Hey! Hope you’re all well!
I had a fantastic trip to New England! The autumn colours out there are just something else! I’ve never seen such a colourful, vibrant autumn palette before. It was, honestly, truly spectacular! If you are a big autumn lover, and enjoy travelling/road tripping, New England needs to get added to your travel bucket list!
We Had to Hire a Pickup Truck!
We hired a pickup truck. I know big, unpractical, but there’s just something I love about them! We road tripped around the 6 states of New England: Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. All beautiful in their own way!
Our truck:
We wandered the streets of Yale, pretending we were students. We visited Woodstock, a cute little town in Vermont, which has all the Gilmore Girls vibes. We visited a maple syrup farm, and learnt how it’s made. We did lots of walking up to impressive vistas. And we witnessed some of the most beautiful sunsets.
Fall in New England was Hot!
Weather-wise, we got so lucky! We got almost two weeks of solid sunshine! The weather was warm too. Temperartures some days were well into the 20s. I honestly, wasn’t expecting it! I had to hand-wash my shorts and t-shirts in the sink, because I didn’t pack enough summer clothes!
The Wildlife
Sadly, we didn’t see any moose, which was the one thing I was hoping for. However, we did see plenty of deer and little red squirrels, which all holiday I thought were Chipmunks! The little red squirrels were very shy and almost impossible to photograph, but the grey squirrels in Boston were quite the opposite and came right up to say hello!
Bears, on the other hand, I wasn’t expecting to see, and I especially didn’t really want to see one when I was out walking. But there we was, out walking in a quieter part of Arcardia National Park, in Maine. We heard some scruffling in the bushes, in the dead leaves. Something that sounded big. The day before I had heard the same sound. It was a deer, walking around. So of course, we just thought the same, and stopped to have a look. But I should have known better! These bushes were berry bushes…… bears’ favourite food!
A Bear!
As we took a few steps forward, a head popped up through the bushes. That was the moment we realised, it wasn’t a deer but a bear!
Remembering everything we’ve learnt on what to do in a bear encounter, we started talking loudly to show we were human, and then walked away swiftly, but not running. Thankfully, that was end to that story! It was unlikely we were going to get attacked. It looked up at us, realised we were human, and then had no interest in us, and carried on eating away at the berries. They only tend to attack if they feel threatened or become startled.
But the surprises of the day didn’t end here! As we reached back to the truck, still feeling pretty shook up from that encounter, you wouldn’t believe what happened next! No joke, a Sea Eagle swooped passed our heads! It was that low, my phone would have captured it beautifully! But I was in too much shock! Not only was I still recovering from the bear encounter, but now at the eagle. I just froze in shock, instead of pointing my camera up at it.
By the time I got over the shock, we waited for it to come up, but of course it didn’t!
The Wolf on my Travels
Overall, I had a pretty good two weeks with the wolf! I was well enough to do the walks I had planned, which made me so happy! They weren’t long walks; mostly were between 1.5 miles and 4 miles, and I couldn’t have done it without my walking poles.
The first walk I did, I really struggled! I think it was a mixture of jet lag and my fitness levels. I got to the summit ok, but coming back down, I felt exhausted. It was hard! But I had no choice but to continue!
By the end of the holiday, I was feeling a lot stronger. I was proud of how my body was doing! After the summer I’ve had with my steroid tapering and being too weak to do a lot, and then having to turn back around when I attempted to climb that hill in Scotland on my birthday weekend, I had come a long way! I felt like I was getting my life back! The life I love to live! A life that is filled with lots of adventure!
It Was Painful!
However, on the last hike we did in Arcadia National Park. We climbed up to the summit of The Bubble. It wasn’t a hard climb. However, the route we took coming down had a lot of mountain-style steps. I got halfway down, and my left knee was on fire. I couldn’t bend it, nor put weight on it. Luckily, it was just one knee, and I somehow managed to hobble my way down the remaining steps using just my right knee, keeping my left leg straight.
It was awful!
For a few days after that walk, my knee continued to be sore and inflamed. Luckily, that was our last hike of the trip!
Some photos from our hikes:
I’ve Come Along Way
Good news, I’m off all my pain relief! I managed to come off my pain relief a few days before travelling out to America. While I was out there, I didn’t need any apart from when my knee became inflamed after that hike. For a couple of days after, I had to take some, just so I could walk around the little towns we were visiting, but that was it.
For anyone who’s new to my blogs, I spent my summer tapering down my steroids and increasing my dose of Methotrexate. As it can take a few weeks for the new doses of Methotrexate to kick in, I felt the withdrawal of my steroids more, which led to my lupus flaring, leaving me in a lot of pain with my joints and muscles. It got so bad, I could hardly walk or use my hands. So I had to go onto a lot of pain relief just so I could function.
Leading up to my trip, I was a bit concerned. I wasn’t able to take my codeine with me as it’s classed as a controlled drug over there, and there’s so much paperwork involved, I always leave it at home. My anti-inflammatory, Etoricoxib, isn’t recognised by the FDA, so therefore isn’t allowed to be brought into the country. These were the two main pain relief I was heavily relying on.
Thankfully, as the steroid tapering came to an end, I was now on my maximum dose of Methotrexate and had been for quite a few weeks. The days leading up to the trip, I improved. I went out to America, just carrying paracetamol and Ibuprofen, and thankfully, it did the job when I needed it after that hike!
Things Are Good!
I would say things overall are pretty good with the wolf at the moment! Well, minus my sinus trouble, but that’s another story for another week!
That’s it from me this week!
Until next time,
Goodbye for now,
Emma
xox
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Want to catch up on my previous blogs, head to: My Weekly Lupus Diary
