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Walk in the park
Like most Wednesdays, I went for an hour walk in a park near where G (the guy I am a carer for) lives. I was a bit unsure whether it was a good idea to risk a walk because we’d had rain from mid-morning onwards. In the end it was just fine and no further rain reached me at all. I managed to go pretty fast today, with my first lap (kilometre) at 10.5 minutes and another of the laps was under ten minutes. The only time my laps went too long were when I stopped to take photos so I was keeping a good pace today.
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There were kangaroos
It’s been a long and anxiety-filled nightmare of a day. I know I’m among many around the world feeling the same and I guess there is some comfort in not being the only one. But it really was difficult. I think for the first time all the networks here had rolling coverage throughout the morning and into the afternoon. I don’t normally watch television much during the day but it was hard to break away from. The Scientist sent me off to refill a prescription in late morning and it was a case of taking up way too little time. When I returned I made the decision to get out of the house and away from media as much as possible. My destination was our local Whiteman Park to do a long bit of walking while listening to music on my phone.
This should have been simple enough but I realised just about the time I reached the entrance to the park that I’d left my earphones at home. I often can zone out while walking so the only course of action was to return home and retrieve the earphones. It’s not that it’s far away but it’s tedious to take the time to do that trip again. Just before noon I arrived at the park and found decent parking without having to weave through the many parking lots around the village centre. Once there I applied sunscreen and then set off. I realise it would have been more effective to do the sunscreen at home but better late than not at all.
My walk was on the longest trail, which as a short and long version. I’d done the short version, albeit in a long way (after taking a wrong turn) on Saturday but today I wanted to do a lot of walking. For the most part the walk wasn’t eventful. took along my camera and took lots of photos and listened to music. I tried to listen to a Crowded House album that I find pretty soothing to hear. Sadly I just wasn’t able to zone out even though the music was pleasing when I wasn’t distracted by angry thoughts. Once that finished I moved to an Augie March album that I’ve been listening too regularly on walks. It’s got some amazingly beautiful music but the subject matter can be rather unsettling. It’s an interesting juxtaposition. Strangely I found this music worked a lot better for me and the album runs over an hour so it kept me going for longer.
But despite the improvement the effect of music on my nerves, I was still quite agitated and often found myself in various states of mind that unpleasant. My stomach had been churning all this time and I’d been unable to eat anything all day. Still I didn’t feel hungry and I wasn’t even tired from walking after several kilometres.
A brief relief came when I came across some kangaroos near the Kangaroo Flats station on the park’s railway line. At first I only saw a couple but there were actually at least half a dozen within my sights. I even managed to take several photos and my trouble thought escaped for that minute or two that I was there. It was a rather blessed relief in a sense to feel the weight lifted.
The rest of the walk was fairly uneventful. I finished one trail and then went down another pathway to another part of the park. In the end I walked over nine kilometres and still didn’t feel very weary at the end of it aside from a bit of discomfort on the ball of my foot which was already irritated by too much friction on another walk.
I did eventually get a sort of appetite after forcing myself to eat a few nuts I keep in the car for emergency purpose (hunger sickness). And now it’s late at night again and I don’t even feel all that sleepy even though I got very little sleep last night. Hopefully I will be tired enough to sleep anyway tonight.
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Mild sprain/strain?
Monday afternoon/evening is when we do our tai chi fan and regular tai chi class. The Scientist and I have “learned” all the fan moves now so we are working on refining and consolidating skills. For me it’s a lot more of continuing to properly learn moves and some of the refinement. The class went really well yesterday and I was in a good rhythm for starting the tai chi class.
The regular class started out well enough with a good warm-up (second one since we also did one for the fan class) and then shiboshi set (set of 18 moves done together). After that we practiced tai chi stances and that also started off okay but at some point I landed on my foot wrong and my ankle started giving me trouble. I thought it would work it’s way out and tried a couple times to do some of the later activities but I ended up mostly watching and resting my ankle. It’s nothing really horrible so I am assuming it’s something like a very mild sprain.
I iced my ankle and kept it elevated last night and it was much better this morning even though I woke up to minor aches and pains during the night. Today it seemed okay to walk on and I was good for most of a moderate walk this afternoon. After that it was irritated again and I decided against trying to use the spin bike this evening. My new plan is to use the bike tomorrow before I go out and stay off my feet as much as possible.
