I’m back to my good, old self with the wolf and I couldn’t be happier! I’m back on my normal dose of steroids, and finally not having to tiptoe so much around Mr Wolf. Life is good again!
Next week, I go away to Europe in Casper. I’m so excited! We’re heading over to the Swiss Alps and the Italian Dolomites, reliving some of my childhood memories. But I am feeling quite worried about my fitness and my strength. I feel as though I’ve lost a lot of strength in my legs and quite a bit of cardio fitness too. I know I will get it back in time, but I’m worried I’m going to find it hard walking on holiday. I was so strong back in early July. One bad flare-up can really set you back! It’s so frustrating as I work so hard to get good muscle strength and cardio fitness! What annoys me even more, if I didn’t have that steroid injection, I would have been well weeks ago and probably wouldn’t have lost so much strength. But I am where I am. There’s no point in wishing things were different, just got to learn. I know in the future to say no to the steroid injection and stick to oral steroids.
Heading The Right Way
I have a home gym with a treadmill. This week I’ve been doing a lot of walking on it with a high incline, to try and get my strength for walking in the mountains again. Yesterday, I attempted my first run on it. I managed 20 minutes, but it was hard. Back in June/July, I was running comfortably for 30 minutes. I know my fitness won’t come back overnight, but I keep telling myself, that I am heading in the right direction and that’s all that matters.
A Great App
For running and walking on my treadmill, I use the app, Bitgym. It’s brilliant! I absolutely love it! You basically run or walk through different locations all over the world. Yesterday, I was running through the Swiss Alps. On Wednesday, I was walking a famous waterfall trail in Oregon. You can walk or run through Las Vegas, Chicago, Venice, Tokyo, the list just goes in. There are 225 different locations to choose from. It makes walking and running so much more fun on a treadmill! The only problem is, that I keep discovering new places to add to my forever-growing bucket list!
If you are interested in giving the app ago, I have an affiliate link to share with you. Use the code: thewolf and it will give you the first month free. You don’t need a treadmill at home to use it. Just download the app onto your phone or tablet and take it with you to your gym. Honestly, you will love it!
Here’s my affiliate link: https://www.bitgym.com/profile/index.html?back=offer&code=thewolf
Ingrowing Toenail
Ughhh I have a really painful ingrowing toenail at the minute. The worst thing is, I keep stubbing my toe! I swear, I don’t normally stub my toe as much as I’m doing at the minute! I don’t even know what’s caused it? I haven’t had an ingrowing toenail since my operation back in 2020. It’s not the toe they operated on, that one is perfectly fine. It’s one on my other foot. The hospital did say they can operate on that one too. But to be honest, it hasn’t caused me any bother since 2020, so I’ve not needed them to do so. Hopefully, this is just an isolated episode and won’t need the operation in the future.
The Route Across Europe
That’s it from me this week. I’ve got my routine bloods next week. Then on Friday evening, Alex and I will be heading down towards the Euro tunnel to start our European trip in Casper. I cannot wait! Our first stop will be Luxembourg City. From there we will be heading down to the Swiss Alps for a few days. After that, we head towards the North of Italy to Lake Como, Lake Iseo, Venice, then on to the Italian Dolomites. We will then start making our way back up north towards Calais via Innsbruck, Austria, and Vaduz, Liechtenstein.
While I’m away, I will be taking the time off my blogs. I will hopefully be too busy out exploring to have time to sit and write. I’ll be back in October, hopefully still with a happy wolf, telling you about an epic couple of weeks I’ve had in Europe. The first week back I have my Rhuemtaolgy appointment followed by my Covid booster.
Don’t forget to subscribe to my mailing list, so you’re notificated via your inbox when I’m back from Europe with my blog.
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Until next month
Emma
xox
My book, How I Tamed the Wolf, Living with Lupus is available on Amazon via this link:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09M73X2JQ/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_MWAF58981F0VVMNRV1WN
