Back to Living On My Own

As the title says am back to living on my own.  Helen was able to fly home to South Australia last Wednesday after an eight week stay.  I have been stable for a couple of weeks and we both agreed that she should go home. 

Last Saturday week I did a ride with my cycling club and it came as quite  a shock when I had difficulties keeping up.  I ride with the second slowest group and am probably the oldest rider in the group but before my stroke had no problems keeping up.  I have no problem with the length of the ride just the pace.  I think that this is caused by my medication which slows down my heart rate to about 50 beats a second.  It used to be about 80bps and I think that I am not getting as much oxygen into my system as I used to.  The ride actually started up a steep little hill which soon had me out of breath and I never really caught up.

This Saturday I took it easy on the ride and apart from one steep hill had no problems.  Even then I just put the bike in a very low gear and was able to climb alongside another much younger rider.  Over the next few weeks I shall try and get some longer rides in to build up my aerobic capacity.  If I am going to ride in the Bicycle SA annual tour at the end of October I will have to be able to ride up to 80km a day.  Providing I can average 10kph I shall be able to cope quite well as it is not a race.  In case anybody is worried that I might over do it I will be attending the Stroke Clinic at Nambour Hospital on the 18th August and will only proceed with their approval.

Yesterday I did a 30km ride around Noosa out to the spit.  It was a lovely mild morning and I used my shopping bike.  I rode at about 20kph and had no problems.  I shall gradually build up my fitness and distances over the next eight weeks.

Noosa Spit about 14km from home.

Last Friday I returned to my Meals On Wheels round.  I was a little worried that I would have problems with the route and managing sorting out the individual meals.  Friday is a big day as we deliver the normal Friday meals plus any frozen meals the clients have ordered for the weekend.  This means that nearly every client had a different order.  I needn't have worried.  I got around the round, which had several new clients,  in good time and had no problems sorting out the meals.  I did find that I got very tired with climbing in and out of the car but I recovered quickly after a nap in the afternoon.

My main objectives over the next few weeks are to get fit and also tidy up my front garden.  I  realise that I my take longer over some jobs and ride a little slower but have no doubt that I am on the mend.

With my medication settling down I am looking forward to getting on with life.

Louis Update

Louis made a visit to the vets last Thursday.  His injured leg is getting better and we hope that he wont  require surgery.  He is limited to gentle walks on the lead for the foreseeable future but appears to be happy especially at meal times.