Movement

I’ve found through a bit of research that it’s important to keep moving if you have Parkinsons disease. So I wobble and shake my way along to the shops or to the pharmacy and back. Trying to get my slow steps in. I have looked at my movement counter but although I’m almost always getting a couple of thousand of steps in every day my heart rate barely registers!

What to do? Then someone from my surgery suggested a Parkinsons group that does table tennis (ping pong). I’d played this on the dining table at home as a young teenager and thought I’d have a go. My worker from the surgery came down to introduce me to the group a week ago. I needed that support because I find it hard to integrate with new people because of anxiety.

So..  I went, and found that I can hit a ping pong ball across a net! I was getting my feet tangled a bit and sort of felt rather static. But I could do it. I went back this week and I’m happy I can progress. I’m going to keep going. It’s only a fortnightly thing, but I hope it will be good for me. I ache in places I didn’t know I have though!

Short walk today

I was busy today and when I got in I was too tired to go out and walk so this depiction of the month shows how little I’ve done today. I guess sometimes you just have to have a rest. So I will walk around our house a bit to get a few more steps in before the end of the day. I will try and pick things up again tomorrow and try and get a decent night’s sleep for a change.

Stepping up

Today’s walk was up and around my local hill. We walked up to the park along horizontal and then steep sections. We had a look round, sat on a bench for a while, then we carried on and walked further than we did before.

Clearly I’m not doing this because it’s part of my life. I don’t need to walk to collect water or food. But I’m doing it for my health, a first world problem.

Anyway it’s more than I’ve done for a year and it’s got to be good for my heart. I now need to build up my distances safely, because after suffering a pulled calf muscle I don’t want to do that again!

Today’s uphill walk

The last three days we have done mainly flat walks, but today my hubby and I decided to climb up our hill. We need to get more heart points on my phone and the best way to do that was trying to walk up the hilly side streets in the area. It also got us away from the traffic on the main road. There are some streets that go up, and some across, so by walking up, then along, I managed to keep the pressure off my calf muscle that sometimes gets really tight after I pulled it a year or so ago. Also hubby is not as young as he was so it gave us both a breather. Finally we reached a little park and sat for a few minutes looking over the view and enjoying the trees in the park. Then up again, to reach the main road at the top of the hill and along it’s crest, before taking another horizontal route to get to our road and a few more hundred steps steeply downhill. Four days in a row we have walked. My arm shakes and so we hold hands or he holds my arm. It’s good to be out and about.

Having an early night

This was Monday. Over the last three days I’ve done over 5000 steps and I’ve tried to walk up our hill. It’s been months since I’ve done much walking. Anyone who reads this blog knows I’ve had some health and other issues over recent months and to be honest I didn’t know if I was going to be able to do it. I know my muscle strength has reduced. I can’t lift a saucepan with my left hand. My left leg is slightly affected too and I’m getting cramp and my legs feel shaky but if I don’t try I’ll never get better. Sorry to moan, but at least I’m trying, so now, I’m going to have an early night. X

Stepping out

Only a few steps today, but more than I have been doing. I will try and keep this up now. If I can do around five thousand a day, or at least regularly, then it’s got to be better for me. Only problem is that my foot is hurting today, my shoe is rubbing on the outer side of my foot and I don’t know if it’s a temporary thing or if I’ve hurt myself. We will see tomorrow.

Stairs

Look up Whitby steps on the Internet and you find out there are 199 steps from the town up to Whitby Abbey at the top. Dracula by Bram Stoker was set there. The town has many tourists visiting because of this. There is also a history of jewellery making in the town because it is the home of Whitby Jet. This is a black, fossilised substance that was originally ancient monkey puzzle trees. The steps or stairs offer a spectacular view down over the harbour and bay.

For #bandofsketchers prompt today ‘stairs’