New Skill

I learnt something amazing today.

I learnt to strap my knee cap back into place :)

Ok so you might not think its amazing but to me a big WOW.

It does not mean that I stop the exercises because the ultimate aim is to get the muscles working properly so my knee caps sit and glide where they are meant to (currently they resemble a derailing trains - but having floating knee caps is great at keeping Mr Mouse in line because they freak him out).

Any way it does mean that when they hurt I can finally get some relief. I have tried soooo many supports in the past and all they seem to do is not fit and make it worse. They assume that your knee caps are in the right place so for me big (expensive) fail. A little tape wow.

My very own magic roll has been ordered and is already winging its way to me.

Today was also the last day of my pain management and back course - I have my flare up plan written and actually feel good. I know its still a long road to go I cant slip up on the exercises. But I can do more. It was also my last free session at the gym - I never thought getting back into a gym was possible with all my injuries. I know to go slow and learning to pace. A few weeks ago when we were first let loose it was like oooh I can do this I feel fine and I forgot about my ME - I did a half hour session - the post exertional malaise was a killer I was ready to give up. But with support and the magic pacing word I have stripped it down to 15 minutes that I can do and I know that slowly I will be able to increase this to 30 minutes - so go team Mouse. Just one problem I cant afford to go to the gym :( But my local council does health referrals - not free but discounted - not forever - but hopefully enough time to get the job issue sorted. Just waiting for it to come through, in the mean time I stretch and walk.

But although it was my last session its not the end - they are at the end of the phone and at drop in sessions if I need help. They also do a follow up.

Something that I have realised doing this is that I have actually made a lot of compromises on my life to work full time. Working full time means I have no energy to do anything else - sure I can continue to do the sewing, drawing etc but if I have no energy for the exercise then viscous circle right back to where I started. So I need to evaluate and maybe consider the benefits of reducing my hours permanently - well unless they fire me first.

But getting help and support to fight my corner.