Oww

I have blisters. This isn't terribly surprising I guess given that my poor feet have got used to an easy life up until two weeks ago, but they're sore :o( The one on my left foot isn't too bad and is in tact, but the one on the right is ENORMOUS ... well, it's about the size of a pound coin, it's burst, it's oozing, it's red and it's very painful :o( I have a compeed plaster thingumy on it and a melolin dressing over the top of that for extra padding, and I'm hoping that I'll be able to get away with it like that and still go to the gym/physio this week without ending up taking my foot off. Okay, so that's a bit of an exaggeration ;oP but I'm sure you know how it feels to have sore blisters. In the scheme of things they're incredibly minor, but I'm going to moan about it anyway ;o)

Suprisingly, despite all the exercise I've been doing, I've had very little muscle pain so far. Except, that is, when I swept a few crumbs up off the kitchen floor the other day and pulled a muscle doing that. Typical - I can go to the gym/physio and work out hard, getting through a couple of minor asthma attacks on the way but otherwise being fine, and then I come home and hurt myself using a dustpan and brush! It just goes to prove that housework is bad for you ;o) I'll give it up again and leave it to A, my carer who comes in once a week to do my cleaning and other things for me.

Those of you who have always done lots of exercise will probably know this already, and actually I remember it from times gone by when I was able to be more active most of the time, but when you've been exercising and then you have a couple of days rest your muscles start to hurt. It's like they're protesting against not being used, and they feel like they're curling up, moaning to be made use of again. It's very like the muscle pain you get when you've done too much exercise ... but not. There, that's clear as mud, isn't it. Anyway, this isn't exactly a revelation to me, but a reminder of something I'd forgotten. It's kind of good, because it makes me want to get back to the exercise to relieve the ache, alhtough I'm not looking forward to the possibility of blister expansion.

I know it's early days yet, but so far the 'training' is going well. Okay so I have some blips in breathing ability when I'm doing it, but I do anyway, and while they're not major I'll push myself on. Having said that, today hasn't been great for breathing and I woke up with sore intercostals from struggling to breathe through the night, but I've beaten my lungs into submission with plenty of nebs and I'm doing okay now. I'll just have to be careful at the gym tomorrow and tell the physio where I'm upto.

Hmm, now I ought to go and get on with some study. I have an assignment due in by Friday, for which I'm doing some life writing - a first person, present tense narrative about having an asthma attack. It's kind of therapeutic to write, but it's also quite emotionally draining as I'm having to relive the experience(s) in order to 'bring them to life.' Maybe I'll post it up here when it's done, but for now I only have 900 words of what has to be 2500 words so I'd better get to it.