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Pat on the back
A few days ago, my bike ride turned into a particularly long one due to circumstances. One of those circumstances was that the final section of road on the nearby highway finished. This meant the bike path was open all the way to the end of the new highway. I will point out that it’s unlikely I’ll be travelling the whole way any time soon but it was kind of neat to know it was open.
The other circumstance related to an incident with a family member where I knew I had to speak up about something and it just made me ill to think about it. I was stressed and anxious when I went out and the other conditions were kind of right so I went off with expectations of turning around at the former end point of the path. I found, however, that despite playing my music while riding, I definitely wasn’t hearing it at all.
On that ride I travelled almost 40 kilometers round trip, which was pretty huge. It was kind of good for me to ride hard and long that day even if it didn’t make as much of a dent in the feelings I was having. On the other hand it was also kind of foolish since I had to make a return journey and I was cutting it close to dark. Not to mention I was expected to be back before a certain time so we could “play” a Zelda video game that evening. Anyway, I got back okay but the following day, I was feeling a bit wiped out, physically and emotionally.
Now after missing a day or two of exercise, there’s always a chance I will allow myself to fall back into old habits where I skip it altogether for to long. And with the cooler days it’s even easier to slip more often.
So there I was yesterday and I had spent a good part of the afternoon playing Animal Crossing. That issue I spoke about above was still ongoing although I wasn’t feeling quite as terrible as I’d been before. Procrastination on days that are getting shorter is never a good thing and I finally did get myself read to go out for a ride. The day before had actually been quite warm so it’s a shame I didn’t go out then. Yesterday was somewhat cooler and by the time I went out, the winds had picked up.
I had worn two shirts to keep warm and at the last minute decided to bring along a ratty light jacket just in case. Boy am I glad I had it as I had it on within the first five minutes. It was chilly out there. At this point I thought to myself that I would lower my expectations and just make it about halfway to my original destination (which made for about 65 minute ride). The winds were really strong so I wasn’t making much progress.
I got closer to that point but decided I shouldn’t be so slack and should push on and reach my usual turning point. I was moving rather slowly despite my efforts. I was tiring a lot and my new thing of pedaling while standing up were making it worse. Eventually I started to avoid the standing and just lowered gears to make it the ascents easier.
Thankfully my music was helping to drive my efforts. But I was well behind my usual time based on how far into the playlist I was. I did make it to that turning point and stopped for a couple minutes to recover and to rehydrate. Turning back, I found it even worse and I ended up zipping up my jacket this point. The sun was lower and I was getting chilled despite extra layers.
I ended up dropping to the lowest gears and just focusing on moving continuously rather than at any speed. That was pretty much all I could do and the trip back seemed to go on forever. In the midst of all this, my anxiety would return occasionally and I guess it was distract with the agony of the ride or the agony of the anxiety. I figure I must have passed it back and forth mentally most of the way home.
I did get home okay but I definitely didn’t feel any better. But I did pat myself on the back for making it through. Here’s hoping the next ride or exercise will be a bit easier to handle. :)
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April-the start
I’ve managed to go ten days without posting anything, which was breaking up a good run of writing. Hopefully I can get going again.
At our house we are doing okay for the moment. The Scientist continues to work from home and is both lucky and unlucky that he and a coworker are still on full hours due to urgent need of their projects. My work has come to a bit of a halt. I am still supporting my client but we aren’t meeting face-to-face right now. I think we may start up some more minimal activity soon with one of us (support workers) meeting with him each week. I’m still getting paid but it’s not the ideal type of support right now. The boys are doing okay and life carries on fairly normally for them. Except that Lego Lover isn’t doing shopping with me at the moment.
