able to also see just how much sleep I'm getting. And right now it's particularly apt as I often wake feeling I've had about 10 minutes. This morning having woken at just after 1am ( and I didn't head for sleep until close to midnight, what the hell is that about!?) it was actually really good to wake up this morning and see I'd had close to 6 hours, with just 14mins lost to being restless. That is one hell of a result. It's not 100% of course. It can't distinguish between lying still and being asleep, and given that I have no option but to stay in one position the sleep time probably is an overestimate. But I can't complain as I'm sure my step count is also an overestimate. I think that applies to pedometers generally. One day my old pedometer gave me over 60 steps when I was sitting doing my grocery shopping online. Still, every little helps :)
So while sleep is my low point, the upside is that I'm getting far more independent. Kev has his wish of me being able to do the dishes. It's a bit of a cruel joke that I have to learn to take weight through my new hip, and standing doing the dishes lets me do that. But my bloody restrictions mean I can't bend to load the dishwasher! The showering bath board thing is great but I do need to organise myself. A 10 minute shower takes me about 40. Today I dropped the shower head into the bath. I had the grabber to hand and did manage to pick it up without spraying the whole bathroom. But today saw another venture...into deforestation. I figured that being UK in February my legs are firmly under cover. Which is actually their best state 365 days a year. Yayyyyy. ..they get a day out in 2016! But even so when I saw quite how hirsute I'd become it felt like action was called for. So I cribbed from some pics I'd seen on FB, got Kev's gaffer tape and my long shoe horn and voila
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