Taking it easy?

This is my first blip since my surgery for bowel cancer. The surgery went well and the tumour has been removed with a section of my bowel and then reconnected. To allow the new joint to heal properly without risk of leakage, a temporary ileostomy was created, which means that I have to wear a bag attached to my abdomen to collect body waste. Sounds woful but I am surprised at how easily I have adapted to it. As with any major surgery, it has made my body extremely weak and I have very little energy but that is already improving through taking light exercise.

I got a call today from the colorectal specialist nurse who asked how I was getting on and was I walking. I responded positively but when she said how much walking are you doing, e.g. are you going shopping or such like, I said that I had only really been walking close to home and out at garden centres. To gauge how much I was doing, she asked am I doing 5-10 minute spells or half an hour. Knowing that I have been repeatedly warned to take it easy, I saw this as something of a trick question and I proudly pronounced that it was closer to the 5-10 minute range. Talk about mixed messages, as she said I need to be building up to longer walks, as if I had been slacking. She suggested trying 7 minutes today and then 10 minutes tomorrow, etc. Well this is music to my ears as I feel that I have been held back by the advice and could do more.

So this afternoon, we went out to Wrest Park to give the kids the chance to have a run around and let of some steam. I knew that I would have to do just a little bit of the walk but in the end I walked for over an hour with only a ten minute sit down in the middle. And she said build up to 7 minutes today …..

Onward and upward at a sensible pace I say.

Back-blipped on 11th September 2014