Coping with pain and staying home with Covid19
Coping With Pain During Covid19
Lockdown Day 13 – update from Louise Trewern
My exercise of choice is walking and since coming off high dose opioids 3 years ago I have gradually increased the distance I am able to walk and the type of terrain has become more challenging, with my favourite being the coast path! Covid19 has put a stop to all that for the time being and like everyone else I am limited to doing a short daily walk around my neighbourhood. I’ve been finding this difficult because I use my walking as therapy and pain relief and my usual walks last anything up to 5 or 6 hours, with my wife and I taking our lunch, flask of coffee and afternoon snacks with us. I haven’t been getting the same amount of relief from my short local walk although I’m lucky we have hills around us which gives me a bit of a workout. I’m hoping the hills will mean I won’t lose the fitness level I have achieved in the last 3 years. I mentioned last week how important it is to get that daily walk so I won’t repeat myself.
This week I noticed increased pain in my knee which I previously saw a Physiotherapist about and she gave me a sheet of exercises to do which I stopped as my knee improved…..big mistake! I have started to do them again and hey presto the knee pain is diminishing, if you have a sheet from a previous Physiotherapy visit now would be a good time to get them out! I have found it extremely empowering to take control of my pain!
The lockdown has enabled me to rediscover my love of gardening!
It started last week as something else to do at home and today I realised that I actually love it and always have, I learned that it’s ok to stop walking occasionally and do something else instead, like gardening! I think I spent so much time at home during the latter years of being on opioids that once I started to get active and go out walking everyday I was afraid to stop! Maybe I was afraid that if I stopped I would slide back down the spiral of pain into medication oblivion again and I was NOT prepared to let that happen so I kept walking!
Lockdown has shown me that it’s OK to do something else and be active in a different way, and that has been a pleasant lesson to learn!
and
When I had finished gardening today and sat and surveyed my efforts. It suddenly dawned on me that I hadn’t been aware of my pain the whole time I was busy! That is another great reason to garden if you can!
Bonfire night is fun too….
