It’s been a long time since I added anything here, so here we go again.
The race with my buddy FSHD has turned into a toe to toe slugging match. He tells me what I cannot do anymore and sometimes I have to admit he is right, but poke him in the eye with a “Watch this though”. He has the upper hand in some ways, in that I cannot stop his slow gains, but we trade blows with smiles, at least sometimes with smiles sometimes with a lot of swearing, all from me.
Since the last time I wrote here, I have lost a lot of power, flexibility and some mobility. I have gained a lot of bad temperedness, if that is a word. I lose my head a lot with the frustrations caused by the lessening of my abilities. Luckily enough it is mostly with myself, but I have to be careful, because Dung, my wife, takes the anger sometimes. The same old story, “We hurt the ones we love the most”.
I have added a second banister to get up the stairs and a handrail by the bath, although that was a bit of a cock up, but that is another story, but a quick one, so, I put it in vertically and horizontally would have been better, but it still works OK.
The walking has deteriorated so that it is no longer any fun to walk. I had a big complaint, from my buddy FSH, of foul play, when I was given some carbon fibre splints that fit inside my shoes. This made such a huge difference to my walking, it looked like I was going to start running and so FSH came out with cries of “Unfair, foul play, not allowed”. “Sod that” is my reply. These splints are something else. When I tried one at the factory, I felt as though I would be able to run in them, they gave me so much spring to my step. I had gotten carried away with myself, but they are great. I would not be doing too much walking without them, but I still cannot get a blue disabled badge, which gives my buddy a chuckle.
I find the mental struggle more difficult than the physical one, or perhaps it just seems that way to me. Both are there constantly, still no day off. I work quite hard to try to keep up my physical strength, but the levels of strength are constantly changing, so just when I think I am on terms with it, I have to give up something. I am no longer doing the aerobic exercises at the gym, well not too often. I found my legs were suffering with only 15 minutes on a machine. I have even given up the rowing, which was only 1K, which took me about 6 minutes, but I sometimes sneak a row in when I am feeling good. It makes me feel better, but I don't have to push it too much, or my legs suffer again, hence the 6 minutes. I have lost about a minute on the 1K over the last 2 years. I was doing 1.5K, but that went out the window about 6 months ago.
I found I can build up my arms, so got onto free weights and about an hour of the weight machines in the gym, but now I am finding I get lots of aches in my arm joints and some muscles, so I have had to tone that down a bit. This is when I lose my head. I think I am getting to a point where I am winning a battle and old FSH finds a way to muscle in on my gains. Good pun ay?
I'll post this now and try to get back shortly. As is my way, I often think about updating this blog and don't do it.
Stay strong.
