Autumn and Health Updates

 

/Photo from November 2023/

"Autumn is the season that teaches us to let go."  

On Monday we had a glimpse of sun and blue sky here for a while, in the middle of the day; which inspired me to try a long overdue walk to the nearest "recycling station" (for packaging waste) some 300+ meters or so from home. 

I usually go every weekend, but now it had been 3+ weeks (the last time was the same day that I fell and hurt my knee - just after leaving that spot!). Walking there and back usually takes me perhaps 20 minutes, now it took me 40. Besides me now walking very slowly and keeping my eyes on the ground (looking out for wet leaves), it also turned out when I got there, that every recycling container was already over-full... (No doubt a few more people had been taking advantage of that short break in the almost endless rain lately!) I only "just" managed to squeeze in the contents of my own bag too, in their respective containers... (But I did get it all in, and did not just leave things on the ground - as I hate when others do that...)

No photos, as I had enough to cope with just handling myself and my main "mission". 

It was my longest walk yet since the fall. My knee is still not back to "normal", neither in colour nor size. But the swelling has gone down enough for me to now be able to wear a compression knee bandage over cotton tights... (which makes it easier for me to put it on vs take it off...)

Later, back home, I snapped the shot below through a window. I'm pretty sure those leaves must have had "help" to gather themselves that neatly below the tree... ;)

Yesterday (Tuesday) was laundry day for me, which is still quite enough "being on my feet" for me for one day. (Still some sorting and ironing left for me to do today.)

Since the week after my annual primary health care check-up, I've been self-monitoring my blood pressure at home (morning and evening, three days per week), reporting the results to an HCC nurse via an app - a new way of communicating with them, recently introduced. (I've been using my own monitor, as I have one since before that they "approve of". Otherwise one gets to borrow one.) That's been a relief in the respect that I've not had to transport myself to the HCC to do it (which I find stressful even in normal circumstances, not to mention just now, when I'd have to take a taxi!). But still a bit stressful anyway. And as my values have been "borderline" (perhaps also affected a bit by my "knee situation"?), I've not been feeling sure how the doctor (new to me) would choose to interpret them. But today I got a message in the app that she found them OK, which means I can just continue taking the same meds as before, and in the same dosage. (I guess she also weighed in for example that my blood tests were all good.) So the official monitoring has been declared over for now. A sigh of relief from me, as I know from previous experiences that adjusting medication can be quite a trial in itself...