Overview of 2009 and hopes for 2010

A White-tailed Eagle, taken at a Conservation and Rescue centre in the Lake District over the summer. It's a symbol of strength and hope and restoration (Is 40:30-31) and kinda what I want to have in mind going into 2010.

So....progress for 2009, below is a graphical summary


Essentially, things are improving but extremely slowly. Looking at the average daily exercise (orange line through orange circles), during the first 6 months, I was doing approx. 10 mins a day. This increased to approx. 25 mins per day during the latter 6 months (apart from the blip last week).

Aims/hopes for 2010:

• Increase weekly walking to 300 minutes
• Get to a point where I can comfortably sustain 30 minutes cycling per week
• Reduce (and hopefully eliminate) hip and back pain
• Feel an improvement in the stability and strength of my shoulders (although the pain may take 18 months to settle down).
• Get the average daily exercise up to 50 minutes

Finally, for a couple of years now I've been wanting to get involved in a racket sport. Badminton or Table Tennis seem like the best options due to my strength limitations. Table Tennis is probably the best place to start as it requires the least amount of strength and agility (relatively speaking). So.....here's to finding a place to do that in 2010.

And...that's about it....

Last Hydro session of 2009

Today's image is a Barn Owl taken in the summer at a Conservation and rescue centre in the Lake District. I'm hoping that in 2010 I'll have the opportunity to see one of these beauties in the wild.

I finally made it back to the pool this morning for a hydrotherapy session. I'd not been for 3 weeks so was a bit nervous about how my body would cope. For the most part, it went ok: I felt a bit tired/weak towards the end, the LHS lower back tightness/pain was aggravated from the outset and my left shoulder was painful/restricted so had to reduce exercises on that. As ever, it really is the LHS lower back and left hip which are the limiting factor. If they didn't hurt, I could comfortably do (and enjoy!) more.

Yesterday, I got back to doing the shoulder physio exercises. I've also decided to make a concerted effort to again do the hip/core daily physio but keep it down to 6 reps on each of the 8 exercises. It's the only way I can see of targeting the back and hip problems. Muscles take 12 weeks to train so I'll give it 3 months and then go back to my GP if there's no improvement. By that time I'll have also completed the year of hydrotherapy and will be in a strong position to demand more help, expertise etc from the NHS.

NHS Physio - Sixth/Last Session

In homage to the mighty snowfall here, we have a lone Blue Tit in the expanse of snow (again, in my garden). It also kinda represents how I feel about dealing with the severe deconditioning....lonely, cold and 'up against it', lol.

Anyways, braved the 12+ inches of snow to make it to the hospital for my shoulder physio session this morning. She checked the range of movement and essentially concluded that there's not a great deal of improvement. It was my 6th and therefore last physio session with the NHS. I was advised to continue with the daily exercises for a few more months and then reassess what can be done.

My hips/back are going through a painful phase again. LHS lower back tightness/pain, left and right hip stabiliser pain, and RHS front of hip pain/tightness. After Christmas I think I need to go back to daily physio exercises again for my hips/core.

Highs and Lows

....firstly I'm bored with the format of this blog so have decided to add my birding photos to the entries. Above are a couple of Starlings from today in the garden, perched on the 10 inches of snow! The caption: "You duck, I'll stand!"...or....it's the "Highs and Lows"....lol

....secondly, it's been a mixed couple of weeks. The first was going along swimmingly. Got out bird watching on the Tuesday and Thursday for 1.5-2 hours on both days. Didn't feel too exhausted at all and I hadn't aggravated any pains/strains etc. I'd managed more 'exercise' in that week than I had in any other week during the past year and I felt optimistic!

But....Sunday came and I was out bird watching with the RSPB group. It was bitterly cold and although I'd put on 2 fleeces and a down jacket, I stood and shivered for 3 hours. At the time, I felt fine. I was cold but I was happy/alert/energised etc. Once I got home, I warmed up, had some lunch and was then overwhelmed with extreme exhaustion. I couldn't do anything else except sleep. I had a splitting headache as well. Through the rest of the afternoon/evening I felt awful - drained, headachy, frazzled! I slept for 12 hours that night.

