Category Archives: health & happiness

too much pain

23 Friday Feb 2024

Posted by in fitness, health, health & happiness, knee saga, knees

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knee pain

So I’m pretty much desperate now. I’ve had KNEES for the past few years, meaning that I became physically aware that they existed rather than previously when they just functioned without making their presence known. But it was only last year May-June when I started having serious knee pain. So I got it checked out, got x-rays and an MRI in September (on the left knee, though by then it was the right knee that was giving me more grief). In fact I ended up at emergency when the pain got so bad it scared me. Doc just said I should stay off it and prescribed pain meds, including Nolotil which is BANNED IN 20 COUNTRIES as one of its many nasty side effects is DEATH. Needless to say I eschewed the drugs.

I haven’t gone back to my GP about the MRI results because when I tried a phone appointment a few months ago she was on holiday and I got her replacement who just told me to take painkillers and ride a stationary bike. The fuck? For what it’s worth I’ve set up another phone appointment for next week to see if she has anything more helpful to say. Like, I should probably be seeing an orthopaedic specialist at this point, plus I think the right knee also needs an MRI. And then, you know, maybe some helpful advice?

Meanwhile, I can barely walk anymore. It’s shocking to me how things went from “gee my knees kinda hurt” less than a year ago to screaming pain whenever I have to get up from a seated position (once I get moving it eases up a bit, but only a bit). Needless to say this affects my job which involves a lot of walking. But it has also affected my life in general because walking is what I do! I’m always out and about, getting my steps in, just being out there. Now it takes all my effort to put myself through the pain it takes to just walk a few blocks. It’s exhausting. I’m exhausted.

more workouts

25 Friday Aug 2023

Posted by in health, health & happiness, pilates, yoga

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more workouts

Since I started doing chair yoga and chair pilates I have since discovered a whole whack of different workout vids by this woman. They vary from quick 10-minute stretch/strength videos to 35-minute cardio ones and there’s lots of variety. The good thing is that there is never any excuse not to do SOMETHING each day, though I try to fit in at least half an hour, and obviously you can mix and match them. Some of them are quite challenging and, as you can see, I am also getting out of my chair (!). The whole point of starting with the chair stuff was to avoid having to sit or lie on the floor (knees! back!), so the standing ones work just as well for me. My goal is to also start fitting in some of the shorter ones (that don’t make me all sweaty) during the day, just for a bit of extra movement. Have to say that my back, and even my knees, are feeling much better.

blocked af

14 Friday Jul 2023

Posted by in change, health, health & happiness

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block

So this popped up in my Instagram feed and I thought it was pretty timely as I had just received the notice that my appointment with the nutritionist/endocrinologist will be on August 4th (three weeks from today). Not bad as my GP just sent out the request last week. Anyhow, I have always felt “blocked” when it came to losing weight, pretty much all my life, but things got a lot more difficult after cancer/chemo, menopause and, well, getting older. As my friend Kate @sledpress wisely says, it’s not a simple binary about what goes in or doesn’t, which is something I have also noticed all my life.

The hope is that new doc won’t just put me “on a diet” but will address the various issues and help me find a more balanced and intelligent way of living with everything, without having to take more drugs. Though I think she has her work cut out for her because when I saw this pic I realised that I have ALL THE BLOCKS. In spades. Wish me luck!

nixing the statins for now

11 Tuesday Jul 2023

Posted by in health, health & happiness, sevilla

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no statins

Since my GP prescribed cholesterol meds for me last Thursday I’ve been uneasy. I filled the prescription but then I was hesitant to just start taking them without doing a bit more research. And what I was reading was not making me feel any better. Unlike the blood pressure meds I’m on, statins seem to be seen as an “easy fix” drug, so that people can take them without feeling they need to make lifestyle changes. Which we all know is bullshit.

And so, since I am about to meet up with a nutritionist soon, I’ve decided to take the route of modifying my diet, which others have told me has worked very well for them with lowering cholesterol levels. It just makes more sense. Take a drug with some rather dodgy side effects or cut out putting so much cholesterol in your body? I’m opting for the latter. Wish me luck!

the lowdown

06 Thursday Jul 2023

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

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doctors orders

Since my GP for all the time I’ve lived here, also my friend and my second ever English student Agustín, retired a couple of years ago, I have had a new GP assigned to me. A woman. And she seems nice enough, albeit a bit, um, terse? So I never feel like I can actually talk to her, other than to ask her to get things done (blood tests, this and that). Mostly because her response to most of the “complaints” I’ve had over the past couple of years has been YOU NEED TO LOSE WEIGHT. Uh, thanks? I mean, of course I know I need to lose weight, for so many reasons. But this has always just felt like a brush off and not helpful.

Anyhow, went back after latest blood test and also after THE KNEE INCIDENT. I really thought she was just going to remind me once again that I am fat and tell me to take Ibuprofen, but she surprised me. I mean, she did tell me (once again) that I have to lose weight. But this time she looked me in the eye and said, “Shawn you have four things going on here, your age, your weight, your blood pressure and now high cholesterol. You need to start taking this seriously.” Gulp.

She then booked an x-ray for my knee for Monday morning, started me on cholesterol meds (to go with my blood pressure ones), arranged for more blood tests in three months, said she would call me next week with the x-ray results (she thinks it’s artrosis) and is sending me to a nutritionist. So that was all a bit more than I’d bargained for but at least she’s not just brushing me off this time.

Thing is, I DO know all of this and I’ve known it for some time. But nobody has called me on it until now. And I don’t know what I think I was trying to “get away” with because that doesn’t make any sense. It wasn’t even that… it’s something I can’t describe. Anyhow, got a bit of stuff to “unpack” here, as they say.