La mulți ani, România!

Thursday December 1

Romania’s national day. A filthy day, dark and damp and overly windy. The highlight of National Day is the fly past. The planes come this way and I can watch them from my balcony. But not today. Oh well.

I go for a walk, actually two, today. The first is horrible, in the teeth of the worst of the weather. Good decision to get some exercise, bad decision to have it at this moment.

Later I go out again, the weather is still cold and wet, but not as bad as before, so we aim for a longer walk. Decide to go round the streets, not a very exciting walk, but on wet days best to avoid the park and keep on pavements. As I walk, from time to time I stop using the walking stick. I’ve been doing this occasionally this week when outside and get in a stretch as long as a kilometre at one point. Pleased with this. As I see it, it’s still good to take the walking stick, it’s useful for unexpected awkward bits of a route, such as somewhere where the land is not even, and it gives some security. It also helps when tired as makes the steps more even and stable. Still, we are getting there.

Most of all, we are consistently getting faster. Today we do four kilometres, two around 11 minutes, two around ten minutes. Ten minutes is close to my pre-accident not trying too hard normal, this is real progress.

Monday December 5

To Regina Maria and the x-ray! Decide to take the tram as though it’s slow, it is the most convenient, with no changes. The hospital is a bit crowded, but I am served on time, by a friendly guy. Between the two of us we somehow communicate despite my terrible Romanian and his limited English. Luckily I’ve done this before so know most of what I need to do, which helps.

We’re finished in a few minutes and then a just a bit later I receive the images. This is the first time I’ve actually had a copy. In Scotland I have seen the images on the doctor’s screen, but never been given a copy. It’s an interesting thought. On the one hand, it’s a bit rubbish how nothing is joined up here, that I need to find the place, the appointment, I need to look after the x-ray and take it to the doctor. On the other, at least I have the data, very personal data in this case. Wonder if the NHS would give me a copy if I asked?

Friday 9 December

Now I’m back for the follow up appointment. As expected the doctor is happy with what he sees, tells me to keep doing what I’m doing, stop using the walking stick (except when snowy and icy), and come back to see him in one year. I’m happy with that. While it’s good the NHS wanted these regular check-ups, it did feel to me that they were becoming pointless, as for some time it would appear I’m having no issues, and I’m sensible enough to make an appointment if something changed.

What is difficult now is the motivation. I am not ‘cured.’ I suppose we can say I’m fixed. The operation worked, the bone has healed, but this is a first step. The real recovery is what we are doing now. It means continual exercise to build up muscle strength, whether through physio exercises, walking, riding a bike, or whatever. Like all recoveries, this feels in some way the hardest part. At this moment I can do almost everything I could do before, at least on a daily life basis. Skipping an exercise or two seems then to be an OK thing to do, cause ‘I’m fine.’

It was not like this before. When I was in Scotland there was a strong desire to get better and stronger so I could do things I couldn’t do before, like walking, or looking after myself. I wanted to get back home. To do all these things, the path went through exercising, so even when not in the mood, the motivation was high. It worked and I did it all, at least 90% of the time.

I’m still pretty much doing that. However, the irony is that as you get better, equally the range and length of exercises gets longer. If I do 100% of what suggested then about 3 hours of my day could be taken up with different activities, and that’s on top of work! While it’s not really true, at times it feels like we just move from exercise to work to exercise and then to bed. It’s an exaggeration, but in the evenings after work, when tired, having to move around, stretching that muscle or this one is hard to do!