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A Reflection – How far I have come.
A Reflection – How far I have come.

A Reflection – How far I have come.

Christmas and the New Year is often a time to look back and reflect on the past and this year is no different.

While I was out on a 5 mile walk with Fudge I was thinking how far physically have improved since my accident 14-15 years ago, when I couldn’t walk more than a few steps.

I was on my way to Ireland for a weeks holiday and the next thing I remember is coming round with tubes and goodness know what stuck down my throat, in intense pain everywhere and wondering what was going on. It would appear I had been involved in an accident, which even now I still don’t know remember.

Apparently I had been in an induced coma for a week and during that time the surgeons had started to patch me back together again, but I was going to be left with some significant life changing injuries. I knew coming to terms with something wasn’t going to be easy and I wasn’t even sure if I would ever make a full recovery, but at least I was still alive, although apparently even that was touch and go.

Despite being dosed up to the eyeballs with morphine and pain killers I was such intense pain, a pain the like likes of which I had never experienced before. When asked how intense on a scale of 1 to 10, I would say 20+ Just the simple act breathing was painful and heaven help those who made me laugh.

As they say every journey starts with the first step, but those first steps were intensely painful and I started to take those first steps with weeks/months of hydro and physiotherapy.To help me help myself, I did set some targets to give me incentives to move forward and for me be able to look back and see how far I had come.

After a couple of years I was starting to become reasonably mobile and the pain had started to recede but it was still a struggle. Like all things there were some good days and of course the really bad days when I just didn’t/couldn’t get out of bed.

Whilst I was volunteering at the local MS Therapy Centre I met Carrie, Sole Harmony, who suggested Bowen Therapy treatments might help. After several weeks I noticed there was a slow but discernable improvement, the pain began to subside and I started to become more mobile.

I hate gyms and exercise, I always have done, but exercise was going to be the key to moving forward. I would join a gym, go for a month or so, but the motivation would wane and I would carry on paying the gym membership for the rest of the year. I decided I need to change this and find a personal trainer, who would keep me motivated,target those areas which need to be worked on and relish the challenge. I even joined a gym for yoga and body balance and I have even managed to keep the motivation going.

Moving on a good few years, I am now probably back to 90-95% of where I was in terms of mobility before the accident. The pain thankfully is now just a minor inconvenience, although there are days when it does come back to bit me.

When I look back when I was in such intense pain just trying to take a few steps, to now, when I will now happily go for a 3, 4, 5 mile walk relatively pain free. It has been a long, sometimes a difficult and challenging journey, but I have come a very long way. I have been lucky, but of course I can’t forget my sheer guts and determination to move forward, without those two I wouldn’t have got very far.

I have two targets left to achieve, one I am well on my way to achieving, but that last one might be a stretch too far – however if I don’t try you will never know.

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