HEALTH UPDATE: A Fall At The Final Hurdle

An atmospheric path through the wilderness of Ashdown Forest

As I've mentioned before, after seven months of limited (sometimes almost zero) mobility due to the sudden onset of osteoarthritis, a lot of hopes were hanging on pain-relieving steroid injections in my lower back - which would have allowed me the comfort to do more, beneficial, exercises.

The injections were scheduled for yesterday. Rachel and I got to Maidstone Hospital, checked in to the Pain Clinic, were assigned a room of our own, did all the paperwork, answered all the questions, and waited for the pre-injection tests.

Unfortunately, it turned out my blood sugar was too high for the injections to go ahead. This was despite drinking litres of water and marching around the room. I managed to bring it down slightly, but the kindly doctor (the head of the department) said it just wasn't going down quickly enough.

The Pain Clinic can keep my place open for six months, but now I've got to work on diet and exercise.

It's all very depressing.

To pick myself up today I suggested to Rachel that we go for a walk on Ashdown Forest, which is a half-hour drive away. 

This was my first proper, outdoor walk since my latest problems began, so I think I might have been a bit overambitious, expecting to stride across miles of the legendary forest at my first attempt.

Thankfully, Rachel correctly judged that around 20 minutes was a good start.

My fitness cheerleaders: Rachel and Alice

Honestly, just walking (and, by extension, running) for the sake of it is the most boring form of exercise I can imagine, so I've started a new hobby - photographing trees and landscapes.

I need purpose (beyond simply "you'll get fitter") for my walking, and this happens to overlap with my current interest in the works of JRR Tolkien.

This is something that cycles around every year or so, usually when I'm in the middle of my regular rewatch of the Extended Editions of The Lord of The Rings trilogy (I'm just about to press 'play' on The Return of The King this week).

Thus, once we got to the Hollies car park in Ashdown Forest, we wandered, I took pictures, Alice had a good sniff and scented some new smells, and Rachel got her steps in. 

I've declared that we should be doing this more often (something Rachel has always said, but now it's me saying it and suddenly that makes it important!). Therefore, I can get more tree pictures and landscapes for my folder... and get fit as a side benefit.

The bigger struggle will be improving my diet (my dislike of fruit and vegetables could be a major issue there). But that's a topic for another post.

I do love trees - and this one has character