Holy moly Readers, no sooner had I ventured out for a much-needed haircut this afternoon when I found myself turning an ankle on the (admittedly very uneven) pavements outside my house. It was my right ankle (again) which I scrunched very thoroughly a few months ago, after I stood up from the sofa and keeled over because my leg had gone dead. What is going on here?
a) There is definitely too much time spent sitting hunched over a text book. Why o why do I never learn that I need to actually stand up and move about on a regular basis?
b) I need to redouble my pilates effort and get those ankles strengthened, though I suspect I’m hypermobile and so my joints are always going to be a bit of a problem. Still, nothing wrong with building up the muscles around them.
c) The menopause – apparently women have far more falls once they’re post menopausal. Whether it’s due to the change in hormones or a general tendency to become more sedentary later in life is unclear (though I do know many, many women who are way past the menopause who seem to be able to stay upright, so it’s clearly not destiny)
d) I was having some problems with numb feet, but this seems to have resolved itself over the past few months – I did lots and lots of walking in Canada and somehow it seems to have sorted itself out. There’s a hint there about what I should be doing to help myself, I think. I am still waiting for an appointment with podiatry on the NHS, but we all know that they’re struggling at the moment.
e) I hadn’t thought about it, but I should definitely get my eyes tested (though in truth I very rarely look where I’m going as, like Ronald Searle and Geoffrey Willans’s Fotherington Thomas, in the Molesworth books, I am often distracted.
f) And before anyone says it, I should probably get a thorough health check, though I have had a lot of hospital visits for other ‘stuff’ just lately. My persistent cough back in November sent me off down the 2-week referral cancer track – my tests for that came back clear, but I had a CT scan that spotted other interesting things, most of which have been found to be nothing. I am, however, waiting for an echocardiogram. I really miss Mum – she had every medical procedure and test that you can imagine, so she would have been a great font of support and advice. She once said that ‘getting old was not for the faint of heart’ and she wasn’t wrong.
Anyhow, I hope you’ll forgive me for wittering on. I find these falls both alarming and irritating, and I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I can actually do something about them. Until then, back to the photosynthesis revision – I think I’m at the stage when every fact that goes into my brain displaces another one, but there we go.
All the avenues you list are worth following up on. A strange anecdote about sight: As a student, I used to leave my spectacles behind whenever a group of us went hiking in the Drakensberg over weekends. We would hike up to the escarpment and would often boulder-hop along the streams – jumping from one large rock to another so that our boots and rucksacks wouldn’t get wet. I did the latter with confident ease and felt exhilarated by the exercise. Some years later, I somehow kept my spectacles with me. Of course this meant I saw the boulders in sharp focus … and I hesitated before making each leap!
Hah! I can believe that, for sure. It’s like when you’re running downstairs and suddenly start thinking about what you’re doing. It’s as if your body knows what to do, unless you start interfering with it 🙂
Sorry to hear that. Have experienced similar and one feels a fool apart from anything else. Very wise to get checked out and set alarms to move, stand on one leg etc. Do hope all improves.
I have every sympathy. I was never ill, except for a nasty cold/sinusitis every two/three years. But now! It’s my guts which get attacked out of the blue and I just have to stop whatever I’m doing & get home asap. Also I am studying Scottish Gaelic, and do you think I can get the ten (ten! That’s all there are!) irregular verbs into my head? I have an oral exam on Friday when I am expected to converse with a fellow student using them as much as possible. 😱
Hope you get some answers soon!
Ah Rosalind, I hope your exam went well today! I hope the irregular verbs stuck! I find that there’s less room in my brain than there used to be 🙂
I hope someone helped you up and that you are not in great pain now when you move. Also that it won’t affect your final revision plans and the actual exams. The best of luck!
You were probably just distracted by all the stuff you’ve been studying. But it might be worth getting it checked out (if you can get to see a doctor – we seem to have to fight to get to see one!)
I hope you’re up and running again – well, perhaps not running, but able to take some exercise and breathe some fresh air, to help restore you to your normal self. Roll on the end of the exams!