h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

The almost unbearable slowness of recovery.

I caught a very old fashioned disease about four weeks ago, and it didn't kill me as it could have done 100 years ago. However, it still took its toll. I dropped a dress size, lost muscle (as well as my appetite for a couple of weeks), and am still regaining my strength.

*Inner snotty brat stamps foot and yells that this is so unfair* Since then, I've had a healthy diet, laid off even the small amount of booze I used to drink, have avoided overexertion, paced myself, been patient and for what? At times it doesn't seem as if there's much to show for it.

There have been gradual improvements - my voice is back, my ears have cleared, my balance is better, I can sit up unsupported, I can walk more than a few hundred yards at almost normal speed without a coughing fit, my appetite's returning, my hands are stronger. I made it back alive and more or less in one piece. So why do I find it so difficult to not feel angry about all the things I can't do yet?

I hope you feel better soon

Hello Herenna, I was so pleased to see you were doing the NaMo as it would give me the opportunity to talk to you, rather than on the body language thread.

A long period of recovery is frustrating and other than what you are doing there is nothing more you can do to speed it along.

So what can you do? Is there activities that you might not considered before that you can take up while recuperating. Learn a language for instance, embroidary, paper mache sculptures?

Anything really that interests you, something you can set personal targets for might be good so you have some measurable achievements to feel good about when everything else seems difficult to measure

I am wishing you well and

Peanut

Thanks for that, Peanut.

Taking my time to recover isn't helped by being my husband's carer. He's doing what he can, when he can, but there are limits. I really ought to get on with the rest of my Polish course CDs, but finding enough uninterrupted time is tricky. Sewing projects are on the backburner at the moment as my hands & concentration aren't quite up to them yet. The same goes for making serious inroads into 1,000 origami cranes. Also need to finish reading "Wolf Hall" by 9th December, and sort out an outfit for an extended family photo in the next few weeks. That one's proving weird as everything hangs differently now. Unearthed some resistance bands today and spent a few minutes reminding my legs that they're supposed to do more than walking.

Now that's one very recent achievement - walking over a mile at an almost normal pace without beginning to feel weird or getting a coughing fit. At this rate, I might actually have the energy to swim after reaching the local leisure centre.