It’s taken a long time – much longer than I anticipated – but I finally feel like I’m making progress
IT’S been a while since I wrote here. Things were taking so long to progress that I was starting to get disillusioned. It felt like all I had to say was ‘another goal missed’ over and over. I was starting to feel like I would never be fully recovered. Pain was my constant companion and my knee was horribly stiff and swollen. I felt like I’d never walk properly again, never mind get back on a bike.
This was all very disheartening and not a great psychological outlook for someone who suffers from depression. But there is so much truth in the expression ‘this too shall pass’. And it did.
On 22 March I had a hospital appointment in the orthopaedics department. This was slightly farcical, in that when I eventually got called through to see the surgeon he came in, told me that he hadn’t performed the surgery and so wouldn’t comment on it. He passed me onto the sister to see what could be done. Luckily she managed to get a very nice and helpful registrar to see me.
The registrar was great. He reassured me that there was nothing wrong, that my knee was healing as expected and that an injury of this size simply takes a long time to improve. He acknowledged that this must all be very frustrating for someone who’s used to being quite active. It was incredibly encouraging to have someone in an ‘official’ capacity say that to me.
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| Florence on her new turbo trainer. |
In the month since then – I’m writing this on 23 April – I feel like I’ve made some real improvements. I’ve given up on the aims that I set myself initially. They were far too ambitious; I really had no idea how badly I’d injured myself or how long it would take to heal.
Cycling and walking
I can walk without the crutches. It takes a lot of effort and it hurts, but I can do it and I can do it almost normally and at almost normal speed. I’ve walked to Orford Road and back twice. The first time it hurt so much that evening that I cried. The second time was much better.
I’m mostly just carrying the crutch when walking between home and tube and office and tube. That’s right, tube. I’ve progressed from the bus. This means that I’m doing stairs – lots of stairs – at Finsbury Park. I’ve also been taking the stairs up to the office in the mornings (we’re on the fourth floor) and using the main entrance at Walthamstow Central so as to go up the stairs there too.
I’m still more wary of going down, but that’s more to do with vertigo than not being able to. I’ve been adding extra bits onto my journeys from Wood Green to work in the morning and home from Walthamstow Central in the evenings, just to get a few extra steps on the vivosmart. I’ve got up to 7,000 steps!
Following some excellent advice from Facebook friends, I invested in a turbo trainer for the bike. The first time I used it I only did 15 minutes in first gear and on the lowest resistance. I didn’t even have a means of recording the session until my brother pointed out that I could use my Garmin Edge with my speed sensor.
My second session was also 15 minutes on the lowest settings. But by the fourth I’d gone up to second gear and 20 minutes. For the next I’m going to try third gear. The plan is to build up speed, strength and confidence and then move the whole setup outside.
Work
I’ve made a lot of progress here, too. I’m now doing four days a week at six hours per day. I’m taking far fewer painkillers even on work days. Last week I managed to get it down to just one paracetamol before setting out to work and a couple of ibuprofen before leaving at the end of the day.
It’s been not easy and it’s definitely not been quick, but things are moving in the right direction
My next goal is to do a full day. I’d like to give that a go next week, but I’ve got quite a lot on: physio on Monday, training in Bourne on Thursday, afternoon tea on a bus on Saturday. So it might be too much to extend my days as well. It might be best to wait until the following week.
Things have got a lot better. But it’s still not all over yet. The swelling has gone down a lot, but it’s still there. The pain isn’t constant and isn’t as intense, but when it does appear it’s still bad. This weekend has been very painful. I had plans to walk to Wood Street or St James’s Street, but just couldn’t do it, although I did manage a turbo trainer session.
It’s been not easy and it’s definitely not been quick, but things are moving in the right direction. Finally.
Postscript
Since writing this I’ve had another appointment with the physiotherapist. I told him all about my turbo trainer sessions and my crutch-free walks and he was very pleased with my progress and the way I’ve taken control of my rehab. He discharged me. I am incredibly pleased and relieved.