Which leads me to the next thing, going out in public. I was really good over the past week and only went out once during the week to top up a couple of things. But Thursday I had to do the shopping and it was mentally and physically exhausting. Playing dodge-em in the shops was a crazy pursuit. I washed myself down well when I got home as I felt rather icky from being out in the world. I didn’t go to the pharmacy at all during the week, which was good. But I should have gone yesterday as Lego Lover needed a refill of one medication. Just I didn’t know it when I was out. Sigh…Today, the Scientist and I went to see about getting the refill but the pharmacy was closed. So tomorrow I will go back and get that taken care of. We also need eggs so that Lego Lover can do his traditional decorating and then we can do a egg hunt inside as normal. The regular stores were all out on Thursday and most stores were closed today. So tomorrow it will have to be done. Plus there’s a need to start hunting down toilet paper soon. We have about a week’s worth, I think, but in case of increased usage, I’d like to have a few rolls extra before then.
We’re coming into the middle of April and we’re having a heatwave right now. Three days of hot temperatures that are highly unusual for this time of year. Tomorrow is expected to exceed 37C where we are (100F) and then we go back to more normal temperatures. It’s weird because our summer was kind of mild after we had a particularly warm/hot spring. So when there were all the reports about Australia having record temperatures, it didn’t apply here most of that time. But we may well set an April temperature record tomorrow.
I’m keeping up my exercise for the most part. I’m alternating long and short bike rides with some combined bike rides/ walks at nearby Whiteman Park. It takes me close to 30 minutes to ride to a place where I can park my bike and then I walk for about an hour most of the time. There’s one trail that works well for that. My favorite walk goes quite a bit longer so I haven’t done that one much lately.
I’ve been adding to the challenge on my bike rides the past few times by trying to pedal while standing up while I go uphill. It does make for better riding but I need to keep at it a while to build up the muscle and slow down the racing heart a bit. Today I found it particularly tough at a couple points, but maybe that was related to the heat more than anything. I will point out that it was reasonably pleasant but quite dry outside so my main concern was hydration. I pushed through the first half of my trip without stopping and I had to stop for a few minutes to get my heart rate back to normal and to drink one of the bottles of water I’d taken. (I had three with me). I also have managed to start riding using the last set of gears and it’s working out pretty well. I am missing my swimming but that will just have to wait a while.
I’ve been playing my Animal Crossing game every day since it was released so far. This is the fourth incarnation I’ve played and it’s looking to be the best of the lot. I’m finding it amusing to see so many people are getting hooked on this game as though it’s a new thing when it’s been around in other forms for quite a long time. I’m still hoping there will eventually be a restock of the Animal Crossing Nintendo Switch. Thanks to the shortage, there are a lot of scalpers about, getting 3-4 times the true value of the machine. This is the only special edition console that has ever interested me and it figures it would be released at this particular time.
I finally got a message from the airline about a refund on my tickets. It seems they have put through refunds of the seat fees but it might be a while for the regular fare. So long as I know it’s coming, I’m okay with it. It’s weird to think next Tuesday is the day I was supposed to be travelling but now it’s going to be an ordinary day.
Which reminds me that our tai chi class is proceeding for the moment using the Zoom platform. It has some limitations but it’s been really good to handle our group so far. We should be able to catch up a couple classes that didn’t happen during the usual break time.
For me, the isolation isn’t too terrible at the moment. I’m still able to go out on my bike and to walk near home so I am not stuck inside all the time. But that suits my personality a bit more. I am mostly affected by limitations on going out to take care of usual stuff and having to think through ways of consolidating on trips. It’s not so easy for some though, like the Scientist, who has a much higher need for human contact than the rest in the this family. I do wonder how I will feel in a month when we start getting cooler weather and more rain that keeps me indoors a lot more.
Here in Western Australia, the numbers have been dropping recently so I think we are “flattening the curve” pretty well. Most of the recent cases seem to be related to cruise ship activity here, which is a frustrating situation which doesn’t seem to get improving a lot. I heard talk of a couple more ships coming here soon. I honestly don’t understand how so many ships carried on after this pandemic was declared. It’s been weeks now, and it hasn’t improved. I remember it was early March when the Queen Mary 2 was here and they cancelled all itineraries while here. The cruise ships aside, I guess the fact we are so isolated in the country really helps a lot.
Anyway, our weekend ahead is going to be a stay at home thing. Well I might go out to exercise tomorrow but otherwise will be home. Hopefully we can engage the family in some games of some sort over the next day or two. Or maybe some other activities.