Really, though, I have to laugh at the idea of spraining an ankle while doing a “gentle” exercise like tai chi. :DÂ It is a gentle exercise but definitely not immune from injury, which is part of the reason for doing warm ups…I just need to be more careful about my tai chi stances, I guess.
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Bicycle
Two or three weeks ago, I discovered the chain on my bike had completely dried out and was showing signs of rust. It was a particularly wet winter this year so I guess that may have contributed also. My bicycle is over ten years old and it rides reasonably well but it does squeak a lot, even after it’s been serviced. It’s also showing signs of rust on the body. Not terrible shape but could be better.
This bike wasn’t all that expensive although it wasn’t a cheap one either. I started to consider the value of a getting a new bike versus the cost of service and repairs. I have been looking around at the costs of bicycles lately and the first thing I discovered is the price hasn’t gone up as much as I expected. Also there are lot more casual bikes available and those are pretty much the same price as what I have. The only drawback I’ve found is they don’t have that many gears, seven being the highest on the ones I’ve seen. While I have never used all 21 gears on my current one, I do often use the second set of seven. But then I haven’t used them all that much lately. I probably could get by with the limited gears and I’d gain a rack on the back for storing packages plus a basket at the front. I have a basket already but it doesn’t hold all that much, which makes the idea of cycling to the shops less practical if I can only carry limited amounts of goods. This option really expands the amount of shopping I can bring back. Not to mention it allows more space if I take my camera along for the ride.
I found a model that I like quite a bit so my plan is to put aside money over the next few months and buy it once I’ve reached my goal. Meanwhile I have taken my bike to a local, independently run shop for a service and to see if the chain needs to be replaced. It’s interesting that this small shop charges a far more reasonable price than any of the bigger stores around. I rode the bike to the shop yesterday and walked back. It took me about 45 minutes to walk less than three kilometres which was pretty slow for me. A kilometre is usually about 11,5 minutes to start with and often goes down to 10 minutes when I’ve built up to a good pace.
On Sunday, I managed to walk 12 kms in just over two hours, which was a pretty good time for that distance. Also, it’s quite a bit longer than my usual walk. I normally walk from 6-8 kms at most so this was a bit of a stretch. My feet were pretty sore after that walk and my body was till a bit achy yesterday when I cycled, walked and then did 90 minutes of tai chi and tai chi fan. Some of my muscles were really feeling it when I got home last night.
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Crowned
Last week I had my permanent crown installed. It turns out the tooth I thought was getting a crown only had a filling replaced and the crown was the same side but upper jaw instead. At first I thought the lower tooth was better with regard to the food getting stuck. Today I think it’s as bad as ever and I don’t know why this is such a problem area if it wasn’t the tooth that was broken. There’s a part of me worried that it was supposed to be the lower tooth that was crowned and a mistake has been made. I would like to think that surely wouldn’t have happened and he’d have noticed the problem. The crown itself is fine. It feels rather odd at the moment but I guess I will get used it.
Last week I was also plagued with issues related to menopause. There were about 2.5 months between one period and the next so it was another of those ones that seemed to make up for the missed one and then some. Fortunately this one didn’t go on so long as the bad one last year. Still I should be taking those iron tablets and I have been slack since things settled down. This was the direct follow on from the sore throat/cold/cough that had hit the family the week before. I still have a bit of the cough but it’s not a constant thing.
I became a great-aunt last week when my nephew and his wife had a baby boy. He’s a cute little fellow and seems to be getting heaps of attention. It was an interesting case of lots of us keeping up with the progress of things via Facebook because the wife had been updating until she was induced and then my nephew kept a log during the labor. Now it seems to be back to the wife to keep track of everything.
After a bit of a break or a lapse in commitment, I have been working on a few MOOCs again. This time all three are on edX and all three are sort of biology/human body related. The one that got me going again is one about the anatomy of the upper limb. I did this course on Coursera a couple years ago and liked it. They have moved to the different platform for some reason and I have started it again. I’m enjoying it just as much as I did last time. I am pleased to remember quite a few bits but then there is plenty I have forgotten. Most of my time is spent watching videos on this one so that’s okay. There are two others that are self-paced, which works a bit better for me. One is an into biology course which I started once before but didn’t continue due to other factors at the time. It’s a fairly long course but the instructor is quite enjoyable and I think I will learn more this time around. The other is a human cell biology unit fhat’s done at an Australian university. This covers some of the stuff not included in the biology unit. My goal is to understand enough to try out the immunology courses there, which are also enjoyable. I just need to understand some of the basic processed better. It’s all quite a fascinating study for me, which wouldn’t have been the case back when I really was a student.