The rest of last week was spent recovering from Sunday. Until yesterday, I'd not done any exercise at all. Had to miss hydro on Wednesday cos I felt so lousy. The odd thing is that I wasn't aware of any fatigue in my muscles as such. The exhaustion seemed to be experienced in my head, like it was extreme mental exhaustion. I felt like my brain had been fried. The headache persisted until yesterday evening. I started taking my iron tablets again on the 18th Dec to see if that made any difference. To be fair, I have been improving since then but who knows if the iron is responsible or not. If it hadn't been so close to Christmas I would have gotten a blood test done to check my levels.

So...yesterday I managed 15 minutes on the bike and did my physio exercises for my hips/back and shoulders. The bike work aggravated the LHS lower back tightness/pain and I spent the rest of the day with a hot water bottle on it to try to ease it off. The tightness and pain is still present today but I've done another 5 mins on the bike in the hope that little & often will somehow enable the muscles (hip flexors?) to regain elasticity.....who knows.

Last week really knocked me for six. I had no warning whatsoever that those 3 hours in the cold would have such a drastic effect on me. I still don't really understand how/why it happened and I don't know how to guard against it happening again. I don't know if it was my brain/nervous system reacting badly to the stress of the cold or my muscles being exhausted.....

....well, we're nearly up to Christmas. I'll post a summary of the year's progress in a week or so. It's a shame that it's ended on such a low. I will have done as much exercise this week as I did in the first week that I started the log in January 2009! Mmmm....need to keep an eye on the big picture I guess.

Sundays are bike days...

Still nursing a tight/painful LHS lower back and if it hadn't been for that, the rather tender and restricted left shoulder and arm, strains round my ribs and the tight RHS groin, I would have dug my bike out of the mess in the garage and been out in the glorious sunshine this morning. It was sooo tempting.

As it was, I thought I'd gently try the exercise bike. I decided I'd stop every 5 minutes to stretch and massage the affected back muscle and just see how it went. Generally, it felt great. Only mild twinges through the RHS groin/inner thigh and no left hip pain (which is always significant). Anyway, I managed the full 27 minutes and then immediately stretched everything out and applied heat to my back. The problematic muscle is tight and painful but I'm hoping it's no worse than it was before.

I'm looking forward to a time when I'm not having to constantly manage injuries in a way that enables me to keep up the rehab.

What's worse...

.....the only thing worse than a recurring, chronic injury is.....a new injury. Yesterday was one of those tearful days where I wonder why I'm bothering to work so hard. More than a year of physiotherapy, hydrotherapy and general conditioning and I still manage to injure myself being shown a new (easy) physio exercise. This one is supposed to strengthen the scapular stabilisers using a more ecologically valid movement. Essentially, it's retracting the scapular (engaging the lower trapezius muscle), bringing the arm out in front and rotating a ball on the wall clockwise/anticlockwise 3 times (see Exercise #3 Ball on the Wall here: Link). That's all. At the time, it felt extremely difficult and a few hours later I realised I'd strained the little muscles through the ribs round to the back, under the scapular. By the evening, my shoulders and arms had that familiar post-physio deep, gnawing ache. I'd already iced the shoulder earlier to ease the tendon pain.

Everything is still achy and tender this morning so I guess I'll need to get the technician to knead my clay in pottery this afternoon. Hey Ho...

LHS lower back tightness/pain

It's the same old problem....On Sunday, I managed another 27 minutes on the exercise bike, taking care not to aggravate the RHS groin/inner thigh strains. It went fairly well. Only slight twinges through the groin, which I iced immediately afterwards. However, the LHS of my lower back started to ache pretty soon after I got off the bike and by the afternoon/evening it was well and truly painful (which wasn't unusual really!)! However, it's remained tight/in spasm ever since and 50 minutes walk into/around town yesterday only made it worse.

I went to my hydro session this morning but the LHS of my lower back limited what I could do. I ended up spending more time floating on my back, doing flutter kicks. It's so frustrating. The past 8 months of hydrotherapy are supposed to have strengthened my core enough to prevent this type of back problem. I don't understand why I'm still experiencing the same muscle spasms/injuries over and over again. Tired and in pain this afternoon.