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Good
Today was the beginning of another hot spike in temperatures for us. I think it got to 35 C today where we live. At least that’s what the car thermometer said. I had to take the dogs to the vet for vaccinations and a couple other issues and that started at 4pm. We got in rather late due to some emergencies that took priority. It was okay aside from the nuisance the dogs were making of themselves. We finished up just around 5pm and I came home. As it was warm and I was in the right mood, I went out for a bike ride soon afterwards.
It was still kind of hot, so I took two bottles of water with me and put one in my backpack just in case. I got started easily enough and got out onto the bike paths near us. I found today was an easy ride. My heart rate was on the higher side but it wasn’t making me feel ill so I didn’t take any drastic measures to change it. I kept a steady pace all the way to my destination and didn’t struggle all that much with the hills tonight although it was a definite workout.
Once I arrived I parked my bike and went into the shopping center for a few minutes break. I had a banana I’d taken with me so had a bit of a snack and then made sure to drink all the water in one of the bottles. I hadn’t stopped at all along the way. Then I went to refill the water before setting off again. Unfortunately this took long enough that it was just about sunset by the time I got going again. I wasn’t too fussed as it still felt pleasant outside and the bike path is well lit until I get to my neighborhood (where it’s lit but not as well). It did serve as a reminder that I need to get a light installed.
The ride back was even better than the ride there. It was such easy exercise that I didn’t feel as though I was working all that hard. It’s really interesting how that happens some days and then others just the simplest ride can be so hard to get through. The temperature had dropped a bit once the sun set and I found myself riding through pockets of cooler air. But as I got closer to home there were pockets of warmer air that I was hitting. I did stop briefly to take a photo of the pretty night skies fairly early on in the ride back.
Pretty sky during ride home When I got home I was feeling pretty good. I think this sort of exercise releases those endorphins and I felt like they were really flowing tonight. Even hours later I’m still feeling pretty good.
Tomorrow is supposed to be a scorcher with possible high temperatures that we don’t get in November ever. Just another tick in the evidence of climate change, methinks.
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Just like that…
It’s already been two months since I posted. Sigh. In this time, I learned my new gp that I liked is leaving the practice in a month. :( I suspect she may be a registrar and is required to do stints at various practices along the way since she seems reasonably young. Well, anyway, I will have to seek another doctor to see on a regular basis.
It seems like I’m in to the doctor all the time at the moment. Lots of little things happening. I saw my gp for a regular visit and she was going to do my flu shot but then we both forgot. It may have been as well since I had cycled there and might not have felt comfortable riding afterwards…although I probably would have been fine. So I went in later in the week and did the vaccine. Then over the weekend I developed significant numbness in my left hand. I have had issues off and on for a while but it wasn’t constant. Anyway, by Monday it was enough I made an appointment again and saw a different gp as mine was off the next day.
That gp was fine although she seems really young and inexperienced. She seemed to think it might be a problem in my neck although she wasn’t sure. She sent me to the physio who also seemed to feel it was a neck issue but did some work with me and had me doing exercises at home. Then she referred me back to the gp for further examination after three visits where there was no improvement. I made an appointment to see my current gp as the one I’d seen previously had no appointments available until well into next week.
During this time I suddenly developed a hacking cough which got bad really quickly, enough it has been disturbing my sleep for several nights. Not to mention other members of the household. I thought it might be a reflux cough but using my medication for it didn’t make any change. Anyway, I decided I would mention it when I went back about the hand issues.
So today I arrived at the practice and had to wait nearly an hour. It was my luck the gp had a complicated situation with another patient and had to take a lot more time than usual. She did eventually call me back and she found she couldn’t read the notes the physio wrote but did a bunch of checks on my hand and several tests. This has been the case each time I’ve seen the doctor or physio. But almost all different tests. She thinks I may have a carpal tunnel issue and wasn’t keen to send me for CT scans or nerve testing. The latter requires a neurologist so I didn’t figure that would happen. She’s sent me to have an ultrasound of my wrist and we will take it from there.
