Week 5 – Feeling stronger

Learning Points …

Turned out to be a “quiet” week in the end. I hadn’t set myself too stretching targets for the week, so I wasn’t too disappointed by failing to meet them. 🙂 So what did I achieve?

I spent a fair bit of Monday looking after myself which was satisfying and confidence-raising. As ever, I didn’t have to think about preparing food because Jenny had done that for me – she’s been so attentive to my needs even when she’s had to have her mind on her own hospital appointments. We went out in the camper van one afternoon – just to exercise it; did a little walking around shops – as the weather wasn’t that encouraging for outdoor walking; sampled the new coffee shop in the village – first impressions, good; and the highlight for me was having lunch with TW at the Black Griffin in Lisvane with a quick bus-ride back home.

Other than that we set-up new mobile phone contracts with O2 and I arranged PAC codes to move away from Orange – for the first time ever we’ll be able to use mobile phones INSIDE our house, instead of running upstairs, into the garden, or into the street. I can recommend enforced home-rest for the purpose of “sorting things out”. Think we’ll be saving money in the long-run, but at least we should be seeing service-improvement and a rationalisation of service-providers as a result. I’ve also been helping friends with recommendations for home networking and pre-Christmas PC purchases which (on the back of the project I’d been doing anyway for our own set-up) was fun! Next week I really must order the new PC – that’ll be a good project to keep me busy when the weather outside is grim.

Health-wise, everything seems to be knitting together well. I saw Dr E on Thursday and am signed-off for another 4 weeks. The next important date is December 1st, when I see Mr K at The Heath. I also know now that my cardiac rehabilitation starts on December 7th – I hope that’s not too rude an awakening to my body and it’s current lack of fitness. 🙁

Family-wise, the week finished on a high with a trip down to see my mother and also my sister who travelled across to spend time with us. Great to see them both. Really so grateful to Jenny for driving us down; she must be very tired!

So what have I actually learnt this week:

1. Practically, I’ve reviewed my medication both with my GP and the Pharmacist (I was called-in to have a Medicine Use Review when I dropped a prescription in). I’m happy with what I’m taking and will be well prepared to discuss that with the consultants when I meet with them. That’s important because I don’t want to be passive and just take the pills without questionning whether I need them, or not.
2. “Lord of the Rings” is worth watching, but was better with a year or so between each part! I got bored with the battle scenes, and annoyed with some of the “story-telling”. Good film, but nowhere as good as the book.
3. It is important to do things for yourself as soon as you can, and as soon as you feel confident of being able to do them. That doesn’t extend (yet) to driving – I won’t be even thinking of doing that for another couple of weeks – but taking control back of some things is vital to your recovery. So, the fish in the pond and the wild birds in the garden are pleased to see me back and looking after their feeding needs.

Hopes and fears for Week 6 – I’m finding it hard to think of any. I’ve fallen into a new routine. I recognise that I DO get tired, and now accept it. That’s not to say that I rest as much as I should, but I’m getting better in that respect. The “impatient” is becoming a bit more “patient”. So … no new hopes and fears, is that good, or bad?

Objectives – I’m looking forward to going out on Monday evening to meet-up with UK-FAM colleagues from JISC and universities. Otherwise the week looks a bit “thin”. So I must get some serious exercise, and balance that with some real rest so that I’m looking in good form when I go back to UHW the following week. Also … I suspect I’ve got no excuse for not getting Christmas preparations started and for starting to move the back-log of reading that’s piling-up.