Tag Archives: knee

Monday Musings

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I injected myself last night . It was a few days behind schedule because it’s easy to forget to stab yourself with a needle. It ranks below dieting and exercise as a way I’d like to spend my time. I’d rather eat salad.

It was mildly uncomfortable, but this morning I noticed that it had bled overnight. Not much, just enough to make Julia recoil in horror at my blood-flecked night attire. That’s what happens when you have injections to take and pills that stop your blood coagulating. As I’ve said before, several of the pills I take are to stop the other pills doing me any harm. It’s not a sustainable way of going on, and I promise you I never set out to do this to myself.

Add that to the fact my right leg, after being held at a moderately uncomfortable angle last night, felt like the knee had been stuffed with gravel, and it wasn’t a great morning.

Then we had emails . . .

Stamps, stamps, stamps…

An Australian wants us to send him a parcel (value about £140) listed as a present with no value on the customs form. He also wants us to send it without insurance or the need for a signature so he can keep his costs down. I sympathise, but on the other hand, there are so many things that could go wrong with that arrangement that we really can’t do it.

Another Australian gave us a lecture on parcelling up his order and keeping costs down. It’s always tempting to write and thank them, point out that we have a feedback of over 10,000 (done the hard way) so it’s possible we know about packaging, and ask if they have any helpful tips on sucking eggs as my grandmother is finding it tricky.

But I don’t. I have the good name of the shop to consider.

Yes, I know you are wondering what could be hard about sitting in a shop sending parcels. The easy way to get to 10,000 feedback is to sell mass-produced items from a wholesaler, which fit neatly into a padded envelope. Compared to laboriously listing individual items with a variety of packaging needs, that is the easy way. I packed eight parcels this morning, using four different sizes of envelope, three different postage methods and six different postage rates. It’s not as hard as some jobs I’ve done and I’ve never fallen off a ladder or given myself an electric shock whilst doing it (unlike my previous lives in farming and gardening) but it has its moments.

Magical Worlds Stamps

Miracles do happen

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Yesterday’s visit to the Bee-eaters was about as much walking as I wanted to do, but there was still half a day to fill and it seemed a shame not to use it. I won’t say too much now, as it will be reported in a later post, but I ended up walking so far that I could barely make it back to the car.

It doesn’t sound much, a total of around 2,000 yards, but compared to recent days when even 20 yards were a challenge, it’s a major achievement.

I was expecting to be crippled this morning. I was certainly aching last night. Starting from the top – my shoulders ached from using the stick so much, my back ached, my right hip ached (it’s on my problem side), my right knee ached (and wouldn’t bend or take my weight) and my feet ached. In some cases “ached” is an understatement, but you know me, I do hate to complain.

After talking to a lady at Bempton Cliffs (we spent a few minutes sitting and talking about bad knees) I have started taking two turmeric capsules a day. Result – almost no pain at all in my arthritic feet and a general reduction in aches and pains.

Turmeric is well known as an anti-inflammatory and in my case seems to work.

In addition, I did have a couple of ibuprofen after finishing the walk yesterday, and a couple of painkillers before going to bed.

This morning, I felt like I could leap out of bed and run round like a youngster once more. I managed to resist, but I could have done if I was a leaping and running sort of person.

I can’t put it all down to the turmeric, but it has certainly helped. Now all I need to do is talk to the doctor and anticoagulant clinic about it. I’m sure they won’t like it.

It’s frustrating that after months of taking things easy the solution was to eat curry powder and walk till it hurt.

No photos with this one – pictures of my feet tend not to attract readers. 🙂