Getting back on track

Now that I've had a few weeks out of hospital, and now that I've finished my course and all the work for it, I'm finally beginning to get my strength back. For the weeks I had the pneumonia and for a couple of weeks after getting home from hospital I was having to use my electric wheelchair most of the time, but now I'm up and about and having to build up my muscles again. This is great, although it's also hard work. I'm determined though and I'm slowly building up my muscles and strength, and I've just started back to a more structured fitness programme. Okay, so I'm a bit limited at the moment in what I can actually do, because it's been a fair while since my muscles were actually used properly, but I'm getting there. I started out on Saturday with a walk along Longsands beach at Tynemouth. I took it slowly, but had a nice time wandering, watching all the dogs that were around playing and chasing each other, getting sand in my shoes, and enjoying the sunshine :o) Sunday was another lovely day so this time I went to St. Mary's Lighthouse for a walk along the cliff tops. The tide was in so the island causeway was covered, but I quite liked that because it's not something I often see - usually finding myself there when the tide's out. I met a friendly chap taking photos of seagulls while I was up on the cliffs, and we spent quite a while chatting about photography and snippets of life before ambling back towards the car park together, where we parted. It was lovely.

So yesterday (Tuesday) I made it back to the gym/physio for the first time since before the pneumonia. I didn't do even half of what I had been doing before I went into hospital, but I worked hard nonetheless, and have felt it today, though not too painfully. I thought about going back to the gym today, but decided that I was a bit too tired to do anything effective and not wear myself out completely, so instead I decided to try walking into town and go to the gym again tomorrow. I have to say that I was quite tired by the time I got into town this afternoon, but it felt good to have made it, and also quite a surprise. I know it's not really that far (a couple of miles), but considering how sedate I've had to be for the past few months it was a real achievement. Having survived the trek into town I was determined not to waste the trip and only come home with the small packet of yeast I picked up from Waitrose, and the funky door key I had cut for my new front door, so I went to Waterstones and ended up buying/ordering the books for my next course. I'd vowed that I wasn't going to do this yet; that I was going to give myself a break, but I couldn't resist ... books are just too addictive. I've put them on a high shelf where I know I won't forget about them, but they're not in immediate reach so I can make sure that I read some things that are completley unstudy related. I have a huge pile of books I've been wanting to read for ages, so it shouldn't be hard to make myself read something unstudy related ... for a while at least.

Tomorrow I will go back to the gym, and back to building my strength and stamina. I still have the plan to do the gym marathon in October, but I'm also still waiting to hear back from the ward Charge Nurse about the ward's fund. I tried asking him about it when I was in hospital, but he was very busy and never had the time to get back to me about it. I'll try emailing him again ... and perhaps write to the ward Sister as well, who's perhaps a bit more organised than J ;oP However, when I have details about the fund I'll get back to you with a way to sponsor me (if you'd like to), but in the meantime I need to get back to getting fit enough to do the gym marathon by the end of October.

Getting back to getting fit is also helping me to focus again on getting back to losing weight. I've been trying to while I've been ill, and had some success, but it's been minimal, which I think is partly down to my infection-induced inactivity and increasing asthma symptoms, though of course also down to the usual thing of just not cutting down enough on what I'm eating. I'll get there, and now I'm getting back on track :o)

Well, one of the benefits of doing more is that I sleep better, and last night I slept very deeply :o) After this afternoon's walk into town I think I might sleep okay tonight too, and now is the time to see if I'm right. Night all :o)