As to the cough, she could clearly see I was coughing up sputum and she thinks it’s bronchitis and wrote a prescription for antibiotics. But she was in a bit of a hurry (I think I was her last patient) and I wonder about how likely bronchitis could be. There was no illness before the cough started and my lungs sounded clear when she listened. Even so, as I understand it, bronchitis is almost always a viral illness. So I don’t know what to think.
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Changes
When we first moved to Australia in 1994, I was halfway through my first pregnancy and started seeing a gp in the practice the Scientist’s family had been attending. I must admit it was a very odd experience seeing a doctor here. It was all much more relaxed and patients even would call the doctors by their first names sometimes. There were none of those paper gowns I’d grown up experiencing. When a gown was needed, it was cloth. And for the most part, there were none of those exceedingly long waits for the doctor to finally grace us with his or her presence. Initially we went to the same practice the Scientist’s family had been using. I went to the female gp, who was the wife of the one the Scientist had seen for years.
Eventually we switched to a practice closer to home and we were happy enough there for years. It went from a small practice with one or two doctors to a medium one a few years later with six or seven. We were still pretty satisfied there even though it was a lot busier. I’d had the mistake of going to the registrars a lot back then. I had several really good doctors but then they would shift to other practices or finish their training and I’d have to find someone else there. I did finally have a gp I saw regularly for ten or more years. I liked her a lot although I would never say I loved her. At some point I needed to see a doctor more urgently and found myself with a different gp and I really loved her. On top of that it was easier to get appointments with her and I could use online appointment apps to get them. It was all going quite well and then that doctor disappeared and I was back to square one. By this time the practice had moved into a purpose built structure and had become really large and sterile. It was all very modern but truly a sterile place. I moved around from one doctor to another the past couple of years but haven’t found anyone I was really comfortable with. My previous gp had gone on maternity leave and come back to a lower patient load. I had discovered by accident that the doctor I’d really liked had started at another practice a bit further away. I had almost made an appointment there and done the extra travel but then I found she wasn’t taking new patients. And then more recently I found she was no longer at that practice but now at another one and I pondered what reasons for another change could be. I decided it was for the best I hadn’t tried to follow her in the end since this could be a regular problem. Anyway…
The Scientist and I talked from time to time about changing to a new practice for various reasons. The problem is finding one we would like. Also, it’s hard to leave a place we’d been using for over twenty years. The Scientist had been really ready to jump ship well before me but last year some major medical issues came up and that was put on hold. Meanwhile I had been trying out different doctors to see if I could find a good fit. It just wasn’t happening with anyone I was seeing.
In the past year or two, my diabetes management hasn’t been all that great. I ended up on medication for the first time when diet and exercise weren’t enough. I won’t say I was doing everything perfectly but even at best I still was struggling to keep my blood sugar in range. I had seen one gp who was supposed to be good with weight issues and diabetes. In some ways I liked her but I wasn’t totally comfortable. The last time I saw her she told me we’d have to look at insulin should things not improve after a few months.
So what happened is I was up and down on doing things right and I procrastinated a lot. And then recently I decided to seriously look at other doctors and see where I could go. Finding sources of ratings wasn’t easy but I did find a few and looked at one place that’s a bit of a drive (compared to a local one) and then stumbled on a practice that’s in the next suburb. Turns out all the doctors seem to be female, whether by design or not, I’m not sure. One of them listed herself as having a wife and there’s another doctor there with the same surname so I suspect that is the wife. It’s always nerve-wracking trying to decide on which doctor to try just by reading what’s listed online. In words the doctor sounds great but you really can’t be sure if you will find a good connection. Anyway, I need a new prescription for my diabetes meds so made a choice and went in yesterday.
At first I was a bit put off when the receptionist made a point of reminding me it was a private billing practice so there would be out-of-pocket expenses. It wasn’t that this was the case but the way it was said that bothered me. I was fine with it and said so then filled out the paperwork and waited. I didn’t get called back right on time but it wasn’t long after. The doctor I’d chosen is originally from Germany but has been in Australia over twenty years. I was expecting a European accent but instead she sounded more like someone from the UK, maybe Scottish or Irish…weird.
