1 EAGLETON NOTES: Thankful Thursday: Walking

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Thursday 11 August 2016

Thankful Thursday: Walking

Last night I arrived back on Lewis from a few weeks away visiting friends and family. In the process the Nighthawk and I have covered nearly 2,000 miles and seen enough motorway traffic to do me for years to come. Travelling in England in the school holidays is a dreadful experience. So a Thankful Thursday post would be quite enough if all I said was that I'm glad to be back safe and sound with all those miles behind me.

However the real reason for this post is to be thankful for all the steps that I have walked and walked easily and free of pain. CJ and Partner-Who-Loves-Tea and I strolled around stately homes and Welsh towns and Chester city. When I arrived back in Glasgow Anna suggested a walk along the canal. Well to be exact, before someone points out that walking on water is not one of my fortés, along the canal towpath which has been given a tarmac surface and is used by cyclists as well as walkers.

It is the first 'routemarch' that I've managed for years and I managed it without any pain in my knee. It was a wonderful experience and gave me the confidence a few days later to walk from where we had parked to visit friends, along pavements into Glasgow city centre and back against the clock. Until my knee problems I'd have thought nothing of such a walk. Now I can do it again without any thought.

So today I'm very thankful, once again, for the surgeons and team in the National Health Service Western Isles Hospital who have so improved my quality of life.

Heron
Forth and Clyde Canal

24 comments:

  1. I'm so pleased for you. On both counts. That's a lot of km's!

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    1. Thank you Kate. It was a lot of driving given the roads in England. Having said that, despite the fact that it's the school holidays, the roads in Scotland on the way home were as quiet as I can ever recall them during the summer.

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  2. To walk reasonable distances again without knee pain must be so delightful and it sounds as if your trip away has boosted your confidence in the new knee.

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    1. YP having a new knee is just wonderful and the walking I've done has, as you say, really boosted my confidence.

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  3. Wonderful to read how well you are doing after your knee surgery!

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  4. Looks like a lovely walkpath along that canal. And I'm so glad for you that your knee op was so successful. (My own knee - without surgery - is a lot better this summer than it's been the last two years, and I too have been able to walk more and not think all that much about it!)

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    1. It was a lovely walk Monica. I'm very glad your pain has reduced too. It is very liberating.

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  5. That's great news, Graham, I am so pleased for you! You know - now nothing stands between you planning at least a short holiday in my area; or, even better, to meet up with us next year in Ripon and do some walking there :-)

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    1. Meike I'd love to visit Ludwicksburg but whether I'll be venturing that far in the next year is a moot point. However Ripon next year is a distinct possibility.

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  6. Good to hear that the knee is back to what it was before.

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  7. I can sympathise with anyone whose walking is impeded by pain, for that happened to me for just a few weeks earlier this year and it was very inconvenient to say the least.

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    1. Heron I managed to adjust over the years but it's great knowing that I have freedom again.

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  8. It was really great to see you walking so well, GB. There are plenty of folk your age (No, i'm not having a dig at my OLDER brother!) who could not have torn up the hill to Denbigh Castle the way you did irrespective of recent knee surgery.

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    1. Thanks CJ. It was good to do all that we did without thinking about the knee.

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  9. It is so good to hear a success story after operations. I wish I had been so lucky with my foot.

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    1. I'm so sorry Diane to hear that your foot operation hasn't been as successful. I hope things improve for you.

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  10. Graham, I know about five people who have had knee replacements this year, and all are delighted with the results. I'm so glad yours has worked out well, too.

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    1. Frances I know one or two people whose operations have not been such a success but, to be honest, they wouldn't, by their own admission, wouldn't do their exercises (because they hurt - of course they hurt!) or lose weight which has a significant effect on knees.

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  11. Hurrah! I hope the docs pic your comment up. And what a wonderful photo of a heron, a real action shot.

    May the summer weather permit you to walk many more miles in the next few weeks! It does seem as if we are getting a bit of it down here at last, and I hope the same can be said for you.

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    1. Jenny the photo of the heron was taken with my DSLR but I had a relatively wide-angled lens on at that moment so the picture you see is very much magnified. Ironically if I'd had my cross-over camera in my hand I'd have, hopefully, got a much better set of pictures.

      All the wonderful summer weather of the last few days has allowed me to do is get the garden into some semblance of order but that was much easier with no knee problems.

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  12. Wow!! Excellent that you enjoyed walking again! I like the canal picture. Have a great day!!

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