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Costly morning
I had the “pleasure” of sitting in the dentist chair for 90 minutes today while having a filling replaced along with the really exciting crown made for a broken tooth. I’d put off the crown from my previous regular check up due to some tight finances at the time. While our finances aren’t exactly rosy right now, there was no way to put it off any longer due to food constantly getting stuck in the broken tooth.
The first fun was having the anaesthetic injection. Not sure if it was the first or second injection that hurt going in but it wasn’t pleasant. Then further along I had another injection for the lower jaw and needed yet another before the work on the crown could progress because the numbness didn’t spread quite as far as it should have. Of course now it’s an hour after I finished and the numbness has really set in the last area.
After the numbing was the contraption to keep my mouth open. Just totally awkward all around, possibly more so in the non-numbed area since I could experience the full discomfort there. But to add insult, I was expected to open and close my mouth to varying degrees anyway. I don’t think I had this done when I had my root canal years ago although I’m sure there was something used to open up the mouth. Anyway, The work is finished and we are hundreds of dollars poorer, even after the insurance kicks in. I go back in two weeks to insert the permanent crown.
I will add that the dentist did give a discount to the service today and I’m not totally sure why. The only reason I could consider is I was asked to rinse my mouth and spit and ended up with water all over my clothes due to the combined effects of contraption and numbness. It did dry up by the time I left and I wasn’t that fussed about it…mostly a bit embarrassed at the time.
Our doctor’s office is in the same building as the dentist so I stopped in there to check on a new prescription for some medication that I’d requested online. I asked for it a couple of days ago but hadn’t heard anything so thought it easy enough to check while there, numbness aside. Turns out I needed to see a doctor for that particular medication. The receptionist had said I could get in to see another gp shortly and had me sit down. But happily my recent doctor was free and had me come in immediately and wrote my prescription out. No charge for the visit either. I really do like this doctor a lot. And I can make appointments online. I do fear she is going to become so popular that she’ll stop seeing new patients and I will end up in the situation of having to phone in each time again.
Funnily enough I went to the pharmacy straight afterwards and the lady who took the script from me was rhapsodising about the same doctor. I really should fear her becoming too popular. :)
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Cough, cough, cough
Game Fanatic is still coughing badly. I took him to see a doctor for the third time this morning. The appointment started out as mine because my sore throat didn’t seem to be improving after over a week or so. It now seems to be improving and swallowing isn’t as uncomfortable as it was. I didn’t know this for sure when I changed it online last night but I must be getting better. I still have my own cough happening but it’s early days and post-viral coughs do sometimes go on for ages. This is especially true this year.
I didn’t think a 10am appointment would be an issue for Game Fanatic but I had to almost drag him from bed to the doctor. He did get up but it was slow going for quite a while. The doctor is the same one I’ve seen the last few times and she was pretty thorough at checking him out. One of his ears is pretty red and blocked and she couldn’t see the other eardrum due to wax. It’s hard to tell about his lungs because he didn’t breathe in deeply enough for her to hear properly. I think he was worried it would start off a coughing fit. He probably wasn’t wrong. I suspect his lungs were okay since that was the case the first time he was in to see a doctor. So we have a script for another antibiotic but she thinks (and I agree) that it’s most likely viral and will be useless. But it’s there should he get worse and need it. I assume that’s more about the ear than the cough since the cough is already pretty awful. Also, he’s supposed to take Vitamin D supplements as his was low when tested earlier in the year. I don’t recall mention of this before but maybe I have forgotten…that does seem to happen to me sometimes these days. Sigh. Ideally more sun would be most beneficial.
I happened to mention my cough which started from a sore throat and she said that the coughs she’s been seeing haven’t been connected with sore throats this year. I guess I get to be different. :D
Lego Lover seems to have missed out on any cough or cold this year. At least that’s the case so far. He seems to have gotten the breathing difficulties out of the way earlier in life and hasn’t had any asthma issues in years. In fact, that boy has been pretty healthy for several years despite his poor diet and exercise.