Anyway, she started off by apologising that she’d need to go out at some point as there was some sort of urgent situation she needed to attend. But she said she didn’t want to keep me waiting so had brought me in to get started. She was really good and went over my medical history and covered heaps of information. In the middle she did have to go out but she again apologised when she returned and again at the end.
With regard to my diabetes I did admit to procrastinating about following up on blood work from before. I mentioned I’d been put under threat of insulin but had been up and down in my efforts at improving my diet and exercise. Anyway, she told me that it wasn’t about whether I was doing well or not, I needed to follow up and get treatment. She also pointed out that there was lots more we could try before insulin. I do feel the previous doctor was using scare tactics…but I guess that didn’t work. She asked if my meds were time release or not and I didn’t know but assumed not since I was taking it multiple times a day. She went on to say that most patients do better with the time release. I wondered why this was never mentioned before. The other thing about time release is that it’s easier on the stomach which also means it possibly would help decrease irritable bowel issues. I again wondered why this wasn’t mentioned before. She also made a point of showing me how the fact I don’t smoke makes a huge different on my cardiovascular risk and how I shouldn’t focus on what I’m doing wrong all the time. She made a lot of good points which made me feel better about my efforts or lack of efforts…which just made me feel better in general.
I left that appointment feeling like I surely made the right decision to start anew. And I kind of wish I’d done this years ago.
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Menopause
Or should I say not yet…
I have an app on my phone where I keep track of my menstrual cycles. I’ve been using the same app for years and had pretty good records of it all. Then my phone kind of died in June or July and Apple replaced my phone and I lost the data. (I did have the option to do backups and I used to do them but hadn’t lately.)
I hadn’t had a proper period all year. I’m pretty sure the last one was in December last year but I wasn’t totally sure. I had a bit of spotting one day in March but didn’t count that at all. My period had been showing up about every two months most of last year and I thought maybe they had just come to a stop. Anyway, I had gone all year and I said to the Scientist just a few days ago that I was going to be pretty annoyed if I had gone all this time and then had another period.
Well, I came home from tai chi tonight and went to the toilet and guess what I discovered? The really bad part of this is I have no idea what to expect this time since it’s been so long. I did notice some breast tenderness a couple days ago but shrugged it off at the time. That must have been a bit of mild PMS.
Although I felt a bit sad about reaching menopause, I had come to some acceptance of it. But now the counting starts again. One small plus is I will now have a date to count from. And I will back up my data regularly this time. :)
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Revisiting purple
The last time I’d gotten my hair done was at the end of October, just before I went home for my holiday. Earlier this month I noted it was looking a lot greyer than it has in close to a year and I decided it might be good to get it done before my birthday. I managed to squeeze in an appointment the Tuesday beforehand and I went to the hair salon in our closest shopping center. This place is run by the same person who runs the place I’ve gone the last few times and the pricing is pretty much the same but it’s a smaller shop.
This time I got the actual owner of the place and when I asked to get my hair colour in purple, she didn’t give me any fuss. This is different than the two male hairdressers I’d been to at the other shop. The first one steered me away from purple for some reason. The second one seemed to think it wasn’t a good idea and pushed for me to just stick to the colour I already had. So I guess this was progress in the end.
The hairdresser was quite friendly and she did her work in a reasonable time. I didn’t have my glasses on while she was working so I really couldn’t see the colour until the very end. She kept telling me it would look more purple once it dried but I really couldn’t see it enough to judge a colour. Anyway it came out darker than it’s been and the purple isn’t terribly obvious but it is visible, especially when in the sun and good light. And again it makes me look a lot younger than my 53 years. I think the ridding of the grey is the big part of it. I really like this colour and plan to get a touch up before we go on our trip to Thailand in May to keep the roots looking decent. The colour also seems to match my glasses frames so I think it works out. Too bad I didn’t get her to do my eyebrows…lol.
