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@JurekB I've been really shit at this, sorry.. and thank you for checking in! Things are getting better and progressing each day. Moved into a wee ground floor flat that belongs to a friend a couple weeks ago that I can use for a few months before holiday let season starts. Got my cat Nihil moved in with me too so it's feeling pretty homely. It feeling temporary isn't ideal, but got my name on the local housing list and things and keeping my fingers crossed. I was really worried about how I'd manage at first, but have managed pretty much everything independently since moving in and have had offers from neighbours and friends on island of picking up shopping and things for me too so feeling pretty fortunate. Signal is slim to none here so my phone has to be jammed against the window in order to get enough to hotspot to get slow internet on the laptop.. if anyone calls I'm standing jammed up against the window too so it doesn't cut out. This is the view out the big living room window and back door though. Loads of seals come and stay on the rocks when the tide is low and there's a couple herons and some oystercatchers too so really can't complain!
Getting less sore and more mobile all the time, walking with just the one crutch in the house now (limped down the hallway without one after going for a pee the other day, before realising halfway that I didn't have it and should probably go back for it). Feeling like I've plateaued a little after the initial jump from no walking at all to getting down a hallway, but trying to remind myself of the progress there has been when I get down on myself about it.
Trying my best with the physio exercises, but there's a ton of pain and swelling in my knee preventing me from doing too much and that worsens when I do the exercises. Was in pedal straps when I went down so think I went down pretty much horizontally with the bike when it slid out on the ice. The femur took the main impact and the top of my inner thigh took a battering from the saddle, but think the seat tube had knocked my knee out of place as well (I have a bit of a history with dislocations and sublimations in my knees and this feels very similar..). In terms of pain around the hip there really isn't much and it's the knee that's waking me up overnight and that gets really sore with any standing or walking that's too prolonged or if it's straight or bent for too long sitting or lying. Got a referral to outpatient physio for it that I'm waiting on and the surgeon has mentioned getting me down again for an MRI on it, but around the pins needs to heal a bit better first as apparently the metal will get hot in the machine.. Ditched all the nasty painkillers too so for the last couple weeks really it's only been paracetamols I've been taking and trying to reduce those too.I hired one of those mobility scooters for getting into Kirkwall on the boat and making sure I didn't end up feeling isolated. It's really handy, but feels pretty disempowering and I really don't like using it, while being completely aware of it's handiness for now. Days in town and seeing folk is nice, but everything takes longer and more effort and I'm finding myself napping in the evenings if I've been out that day.
Trying to eat healthier as well to aid recovery so smoothies and porridge and such like that I'd never normally have bothered with, as well more fruit/less chocolate and snacky shite. Not sure if I'm feeling better for them, or whether I'm feeling a bit better because it feels like I'm making more positive choices for myself and that kind of agency feels nice.
Had time on my hands so picking up the banjo again, going to take a while to be able to do much tuneful with it, and it sitting on my lap does get sore after a wee while, but I am enjoying it. Thought I had lost all my music years ago when my hard drive died and never bothered uploading anything else to it, but found it all again searching for how to use the camera on the laptop and coming across a song that had the word "camera" in the title! Had a lot of fun rediscovering and remembering things I had completely forgotten about over the last wee while. The soundtrack to recovery so far has been a few different podcasts (really recommend Ologies and For The Wild for nice, engaged and in depth conversation and Top Flight Time Machine for some funny shit talking), coupled with lovely 5-10 year old folk and post rock as well as some folk punk and cascadian black metal from my time in the pacific northwest years ago.
My ex is still in the house, and it sounds like hard going as the immersion was faulty in the hot water tank so she still doesn't have hot water/heating other than the stove. The renewables/heat pump is taking a while to set up between chasing parts and people trying to get their head around the system. Not entirely sure what the next step will be in terms of who lives there/does it just get sold, but think we'll be making steps on that soon..
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Honestly, been a bit too doped up to do full proper replies to people, but all of this support and niceness has really touched me, genuinely had a few wee tears reading through things. @youramericanlover this has been really handy, thank you! And thank you for your reassurance @JonD They got me up for my first few steps on an arjo the day after the surgery and even got seated on a chair and used the commode (which had been a bit of a panic after multiple days of heavy painkillers..). Yesterday was a wee step back in confidence.. I was feeling really good about getting up and on the zimmer and into a chair, but then a nurse hit my foot with the lunch table which made me really sore and tense and then 2 nurses I hadn’t worked with before tried to get me back into bed but were just pulling me and moving without really talking about what I had to do and I was just tense and panicky and sore so by the time I was in bed I didn’t want back out again.. I think a lot of the problem was less the nurses but a dose of morphine making me a bit foggy and unable to let them know that I needed to understand what had to happen as it was my first time doing it.
I’m feeling much more positive today, much more, less painful movement and got out into the hall with a zimmer, showed the OT getting up and down from the toilet and over into a chair so just a wee dip and things are much better today!Physios have been in each day since and I have some exercises to start on, able to bend my knee when I’m lying or sitting (it was just lying yesterday) but still haven’t cracked lifting my heel yet, maybe tomorrow after some more practice today!
@TotalShanner that’s a really good way of articulating that, thank you! Self esteem has never been great to allow for self care but I am beginning to recognise the importance of exactly that. @owl definitely going to be cracking the banjo out and picking away on recovery evenings I reckon.
@kjlem @damskodonny @johnnettles2 we nearly bought that when we were first looking up here! Then we quickly realised that was a ridiculous thought and we had nowhere near enough money/skills to get anywhere near that being habitable and nice!!
