Weight bearing exercise, and since I am so incapable of doing real exercise I have been thinking about this a great deal and talking to various people. And weight bearing exercise can be as little as just standing up. So I do that as much as I possibly can.
Well I had advice to go to what I call the cripples gym [rehabilitation centre]. And I have been their quite a lot until I left that area because I was in [city area]. So it was very, very close to [rehabilitation centre]. But now it is too far. It would take me half a day to get there and back on my buggy. And the only way to get there is, as an alternative, is on what is called Dial-a-ride, which is a charity, which runs buses for disable people to go to places. But there are not enough buses and very often you cannot go when you need to go. So I ended up having to say, “No I can’t do this.”
So instead I am trying to do some other little form of exercise, and very recently I saw the special outreach physiotherapist, who suggested that maybe I could do some swimming. And I am about to start going once a week to have a little swim in the swimming pool in one of the hotels just down the [name] road here.
I was with the outreach physiotherapist because of my long term, very long-term chronic condition. And when I first came to [city] which is in 2000, I was put in touch with the outreach physiotherapist. She saw me then and it was she who recommended that I go to this special gym. And then I didn’t see her again. But fairly recently I met her at the gym at [rehabilitation centre], where she was supervising a small group of people with disabilities. And she said it was a good idea if she saw me again because it had been some years since she had seen me. And that was when she recommended that maybe I should try swimming. So, that is how I was in touch with her.
I went there in person but with the physiotherapist. This is the outreach physiotherapist who said it would be such a good idea. And then she went, was in touch with the head of the leisure centre at the [name] Hotel, because I cannot afford to pay the normal subscription fee for that. And instead he suggested that they would be prepared for me just to go once a week for a swim there at six pounds per time. So that would be worthwhile.
And how often are you planning to, to go swimming?
Once a week.
Well, [rehabilitation centre] has staff who are knowledgeable about a lot of different medical conditions, and so they are very good at recognising what things you cannot do. And then they say, ”Well, it looks as if you can do this one and this one. So let’s try those ones.” And that is worthwhile. And mostly they have been warm up on an exercise bike and then just the very few machines where I could do stretches and twists.
But it was good to know that nearly all the people who were there had some visible or obvious disability. And so you knew that you were not just with the super-fit young people but with people who needed to do this. So I felt very comfortable there. But I didn’t join groups.