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Aqua class
I ended up- taking part in the aqua aerobics class with my “client” tonight instead of just swimming. There are various reasons I did this, some related to this guy but I decided I would give it a try after a long time.
I think last time I did the class I was terribly unfit and found it exhausting. It was a different teacher, though, so perhaps it was a more rigorous class too. Tonight it was just about too easy. I didn’t feel like my heart rate increased all that much and I wasn’t all that tired at the end. The only benefit I seemed to gain was from the water weights workout, which did give me a bit of challenge. I think my upper arms will be sore tomorrow since I’ve not used the weights in the water before…or at least in a long time.
I will probably go back to doing mostly swimming while the “client” is doing the class. I think it’s also easier to keep watch on him that way than when I am trying to concentrate on the exercises at the same time. Also the thing I really don’t like about the classes is that there are inevitably sets of exercises that I get totally messed up on and don’t follow the pattern. I know it’s not a big deal but it bugs me enough to put me off doing them. Especially when it’s not the same routine all the time. It’s even worse when I do aerobics classes…not that I do them…but I have tried ones of video and found I was hopeless at keeping up without heaps of practice. LOL
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Swimming
I get into the pool for free at least a couple of times a week due to my work as a carer. My client does the aqua aerobics class regularly and I have taken lately to walking and swimming while he’s occupied. I do this in the lanes next to the classes so I can keep an eye on his. Some carers stay right next to the clients for almost everything but I find this causes my client to become too dependent on me. Also I find it easier to keep a watch outside of the class. Anyway, I do keep busy while he’s busy, either with him or nearby.
Initially I was mostly just doing lots of aqua walking and that was good. But in more recent weeks I’ve started swimming, or what I consider my close approximation of swimming. I don’t use the proper strokes all the time but I am kind of close. I never learned to swim properly so really need to take a class to learn proper breathing and the proper strokes but I am reasonably competent at moving the water now. Just a bit slow.
The swimming sort of evolved from some movements I was doing in the water with my arms and added the feet along with it. Seems they turned into actual swimming even though I was doing most of the movement in the walking lane. I’ve been working on building up some stamina while swimming and have gotten a lot faster on some of the strokes. I hadn’t been timing my swims but tonight I started seeing how long it took me to swim the length of the pool (25m). The first time I checked I was over a minute but when I put more effort in I would get faster and I had several laps where I managed to get there in about 45 seconds. I was kind of impressed with my progress. I couldn’t sustain this for too long. I might start out going at a good pace but could sustain it for the full 25 m. I guess I started to flag around the last third so I’d end up taking over a minute in the end. Still it feels good to make some progress. My aim isn’t to become particularly fast but enough to feel like I’m not in the way of other swimmers.
My Apple watch updated its system recently and the activity app changed a few things so that it now is able to distinguish strokes while swimming. It doesn’t recognise my butterfly but it does get the other ones right most of the time. Plus it records how fast I got and how long I rest and all sort of interesting information Who knew this watch would be so cool. I don’t regret the purchase at all. :)
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Fitness
I think I posted that in June I had a nasty respiratory infection that affected me pretty badly for nearly two weeks and then lingered on as a nagging cough for weeks after that. Until that point I’d been keeping to some good exercise and eating habits and I was fitting into smaller-sized clothes again. I tried to keep up the exercise even when sick but my body was determined to rest and so I had to get back on track. I thought I had got back on track in July but I couldn’t quite keep going and kept relapsing into bad habits and an inclination to doing very little activity. I suspect some of this was related to the usual winter malaise that hangs over me.
I finally got going again a few weeks ago and can happily say I’ve been on track since then. I mostly work with my Apple watch activity monitor and try to increase that every week. I do take one day off each week, the day I have tai chi. I still get some exercise but it’s a it’s not enough to meet daily requirements. Well that could happen some of the time but I am not making any special efforts towards it at the moment. I am keeping it truly as a rest day.
I really do feel it’s a mental battle on some days to force myself to get the minimum of exercise. But I find it easier to win that battle when I keep up than when I get lazy. I guess it provides a bit of momentum. It’s much harder when illness kicks in and makes you stop for long periods of time.