Project Walking: A New Type of Physio

For the last few months Project Walking has been put on the back burner, I was either spending almost all of my energy on university work, coping with the loss of a loved one or simply just too poorly to attempt it. But I'm happy to say things are now on the up and I'm feeling a lot better than I have been.

Another reason things ground to a halt on Project Walking, was because the Wii Fit has been packed away while the living room is decorated. As this was my main form of building the strength back up in my legs, I've had to have a rethink of how to do this while the living room is being done up.

Now I'm well enough to start building the strength back up in my legs again, I've established a new physio routine. Decorating. An hour or two every other day is spent helping with the decorating going up and down some steps, standing and stretching and when I start getting tired or increased pain I stop. Not only does this help me with strengthening my legs (and therefore hopefully my ability to walk further) but it also means I'm helping out, doing something useful. And at the end of most days there is a little more of the room painted; which I can say I did.

Obviously there are some restrictions to when this exercise can be done; because it involves using steps it can't be done when there's no one else in the house. It also depends on the day, if I don't feel too good I don't do it. And often a days rest is needed in between decorating days; not so much because I've overdone it but to make sure I don't overdo it and give my legs a chance to recover a bit. I don't want to push it too far too soon.

It may sound a bit of an odd way to build up my muscles and I don't want people thinking I'm well because of what I'm managing. I'm still moderately affected by M.E. The days I do decorating I don't do much else, the majority of the afternoon is spent resting (or dozing). But I know if I want to get back to walking up the road I need to work on my leg muscles, and if I can help my family out along the way it's a bonus. I depend on them so much it's nice to be able to give a little something back, even if it is a slow process. And so far it seems to be working; I still struggle to get up the stairs some nights, but it is slowly getting a bit easier. Now that's something positive to focus on!