My Journey With Health And Fitness – I Just Have To Go With The Flow

I am currently working on rehoming a dog through my volunteer organization. The potential adopter looks awesome on paper and should be a good fit. The problem is that he lives about 300 km away from Metro Vancouver and since he is elderly trying to get him set up so I can do a virtual ‘home visit’ is proving challenging. But you know what, I will find a way to make this adoption work while still checking off all the boxes that I need to. I believe you can always find a work around that meets the needs of both parties. Here’s hoping I am successful.

So Tuesday night my sister had a bad fall. Unfortunately we couldn’t get her up but she didn’t want us to call 911. Instead we all agreed that I would make up a bed on the floor for her but if we still couldn’t get her up the next morning then emergency assistance would be required. Sure enough, we ended up calling for help as her right knee had become too painful for her to even bend it.

The ambulance was manned by 2 young female paramedics. They were extremely kind and helpful and treated my sister with dignity and respect. They realized that she did indeed need to go to the emergency room but that they would need assistance to get her into the stair chair to get her to the front door from our second floor hence they called the fire department. It turned out the stair chair was not going to work because someone would have to hold my sister’s foot up to avoid her being in agonizing pain. The next attempt was a clam shell back board which worked perfectly. So off into the ambulance she went to figure out what was wrong.

Turns out she has broken her knee cap. They were able to get her semi-mobile by putting her in a knee immobilizer and arranging for a 4 wheeled walker. They were also able to discharge her because you can get into our basement through our garage. We knew the basement would work because it is still set up from when my brother was living with us. And so we brough her home to await an appointment with the orthopedic surgeon on Monday and then to have surgery on Tuesday.

But with this happened along comes some challenges. First of all we are scheduled to fly to Mexico on April 2nd. Right now they are 75% sure she can come with me but if not I will go and enjoy 3 weeks on my own before my husband arrives. Secondly, even if we do go to Mexico all of our plans may have changed as she won’t be able to do much walking but we can figure it out. Thirdly, we likely are going to have to pay someone to look after her when my husband arrives in Mexico as it is unlikely she will be navigating stairs when she gets back home. And finally, I am back to being a caregiver which means my time is once again not my own.

Previously if through no fault of my own I was having to do things like cancel walks or fitness classes I would be horribly upset. However now, I’m like ok, I’ll make up for it later. Besides, I am doing a lot of climbing up and down our stairs in order to take care of her so burning at least some calories. Yes, taking her to a 7:30am doctor appointment Monday morning is going to stop me from walking (and of course no real time in the rest of the day to do so) but I am not freaking out about it. I think a lot of it has to do with losing my brother last year and realizing that there are priorities in life.

And so, I am just going to go with the flow. If I make it to fitness class awesome, if I can get at least an hour walk in then that will be good enough. If I have to do this for several weeks that is ok too. The world is not about to crumble because my fitness schedule is off. Even better, my head is ok with all of this too.