From Fisherrow Promenade

I walked down to Leith this morning to get my hair cut. Much needed. I hate it when it gets a bit out of control. Mr A picked me up, and we passed by Seafield to drop off some "stuff" for recycling, etc. Onwards to Fisherrow, where I did the remainder of my needed steps in a march down the Promenade to the Esk river and back. A good pace to start with, but after a while things started to slow. It was, as you can imagine, bitter. A couple of extras for the first time this year. First, that moment on the Water of Leith pathways when I thought "Was it a bit overconfident to leave home without a stick?". Luckily no harm came to me. And one of the fishermen of Fisherrow, who has been yarn bombed.

In and amongst I managed a fair bit of work, and one decision came my way that's going to pose some challenges for my last few months in post, before my next "posting".

And on Facebook I did a sort of six week review of this time in my life, which I'm copy-pasting here.

6 weeks ago, I was under the knife. 6 weeks is reckoned to be an important milestone for orthopaedic surgery, so please forgive me for indulging myself by stating where I've got to. I can now walk about 2-3kms at a good pace without a stick, and then need bring the stick into play in order to keep walking. I have done max 5kms in one go. I'm doing around 7000 steps most days, and I can do the stairs in this building with no difficulties (although I wouldn't fancy walking down them!).

The left knee now locks out straight when walking - as it should. That's a great feeling. The right one is doing ok. There is joint pain, but probably a fair bit of the previous pain was sympathy with the left one. I'm also getting some aches and pains here and there in my feet and hamstrings, but this is all getting better. I see the podiatrist again in 10 days time for an update on the orthotics. The left knee is still stiff and a bit sore (especially in bed) and it took 3 weeks for me to turn the pedals of the static bike around. Since then, I've regularly cycled a good distance, now incorporating a decent level of resistance, up to 18 minutes so far. I took the pushbike down into the car park yesterday and managed to cycle it around, although I cannot yet get my toe, as opposed to my heel, on the left pedal. I'm still way off being able to cycle on the roads, though. Overall, I reckon I can bend my left knee about 10 degrees beyond the magic 90 degrees, and if it never got that much better than now, I could cope. But I do hope it does. I'm right down on all drug use, and haven't had a cocodamol for more than 36 hours. I see the orthopaedic clinic on Monday for my "six week" appointment, and I'm hoping to be signed off for driving and swimming then. Cannot see any reason why not.

My goodness me, though, this has been hard, but it's been worth it.

Enjoying walking to get the steps in.