Update November 2022

 Progress report


No progress to report!  I got ill at the end of September with a nasty cough (but still tested negative for Covid!).  I got better and began running only to immediately feel ill again.  I'm prone to this - doing too much too soon and then getting long lingering viral thingies!

 I then had a lovely holiday in Naples and Capri - oh I so love Italy - and came back and began training sensibly.  Obviously, not sensible enough as by early November I felt ill again.  It lasted all week and then the following weekend I was hiking on the cliffs in Norfolk (yes, there are quite high cliffs in Norfolk) and feeling awful, just all dosed up on Paracetamol - never a good idea to mask the symptoms and push through for my body.

So then it took another week to recuperate by which time I was only a few days away from my nose op (see last post) and so I decided to play safe and rest so I wouldn't get ill again and have to miss the op.  I also was suffering with an unusual lack of motivation - I suppose that is to be expected - knowing I'd been ill off and on for six weeks and I would now need more time off to recover from the op.  At least the crushing depression I had in September had gone - feeling fed-up I can deal with, but that sense of paralysing gloom and attendant lethargy I didn't like one little bit.  Gosh, I pity anyone who has to live with that for long periods of time - mine lasted 2-3 weeks and it was awful. 

So the nose operation was done five days ago.  I felt far worse than I remembered from having it done on previous occassions, yet checking old training diaries reveaed that I had said that after every other operation too!

 I was a bit shocked, and disappointed, to be told (but only because I asked) that I could not run etc for TWO weeks.  I didn't dare tell the surgeon that on other occasions, after the same operation, I had been cycling after two days, hiking and rowing after three days and running after four!  Plus a long mountain bike ride on the fifth day.  May explain why it didn't work well!  Oooops.

So no exercise, no bending, no lifting and no work!  Another two weeks off sick - my employer must HATE me!

But, but but then my comeback (latest comeback) will commence, slowly and carefully.My new running orthotics are ready to be collected this week and then another nine days of rest and a gentle return to action.

In fact, I began carefully yesterday with a 2.5 mile walk.  I've also been doing a ton of physio the podiatrist gave me - seems that three years of disrupted life and many months of just sitting have left me hunched over, not firing my gluteals and generally having poor muscle tone.  So I'm working to correct that - and hopefully that will stop the knee pain I got as soon as I started running before.

Onwards and Upwards.  Neither Afib nor HHT is gonna stop me.  Speak soon xx

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