Injury part 5: have I achieved my goals so far?

It’s time to check in with the aims I set myself last month to see how the reality has matched up with what I was hoping for

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It’s been about a month since I blogged about my goals, and three months since I had surgery, so I thought now might be a good time to look at how I’m doing.

My big achievement is that I’m back at work. It’s for three days per week at six hours per day at the moment, but still, I’m there. I actually started off doing just four hours per day so even six is another improvement. I definitely feel good about this. It’s a huge step forward and has definitely boosted my confidence.

My current 10am start is really very civilised and I wish I could do this all the time. Three days isn’t enough time in which to get everything done, however, so I’m hoping to go up to four soon.

It hasn’t been easy, though. My first week back was very hard. I did Wednesday to Friday, with no time to recover in between. By Friday night my leg was agonising and I was in tears. The following week I did Monday, Wednesday and Friday and that worked well, but the week after I had physio on Monday and worked on Tuesday. That evening was simply horrible.

My big achievement is that I’m back at work

Even worse, though, was last night (22 February). I’d worked two days on the run at longer days of six hours. But the real difference was that I’m now taking the bus, rather than taxis, to work. Both the journey in and home were hellish and I suffered as a result. I was in agony last night.

That said, using the bus is another huge achievement. I’ve not been on public transport since the accident and managing to take the bus has been a major confidence boost. It’s also meant that I’ve been walking a lot more. Getting back on public transport wasn’t on my original list of goals but with hindsight it should have been.

I'm back at Birdwatch, right on schedule. 

I haven’t managed a walk to the marshes, which I’d planned for mid-February. And I’m now certain that I won’t be back on my bike by early March. Instead I’ve moved the walking to early March and will aim for my first bike ride some weeks after that.

I charged my vivosmart today, so from tomorrow I’m going to be wearing that again. Tomorrow is a work day, so I’ll be walking to the bus stop and then walking from Wood Green High Road to the office, and then doing the same in reverse at the end of the day. My step count won’t be high, but it’s a start.