Category Archives: health & happiness

less is more

30 Monday Sep 2024

Posted by in casa azahar, fitness, health, health & happiness, home

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5 kilos

I am happy to report that I am leaving the month of September carrying 5 fewer kilos than when it started. It’s more impressive (to me) if I think about it as no longer lugging around this 5 kg sack of potatoes (just over two Morcillas doesn’t have the same impact). I know it’s still tip of the iceberg and also that I’ve been here before, many times, but let’s see if it sticks this time.

If what sticks, you ask? Well that’s what I’m not sure about. I mean, I got a bit of a “head start” when I got sick a few weeks ago and could barely eat anything for a week. Then when I was getting back to feeling normalish I just tried eating a bit differently, at different times. And of course keeping up with my chair workouts, as well as trying to get out for a daily hobble (my god I miss walking!). The good thing is that this new “whatever it is” hasn’t actually changed how I live. I can still go out to my tapas bars, enjoy meals out and Beer O’clock, have fun cooking at home etc, which I think is going to help make it sustainable because this isn’t a DIET, more a bit of a lifestyle tweak, if that makes sense.

Anyhow, it’s also a learning process as I figure out what feels best. Weight loss is just a part of the changes being made, and losing 5 kilos a month is maybe a bit too optimistic, but I’ll check in again at the end of October and let you know how it’s all going. Maybe by then I’ll know what I’m doing!

my 31st sevilla anniversary!

16 Monday Sep 2024

Posted by in health, health & happiness, hospitals, sevilla

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31 anniversary

post-hospital Sevilla Anniversary cava at Las Teresas

An afternoon at the hospital wasn’t how I’d have planned to spend my 31st Sevilla Anniversary but FINALLY getting my MRI done was kind of celebratory in itself. I’d been waiting almost three months and since then I’ve gone from getting by with my trusty stick to barely being able to walk with a pair of crutches. This past month has been a long, frustrating and painful one.

The previous MRI last year (left knee) was at a state-of-the-art radiology place but this time it was at my old hospital Virgen del Rocío. I like to think I know that place like the back of my hand after having spent so much time there, but with “after hours” late afternoon tests half the entrances/exits are closed and nobody is manning the information desks… it took me half an hour to find my correct waiting room and also took some doing to find my way out again. After which I met up with Peter at Las Teresas for a glass of cava to celebrate the day.

Anyhow, I wasn’t expecting any big news today but it still came as a surprise when the technician told me the results wouldn’t be available for 15 days. What? I told him I had an appointment booked with my GP for next Monday, so he said he would leave a note on my file to help speed things up a bit. Fingers crossed. And of course after seeing the GP there will be more waiting… will I be offered physiotherapy? an operation? Meanwhile…

I haven’t worked since mid-July. Part of that was my doing, taking some extra “staycation” time in July, though in fact I stopped doing tours in August years ago. Way too hot. But when I suddenly couldn’t walk without crutches mid-August… well, that totally fucked everything up. I scrambled to find people to take the tours I had booked the first half of September, and now I clearly have to do the same for the rest of the month and possibly longer. Luckily I not only have Peter to help out with this, but two other freelance friends Fiona and Sharon have also been happy to take on the new tours being booked that I obviously cannot do myself.

This means that I know clients will be in good hands, and that’s great. But it also means no income for me and, now realistically looking at how this is likely to pan out, until something is done to fix my knee I will not able to do any tours. What I don’t know now is how long that will be. There is a little extra income out there, I’ve just finished another article for Decanter magazine and the Patreon brings in about 100 euros a month (appreciate it!) but I can’t live on that. I know I’ve been “pivoting” for ages with the tours, looking for other ways to move forward, without giving up the tours entirely, so maybe this is my wake up call. I just wish I knew how and where I am supposed to be pivoting and moving on to.

unwell

03 Tuesday Sep 2024

Posted by in health, health & happiness, home, sevilla

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unwell

Well damn… I’ve been having gastro “issues” off an on since, well always, but these past few months they’ve become more frequent, though usually it ends up being a 24-hour thing and then it’s gone. Anyhow, after getting home from last night’s lovely outdoor event I started feeling unwell and went immediately to bed, then spent the night with chills/fever, vomiting and diarrhea… not nice. Checking in with the friends who were with me, including Peter, everyone else is fine so it’s probably not food poisoning. At least the fever etc is gone but I’ve got some intense lower abdominal pain/cramping. Waiting to see how that evolves.

I can’t walk

16 Friday Aug 2024

Posted by in health, health & happiness, knee saga, knees, sevilla, sevilla staycation

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cant walk

Seriously, I cannot walk anymore. I’ve been doing my best to get out and about each day, but this past week I just can’t. It just fucking hurts too much. Even with the cane, even if I walk slowly. The extreme shooting pain in my (front lower left) right knee makes even a short walk around the block an exercise in constant agony. And so I wonder if I should be even trying to walk on that leg if it hurts THAT bad. Because the pain ends up extending down the entire lower leg. The left knee is no picnic either, but compared to this… there’s no comparison.

I can still shuffle around the apartment, more or less. But each time I have to get up to go to the kitchen, the bathroom, whatever, I have to steel myself for the inevitable shooting pain. Even so, I’m still doing my daily chair workouts (yay! thank god for them!). But my next MRI is a whole month away (September 16th) and I honestly don’t know what to do between now and then.

Not only has this put a serious damper on my Staycation (it’s actually pretty depressing and has left me feeling all scatter-brained, unable to concentrate) I’m worried about next month. I have some tours booked in those first couple of weeks, but… a four hour walking tour? Srsly?? I mean, I know we’re not walking the whole time, but that’s an easy 8,000 steps. I could probably still do the wine tastings as it would mean ONLY hobbling down to Morales and back again. But the tours? How? Going to the supermarket almost has me in tears.

I’ve been icing the area, using different anti-inflammatory creams, keeping up with the chair exercises, but every day it’s getting worse. What I need is a proper diagnosis and then a plan of action… treatment? physio? surgery? I just need to know something. Not knowing what is happening is really dragging me down. Anyhow, just venting today because being stuck inside and the constant pain is really getting to me. xx

PS
for those asking… I can’t take anti-inflammatory meds like Ibuprofen due to my BP, and I won’t live on a steady diet of pain killers. I just won’t.