I’ve had a couple of weeks now where, with mother and parents in law visiting and hubby taking some time off work, I’ve actually got beyond these 4 walls and garden. It’s been lovely to be out and doing something else. It has been very, very tiring though – much more than I would have expected, especially when doing something I really wanted to do and enjoyed.
We haven’t travelled far to visit places – always within an hour to hour and a half from home. Following the week with my mother when she needed the wheelchair and the Bristol day – my first longish walk where I was in so much pain, my husband has found it easier to put me in the wheelchair for us all to get about. This way we are not always wondering if we can just manage to go a bit further on a walk, or see something else, and apparently it seems they all think I walk too slowly!
The chair is fine, but people do have a terrible habit of suddenly walking across your path or stopping in front of you as though you and the person pushing you are not there. There are still too many places where it is fortunate that I could get out and manage a few steps while my husband carried the chair – a car park in Cardiff Bay being the most notable example, because anyone unable to walk would simply not be able to get out and down.
It’s also very interesting on bumpy ground. All those apparently accessible places which are beautifully decorated with cobbles – Birmingham Brindley Place, for example and again Cardiff Bay. The trickiest place was Kenilworth Castle, although given its age I think it might be forgiven!
… And Warwick where The Castle Keep bistro continually puts tables and chairs outside its doors in the designated disabled parking space. This time people were sitting in it. Last time the staff actually asked us how long we would be parking there as they didn’t think there would be enough space for their customers to sit out – blocking both pavement and parking space.
Today I drove for the first time and took myself to my next pre op appointment. I also took my son to his golf lesson and social group. I have a saggy right buttock and thigh now from swelling and am shattered 🙂 Oh joy!
… And to think I have all this to look forward to again 4 weeks from today. Although, as my husband points out – however I feel, in 13 weeks I will be back where I am now – and 13 weeks is not such a long time.
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