Tag: recovery

All good

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15 days post-op for Colin the Beagle, and it’s good news. The stitches are out, and while there’s still a bit of healing to do, the vet is amazed by her progress. She’s putting weight on the bad leg, the good – ok, “better” – leg seems to be holding up well, and the biggest issue is now over-confidence and trying to do too much too soon.

She’s also lost a couple of kilos and looks sleek and mean, and the stitches coming out this morning meant that she could have a bath as well, which is something we’ve all been looking forward to.

Incredibly, with just two weeks gone, it’s like we’ve got our old beagle back already.

Thus, we’re off to Agulhas for a couple of days to celebrate, and walk – gently – around the village.
Check the ‘Gram and on here for updates.

Have a great weekend!

Day 650 – Run

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A couple of months ago, fresh from a bizarre but promising appointment with a physician, I wrote this post, in which I declared:

I’ve set myself a goal: I’m going to run 5km in 30 minutes with my son on his birthday next year

With hindsight, I probably should have asked him first, but if it becomes necessary, I’ll just pull parental rank on him.

Anyway, that run seemed like a great idea until the next two months happened and I was – once again – rather unwell. Regular readers will recall that I even chucked myself at a local pulmonologist in an effort to get better.

It didn’t work.

But the last few weeks have been better, and so I thought I’d push myself with my first run since Covid: my first run since June 27th last year.

This was never going to be a pleasant or pretty experience. BTV, I was at a level of fitness which meant I could knock out 5km in 30 minutes with not too much nastiness involved. Those days are gone (for the moment, at least).

Today’s effort was a reasonably paced 1.5km around the neighbourhood in the summer sun, including some hill. Quite a lot of hill, it seemed, although the stats seem to suggest differently.

Could I have managed 2km? No. The lights were beginning to go out at the top of the third incline, and so I thought it better to come home.

It’s quite depressing when you compare it with last June, but it’s nice to still be able to do anything, and it’s a big improvement on that first doctor’s appointment above, in which:

I got up to 6kph on a slight upward slope, for a whole 150 seconds

For the record, this was 8.8kph – including some slope – for 615 seconds. Better.

I’m really not used to starting over like this (although…). It’s clearly going to take some effort.

But I am up for the challenge.

Day 583 – The day of rest

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13 delicious hours of sleep and I’m still craving bedtime this evening. My recovery skills are not what they used to be. I’m spending the day sitting inside in front of the football.

Tomorrow looks like a proper summer’s day, which probably means I’ll be spending the day sitting outside in front of the football.

Hopefully, it’ll be a better watch than today.

Day 535 – Surprising screenshots

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Yesterday turned out to be a pretty good day. I pushed myself (on doctor’s orders) to see what I could get done, and I got quite a lot done. Yes, I am suffering a little bit today, but nowhere near as much as I would have expected.

I’m almost – almost – daring to hope that I’ve turned a corner.

I put my watch on for the first time in weeks, mainly just to keep an eye on my heart rate (doctor’s orders again), and well, wow, look at this:

A whole dog walk round the block, sure, but the steps! The steps!
That’s the first time I’ve even come close to that figure since I got this damn thing. I really wasn’t aiming for anything, so it was a huge surprise when I spotted it.

Other points: 72 resting HR is still too high, but that’s why I had the watch on. 150bpm is also still too high, considering I didn’t actually do anything strenuous (yes, you guessed it, doctor’s orders). And the stress level, well that’s always a bit of an outlier on the days that I watch United play.

Although…

Wow. Amazing.

We’ve been waiting to spank someone for about 18 months now, so this was long overdue. And yes, it was “only” Peterborough, but we’ve been drawing to “only” Luton and losing to “only Huddersfield” recently, so this was really great to watch (if a little stressful for at least the first 51 minutes) (see above).

But aside from the result – even better than the result perhaps – this was a cohesive, skillful, positive, enthusiastic, even occasionally awe-inspiring Blades’ performance. Just look at the quality of those goals. JUST LOOK AT THEM!

I’m almost – almost – daring to hope that we’ve turned a corner.

Day 510 – Status update

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It’s been seven days since I wrote this, so I thought I’d update it with all the latest news.

Things are definitely improving. A little more energy here, a little less breathlessness there. I can climb a flight of stairs (slowly) without stopping at the top to get my breath back, and I can stay up until 9pm without feeling like something has gone very wrong.

This is real progress.

I still can’t smell anything and while a bit of my taste has come back, sadly (and yes, weirdly, because this is a weird virus) it’s only the bitter taste. So everything tastes bitter. I’m guessing that a lot of things have a bitter taste to them, but it’s balanced or overwhelmed by other tastes (sweetness, saltiness etc.) or flavours. Those tastes and flavours aren’t working for me at the moment and so everything is really bitter. It’s not great, but I’m hoping that it might just be the gateway to other tastes opening up once again. Fingers crossed.

Despite this, I’m eating more. Probably (definitely) too much. I think there are some drug side-effects at play here as well as a desperate need to catch up on what I lost. But I need to eat all of the things at the moment, and all of the time. Rather that than an involuntary hunger strike, but I’m trying to keep it under control.

My brain…. comes and goes. Sometimes, things are almost “normal”, but concentration is still an issue and oddly (perhaps because this is a odd virus?), the more I try to think about something – like a word I want to use – the less I’m actually able to do it.

Otherwise, a few iffy side-effects and other symptoms that I don’t want to tell you about and you don’t want to hear about. But generally, I’m on the mend. Hoorah.

We’re not quite there yet though. I tried to have a normal day on Monday. I went to the supermarket and I dropped some stuff off that needed dropping off in Tokai and I did some washing and I cleaned the fireplace and… no. My body decided that enough was enough and let me know. Broken. And that meant that yesterday was crappy too. And so I’m back to taking things easy rather than pushing myself. A sensible regimen of doing the stuff I can do and not trying to do all of the rest of the stuff as well.

Second jab is just under two weeks away now and I just want it in me, so that I can – hopefully – not have to go through this sort of thing again.