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@BigH @haveo that’s perfect, thank you very much, haven’t even seen one in person never mind tried one out so just wasn’t sure.
I hope you manage to get it sold, but am also crossing my fingers it’s still around in a couple months. First painful shuffles on a big zimmer today so fingers crossed things are back to relatively normal soon -
I fucking LOVE lufguss!! I was really just looking to answer @andyp and explain the lack of recent updates, but as always I am just blown away by the kindness and support of this community! I don’t quite know how to express it, but thank you so much to all of you.
Surgery went well today, woke up in agony and feels like they chucked every painkiller they could at it. Between that and a few position adjustments it is feeling much better now (Although there will be a few horses in a field somewhere in a lot of pain).
No traction cast either as it’s all pins and screws so I’m starting to try and bend my knee and move my foot in preparation for the physio trying to get me up on a zimmer or crutches tomorrow.🩼 -
@andyp Hey Andy, not great unfortunately. I hadn’t been happy in the relationship for a while and had failed pretty miserably at ever communicating it, instead choosing just to distract myself with the build and work until I’d just let it go too far.. I’m staying in Kirkwall just now while we work out what to do with the house and whether one of us can afford to manage it on our own (I really don’t want to sell it to anyone else!).
Then, I started to try a bit of self care going into the new year, did some yoga Sunday and Monday and then because I was in Kirkwall I decided I’d treat myself to a cycle out to the beach afterwards, hit some black ice coming round a corner and broke my femur in two places right at the hip.. helicoptered down to Aberdeen a couple days ago and I’m just waiting to go into surgery for some pins and screws.. hoping 2023 improves soon haha 🤞 -
@haveo a nasty femur break a couple days ago has meant I’m going to really struggle to do anything with this or get another bike stripped down to sell and fund this for what seems like a considerable amount of time.. gutted, but glws and I’ll be in touch as soon as I’m able to start considering this if it hasn’t been snapped up already..
@BigH is it pretty but not that fun a bike to ride that this is the one getting cleared from collections?
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Haha, funny you should say that, a breakdown in the relationship has meant that I’m in a wee flat in Kirkwall for now.. I hadn’t been happy in a while but hadn’t ever communicated that and just ran with the house build and work as distraction/ way to ignore it, and I just let that continue for too long without any conversation until it got past being able to rescue it.. haha, that would have been a great idea though! Tempted to see if I can get my banjo and maybe spend evenings practicing that again..
@Nef cheers bud! Yeah it was just yesterday morning the break, all the main roads were salted, turned onto a road that just looked wet (but wasn’t) and the bike disappeared from under me.. I’ve split it right across at the hip joint and chipped another bit off too.. helicoptered to Aberdeen and just waiting for surgery to pin and screw it all back together tomorrow..
Let’s see what other challenges 2023 throws! :)
I’m sorry folks, I had to actively just disengage from this for a while, and then the guilt of not having replied to folk/ thanked people for their kind wishes pushed me away even further (I realise this is all me and not the intentions behind any of the contacts from genuinely wonderful people).
Healing has gone well and back on the bike which was great this summer for cycling out to beaches and Toronto a bit of sea swimming for the first time since I’ve been up here as a bit of an exercise in self care. I’ve been getting a lot more pain recently though.. I wasn’t sure if it was just because I was doing more but they gave me an x-Ray to see if one of the screws has worked it’s way loose a little, just waiting on answers back from that..
My left shoulder also started dislocating randomly a few months ago. Had a historic injury from getting hit by a car during a drunken bike race in Toronto and think leaning on a crutch for months just aggravated that. Been booked in for surgery in the new year to tighten up tendons to stop it slipping out.
Other beautiful updates, I got a wee council house on shapinsay with a view of the water and a wee garden. Nihil is now an outside cat and the fact that the other side of those windows is a space she can be has blown her wee mind! She loves the garden, and I’m feeling very fortunate to be here!
Work at the blide trust has been really really positive this year! Made good connections with the highland park distillery locally after some of their staff volunteered in the garden. This led to their parent company choosing our charity for a massive fundraiser and we raised over £160,000!! They even made a promo video for us which was something we’d always wanted to do but never had the skills/cash to do it properly! We also put on an amazing music and poetry event called headspace showcase in the summer and this led to the local bbc radio station doing an hour show about the charity and showcasing the talents of some of our members. I gave the website a proper refresh too and both the promo video and the recording of the radio show can be found on the homepage if anyone fancies checking them out, blide trust.org.uk
Another unexpected beautiful wee thing, I was reunited with this Hansom from @hollow__legs . I always regretted selling it and he got in touch earlier in the year as he had always promised to give me first refusal on it if he wasn’t going to keep it! Very very grateful for that! I also built up a shitty old leader frame because it was one that brought me a lot of joy when first riding fixed
In terms of the house, I drove past it for the first time in months the other day and nothing has changed on the outside since I left, I know the heating and hot water and things are set now though. Not great communication from things but imagine it will be going up for sale in the spring and hoping the market improves between now and then, might even put in a wee bid..
Other than that I just want to say a massive thank you to everyone who attempted to check in or provide words of encouragement or support this year, it was appreciated more than you could know (and more than I articulated!) here’s looking at you @JurekB @PC2 @gillies @knowthejo @russmeyer @kjlem @jonny @Hefty @dbr @skinny @stevo_com @bigshape @PeteJChurchill and anyone else who has been following along that I’ve been shit and haven’t included!