I’m currently sat in Casper, drinking a strong black coffee, looking at views over the Peak District. My perfect kind of Sunday!
After having a few days stuck at home, feeling really quite poorly with the wolf, we decided to make a decision to get away last night. We haven’t gone away to do any big hikes, just to relax, and get away from the stresses of selling our home. We rocked up at our camping spot at 6.30 last night and had a lovely relaxing evening, watching the sun setting over the rolling hills, sat in our cosy little camper, forgetting about the house. It was the best medicine the doctor could have prescribed me for my mental health!
The Wolf Just Hasn’t Been Happy
It’s been another rollercoaster of a week with the wolf! At the start of the week, the wolf seemed happy. I had recovered from last week’s flare-up and felt back to my normal self. I was happy! But as the week went on, my body decorated again.
I woke up Thursday morning. My body hurt from head to toe. I jumped into the bath, hoping it would help to ease the pain. It helped a little but didn’t fix my problems. I thought maybe I would feel better as the day went on as sometimes I am just worse first thing in the morning and I do improve. So I drugged myself up and headed into work, feeling hopeful. But as the morning went on, I just felt worse and worse. By 11ish, I knew I needed to go home and get into bed to rest. My body hurt so much, I felt weak, I couldn’t focus, my stomach was bad, and on top of that my sinuses were playing up.
I then spent the rest of Thursday and all day Friday resting. Saturday, I woke up feeling quite a bit better, but I was still in a lot of pain with my joints and my stomach still felt inflamed. So I spent Saturday having another restful day.
I Thought A Short Stroll Would Be Ok
Today, I’ve woken up feeling almost back to my normal self. My stomach feels so much better. My joints still hurt but not as painful as they were. Just back to an average day with joint pain. The biggest issue I woke up to today, is my sinuses.
So this morning we decided to get ourselves out in the fresh air for a short stroll. We were only out for just under an hour, walking an very easy, flat, gentle route along Baslow Edge. I thought I was going to be ok with it. I know my body is in a fragile state, and I know it won’t take a lot to push it backwards again. But I honestly thought this short, easy walk with be fine. However, I was wrong. I found it such a struggle! It was a walk I would normally find so easy, a walk that should have felt like a walk in a park to me. It wasn’t much longer than the walk I do to work every day. That’s how short and easy the walk should have felt!
It makes me feel sad when I struggle like this. But I know it’s because my body isn’t well and I know my strength will come back as soon as I am well again. I know today it’s down to my sinuses making my body feel like this. Whenever I suffer from sinus trouble, it seems to knock strength out for my body. Makes my body feel weak and fatigued. My mom always says the same. She will be out backpacking in the mountains and she will come home and tell me she found it harder than normal because of her sinuses. Yes, I don’t have the average kind of parents. My parents often go off backpacking into the mountains for days on end, carrying everything on their back, camping in the middle of nowhere, purifying their own drinking water from the mountain springs. I really do look up to them! My mom’s 59 and my dad’s 60, both with health problems, yet stronger and fitter than I will ever be. My dad only has 50% lung capacity, sounds like he’s can’t gasp for air when climbing steep inclines, yet can climb steeper mountains and walk further than I physically can. Whenever they offer to go on a walk with us, I’m always worried I won’t be able to keep up with them! I’m sure that should be the other way round right? I’m certainly proud to call them my parents!
This was their camp spot last night:
(Sorry dad I stole your photo)
Things Have To Change
After 2 weeks on the row flaring up my Lupus, things have to change next week! The cause of both flare-ups is down to us trying to get our house sold. Every evening we’ve been having up to 4 viewings. Some nights I’m not sitting down till gone 8.30. Meaning, my body is getting very little rest. I manage my illness by living quite a disciplined lifestyle. I have to give my body a certain amount of hours of rest each day. Normally, I manage it very well. My evenings are normally spent resting my body. So after work, I normally have tea, sometimes a bath depending on the pain in my joints, and then I sit and rest either by reading or watching a bit of Netflix each night. I can sometimes get away with not doing this may be one night in a week, or 2 at most. But missing this rest time every night is just too much for the wolf!
Next week Alex is working on the early shift, meaning he will be home earlier before I finish work. So he’s going to try and get a lot of the viewings in before I finish work, to try to help me out. Let’s hope this helps, and hopefully won’t be too much longer before we get an offer we want to accept. We have had one but it’s under the asking price, so we said no.
Glad to be feeling so much better and definitely helped to get away last night for my mental health. I do feel a bit sad I struggled with today’s walk, but I still enjoyed getting out and I am glad I did. Let’s just hope next week is going to be a better week!
Here’s a couple of photos from today’s walk. It’s such an easy walk to do, perfect for all abilities. I will be writing up a walking guide if anyone is interested. You park at the top, so you walk straight onto the edge, with no climb up like some of the other edges in the Peaks. It’s then a flat walk along the tops, with some little friends to see along the way.
I was meant to be in the Lake District this weekend training for climbing some of the tough Welsh 3000s. Obviously, the wolf got in the way of my plans. Not the first he’s done that, and it won’t be the last. I just now need to work on getting my strength back up, ready for my birthday, when I plan to climb Snowdon for my 3rd time. I do worry if I am strong enough to climb it. But I did manage it when I was just 7 years old and I know it’s not as hard as Pap of Glencoe which we did in Scotland back in May. I guess the main thing, it’s going to be down to the wolf on the day and making sure I look after myself leading up to it. Hopefully, with it being my birthday, he will be kind to me.
Anyways, better get off. We have to get home for 3 viewing this evening. Back to reality! It was nice escaping it while we could.
Until next week,
Stay safe.
Goodbye for now
Emma
xox
