A new adventure!

 

It is just over a year ago, it seems since I wrote a Blog! It’s not that nothing has been happening in my life, far from it. Life is treating me kindly. There have been some small adventures. The majority have involved me and my ebike. But by far the happiest and most satisfying for my soul has been my little patchwork family. I find myself the grandfather to two single mothers each with a son. Being around these boys and watching them grow and learn is wonderful, and I am establishing a good relationship with them. Their mother’s don’t know yet, but I shall be using my bad influence to have many small adventures with these boys.

Be that as it may once my knee recovered from the operation I felt a need and a desire to walk one more Camino. From Lisbon to Santiago and the End of the World was my desire.

I started my training by buying new hiking shoes and not boots. Initially this was a disaster because I had some prescription insoles made by a firm in Willich called IOS! They just crippled my feet. Three times I had them remade, but to no avail! The initial shoe too proved to be too wide at the heel and I had to tie them so tight it hurt! I took them back after four weeks and got a different pair. As a Gold customer with Sport Check, they took them back without a murmur. 

I also worked hard to reduce the weight I had to carry by weighing every item and choosing what to take on weight alone. I also invested in a new lighter (under one kilo) rucksack and so imagine how pleased I was when I got the weight done to just over nine kilos!

  

I think though I need a new set of baggage scales as the airport scales showed me even lighter!

One of my “daughters” took me to the airport where my adventure began! The boarding pass on my phone did not have the Gate number on it but said that the safety check in was to be in area C! Went through there. Interestingly my artificial knee did not show on the scan!

Once through the security check I went on through passport control which was on the left, but should have gone to the right before it! I now learned that my flight was leaving from Gate A39 and had no means of getting there but to return through passport control as if I was arriving from abroad and go out into the arrivals hall and start all over again! 

By the time I got to the gate there was no time to do any shopping which was probably a good thing!

Then they changed the gate to gate A49 where we were able to see our plane arrive.

And watch my Rucksack being loaded. It’s the yellow bundle on the conveyor belt!

My seat was 5D, but stupidly I sat in 6D. When the owner of my seat came I found a woman now sitting in my seat so went sit in her’s which should have been 4D! Apart from these musical chairs the flight was uneventful. We were served with a dry bread roll which contained plastic cheese and ham. 

The good part was the leg room on the flight, there was plenty of it. So well done TAP Portugal.

On arrival it was a long walk to collect the baggage and then a long wait to get a taxi!

Our hostel is on the eighth floor of a high rise building which we are sharing with some chaps from Brazil. Thanks to Google translator we are able to communicate with each other. 

Initially we were allocated a top bunk, but I played the artificial knee card and they changed the bunks! The Bears are now happy.

I took a quick walk round the block and ended up getting wet as it rained. It is windy and colder than when I left good old Germany, but otherwise I have no complaints!

A Crazy Brit!

How do you sum up three weeks in a German rehabilitation clinic now that I am home again? It is now the 31st Day since the operation on my right knee. What they don't tell you till the last minute, is that you will be in great pain and unable to sleep well for sometime! 

I am grateful for the training I received in the British Army for it has stood me in good stead, through life, my circumnavigation and now in surviving the Rehab Clinic! What doesn't kill you makes you strong is true in this case, also.

As the bears have mentioned the clinic was full of patients that had received either a knee replacement or a hip replacement. The majority were women and a fair proportion of them were on the self pitying trip and seeking sympathy for their pain. They got none from me! And yet a sense of camaraderie did exist, for we were all in it together and experiencing similar pain problems. I just did not talk about mine.

Early on, because I was  Brit, I was marked out, mostly in a humorous manner, but also because I did my own thing, walked 3 kms per day through the town and park, and faster than anyone else. When the therapists heard I had hiked over the hills with my crutches, they were aghast and gave me to understand that I was crazy and should not do this!! Well I did as I was told for about a week before I was drawn again into the woods and hills for another adventurous hike.

This is how the knee looked two days after the Operation!

This is how it looks now!

We took ourselves off for another walk in the woods, which was up hill all the way.

We found a Chapel at the top.

And so we stopped to pray for good health and for all our friends around the World.

The views always compensated for the effort of getting there.

A Knee Group therapy session!

On another occasion we took ourselves off to walk up the river Üssbach  valley. The clinic is actually located on the banks of this river in Bad Bertrich.

We went as far as the "Entenburg" which though the stairway had four steps missing actually climbed to the top.

A selfie from the top of the tower where the views were great.

We had come from the area of the white building in the top left of the picture just below the horizon!

Our efforts were nearly always rewarded with an ice and an espresso!

Although I had twice mentioned to the clinic doctor that I wanted to be able to ride a bike before I left, I was never allocated therapy on a bike. In the last week I received a fair bit of one on one therapy and one nice young physiotherapist, acted much like an Army PTI and really made me sweat. Such sessions I enjoyed the most, for I always felt that the effort of working through the pain was worth it. Water gymnastics I also enjoyed a lot. At first with two women then with only one and lastly alone. All in all I left the clinic on Thursday 29th March fitter, five kilos lighter and able to run up and down the stairs like any normal person!

The Bears are happy to be home again as much as I am.

On the Friday after getting home I got up early to see the Orthopaedic Specialist to discuss future treatment. Then I went to my GP to touch base and to discuss and obtain pain therapy treatment. I take no pain killers during the day any more, but need them at night or else I would get no sleep at all!
I then had plenty of time to get a number plate made for my new bike carrier and so went and collected my new Trecking Ebike.

The weather was so fine, like a summers day, so once home I took the bike for a spin to the cemetery to show Hanna and to report that I was back again. It's about a 3 kms round trip, so I am well able to ride a bike again, though I must admit getting the right leg over the bike takes a bit of effort.

My cunning plan is now to do some fitness speed walking on crutches for some 3 kms and then stretching and strengthen exercises three times a week. I will get physio twice a week for awhile and twice a week I will hike in the woods with a light pack and my hiking poles, the first week 6 kms, the second 8 the third 10 and so on until I can hike 30 kms again. With my knew Ebike I will take myself off at weekends, just for fun as well! The crutches I will ditch using in two weeks time i.e. 6 weeks after the operation and not the 12 they kept telling me in the clinic!!

So life is good, I am glad I had the operation done and as you may be able to tell can't wait to get on with my new adventures.