Funny that the first of the month is considered the first day of spring here and it’s been pretty chilly. Tuesday night the temperature dipped almost to freezing in the night and the day time temperatures didn’t get that high either. This is all after a somewhat mild winder overall. We’ve had quite a bit of rain lately so I imagine the spring allergies are going to be loads of fun this season.
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Possible new doctor?
Last week I discovered I was out of the thyroxine I take for my low thyroid so I stopped in to my doctor’s office to make an appointment. My regular gp is away until later this month but the receptionist offered to book me in with another doctor who just happened to have an appointment available about an hour later.
Usually I am underwhelmed or totally uncomfortable with seeing a different doctor but this time I felt quite at ease early on. She actually looked at my notes and checked on a number of things, including the fact I hadn’t gotten around to having my blood tests since I last saw my usual doctor. So she wrote out a new request and then she attended to a query I had about some new foot pain in the past few weeks. She sent me off for an x-ray and I saw her again today for a follow up. The x-ray doesn’t show any issues with the area of the foot in pain so I will be seeing a podiatrist next month to follow up.
It seems my iron stores haven’t actually recovered from the problems I had last year. So I get to go back on iron tablets for a while. I still have some from last year so I might try taking them on alternate days and see if that helps.
It seems my good cholesterol levels are also too low so I also need to find ways of getting that sorted in my diet. She suggested fish oil capsules but I don’t really like them so will look at alternatives, especially getting more of the right stuff in my diet.
This new doctor is close to my age and she seems to be able to identify a lot more with the sorts of issues I am going through in these perimenopausal years. This isn’t to say I don’t like my regular doctor but maybe it’s time to mix it up a bit and try someone new. A bonus would be that I can make appointments online for this one where I can’t for my regular gp. The online system doesn’t seem to have a way to identify patients with doctors who are no longer taking new patients so I still have to phone up for appointments instead of making them in the middle of the night when I am thinking about it. D
Oh and she is also going to have me do an ECG tomorrow just because of family history of heart issues and my cholesterol being less than ideal right now.
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Hot flash?
I think I may have experienced my first hot flash last night. I was sitting on the sofa with the Scientist last night and suddenly felt really overheated. Our weather has been a bit warm and chilly lately so I asked him if he was feeling warm and he wasn’t. I don’t think the feeling lasted all that long although I’m not really sure as I must have got distracted by something else soon afterwards. Which leads me to think it didn’t last long since I was really uncomfortably warm. So possibly this was my first hot flash. I have heard I would know it if I had one but I can’t be definite that’s what this was. So maybe it wasn’t after all. Or perhaps it’s highly subjective.
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Fitness reboot
During the last quarter of last year, I really slacked off on the exercise and, subsequently, on a reasonable diet. I’d probably been drifting in this direction before but once my iron levels became low, I used it too much as an excuse to avoid exercise. It’s a domino effect when it happens and by the end of the year, I had become fairly unfit and all the improvements accumulated over a couple of years seemed to be undone.
In December I was quite conscious of the need to get going again but the holiday season makes it really difficult. I decided to wait until after the holiday period and start anew. I’d already had the experience of really struggling to keep up with the Scientist when we were out and about. He does walk pretty quickly but I used to be able to almost keep up. : ) At this point I was absolutely exhausted within a short time. Anyway, about week to ten days into the year, I finally got back into some serious exercise. I started out with a target of doing exercise 3-4 times a week and increased the number of days to five once I regained a bit of fitness.
Several weeks later and I am not quite back to my former fitness but I am pretty close and I am back to riding the bike and getting out and about on foot in the area. Last week I stopped in at the shop where I bought the bike over a decade ago and bought a new seat and drink holder. The old seat was in pretty bad shape and I finished many rides with more discomfort than I felt was absolutely necessary. Yesterday I returned for the bike to be serviced and to get tires and brake pads replaced. I’m happy to report I picked it up today and it was riding so much better.
It also helped a bit with my confidence while riding. As much as I enjoy cycling, I’ve always been a bit too nervous to ride properly on the road very much and tend to stick to dual use paths most of the time. This just makes it feel more secure while riding…mainly less likely to fly over the handlebars or fall on the road or anything like that.
I was also pleased when riding my bike to the shop yesterday that I can again climb certain hills without having to dismount and walk the bike uphill. The fitness is coming back and I just need to stick to my routines and keep an eye on my eating.