Normality arrives

I wrote a couple of months ago about returning to normality. This reflected how I was recovering from my surgery and starting to get back to normal life with things like driving and going out. It also talked a little of how normal my life has become since transitioning and how my GRS has reinforced that normality.

Now, I feel normality is pretty much here. Physically I have got to the strength where I can go about my life in a way that was possible before my surgery. I waited until I was given the go ahead by Mr. Thomas at 10 weeks and then started pushing the limits of what I could do.

A couple of weeks ago, when my friend Susan was around, I gently lifted the wheelchair out of the back of the car. This felt fine and a few days later I gently lifted it back in to the car which was just as easy. Last weekend (the one before Easter) found Mandy and myself returning to Taunton and having our usual Sunday morning walk around the town and canal. To be able to do this again was quite a release for me. We both talked about it afterwards and found that the three months of not doing this had been tougher on us than we realised. There is a unique bond we have formed with me pushing her wheelchair. It is a kind of intimacy that is hard to explain and it had been missing in our lives. 

This paved the way for more trips and we found ourselves doing this walk a number of times over Easter. I was surprised at the level of fitness I had and with the aid of my new GPS watch, I found I was able to do near 4 miles walks with the wheelchair at a pretty respectable 17.5 minutes to the mile. The great weather made this more enjoyable and added a new positivity to my life.

I have also gone quite gung-ho with my running. I started just over a fortnight ago and again with the aid of my new watch, I found I could do a respectable 3 mile straight away without stopping. Since that time I have pushed the distance every single day and now got to 5.6 miles with an average pace of 9.18 minutes to the mile. Considering that I didn't run for 12 weeks prior to this, I feel quite amazed how much fitness I did retain. 

Being able to run again has brought back the therapy element that I had been missing since my GRS. I am still getting into some form of fitness which means a certain amount of thought has to be put into pushing myself up the undulating lanes, but I generally find my mind in a much better place for the day than it was before I restarted running. I always listen to music when running too and this is also a source of therapy.

I have also regained some of my strength and this has enabled me to sort out some elements of where we live. We have moved around the living room and kitchen and gotten them to a much more suitable layout. We moved in in November and literally had to get everything in and prepare for surgery. Now we can fiddle around with it and get it to how we want. I have also done some work in the garden and practically got it ready for the summer. I have laid a section of lawn and filled the rest with fruit bushes. A few flowers will complete it and we will have somewhere nice to sit in the warmer weather. 

Normality is here and the coming months look like they could be very settled.