Thursday, 28 March, 2024

By The Fibreside

Knitting and spinning on the Sunshine Coast of BC

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I want to smack my younger self sometimes…

Back when I was young and stupid, in a time before there was a digital camera in every phone, actually, in a time before digital cameras were not hideously expensive, in a time when cameras actually used film, I took a solitary vacation in the Rocky Mountains and almost fell off one.

Actually, now that I think about it, it was probably only 2001 or 2002, and that’s kind of scary, because MAN how much our world has changed in the last decade…

Anyway, as I was saying, I was young and stupid, and thought that fencing twice a week made me in shape, and decided to do a very long, very inclined hike on my first day. I want to say it was 20 km or something ridiculous like that, but I think that’s a slight exaggeration. Anyway, it went UP from the hostel to a glacier, and then DOWN back to the hostel in one big loop. And I took I think one litre of water with me.

Needless to say, this did not go well. It was also a warm day. My water was gone before I got UP, and I was so thirsty that I ended up drinking glacier runoff. And oh, my legs. It didn’t get really bad until I was going DOWN. All these hairpin turns cut into the side of the mountain, around and around, and oh, but my LEGS were starting to HURT.

Then I slipped, and my left leg went off the side of the mountain, and if I hadn’t have had a walking stick, well, so might the rest of me. But using the walking stick to help, I straightened my right leg (which was still firmly planted on the path, thank goodness; I bent it as I slipped, so I was pretty stable and close to the ground), shook myself off, and hobbled down the mountain to the hostel.

Let me tell you. I almost thought I wouldn’t make it. I got back, drank buckets of water, cleaned up my scratches, and then sat and contemplated my own stupidity.

I then compounded my stupidity by climbing up another mountain two days later. Hey, I took a day in between to rest! That climb did not go so well. I turned back in fairly short order since I couldn’t actually use my hip joints all that well.

I have self-diagnosed with lingering bursitis in my hips as a result (worse in the left), though I didn’t come to that realization until about five years ago. I have gotten some treatment recently, Active Release Therapy to break down the scar tissue, and that’s helped calm it down quite a bit.

So it’s a really bummer that as I was doing my evening treadmill walk on Thursday night, that old air-bubble feeling in the ball-and-socket joint came back on the left side. Note to self: Avoid treadmill incline 5 and above… Ice and rest and anti-inflammatories this weekend, and then stretching. And no incline over 4 from now on. I was doing so well on the walking too, but I know I can’t push this one. It’s an overuse injury, and I need to bring the swelling down. And maybe go back for another spectacular set of bruises from ART if it doesn’t settle in short order. 🙂

Dad stayed until Friday morning. He tried to drive home Thursday, but turned around just in time to avoid the 100 car pile-up on the highway as a result of the Thursday snowstorm. We watched Tangled and shared a day-old donut instead. If he hadn’t turned around, his would have been one of the cars, and that wouldn’t have been good.

I’m trying to have focus in my knitting. I have one more sunflower to do, and then once they’re done, it’s back to the 2009 sweater. I know I just have to start working on it again, and everything will fall in to place. At least, I hope so. But first, the socks. I had to move one of the Spats socks off the circular to move stitches around and cable across the gap, but I’m hoping to have them both back on the circ before I go for my quarterly haircut this afternoon, so that I can work on them while I’m sitting there.

Getting there!
Getting there!

As a side note, I had to go buy a new set of 2.5 mm dpns to pull the one sock off (I only have four in my other set because one of them broke), so last Sunday I went down to River City Yarns West. All they had were these bamboo ones. I hate bamboo. If I wasn’t desperate and running behind all weekend, I would have bailed and gone out to Pam’s and bought rosewoods. /sigh

2 comments on I want to smack my younger self sometimes…

  • The posts in my head | By The Fibreside

    […] would have made that late November, but don’t quote me on that – when I came across the post in which my hip issues started. I read it, feeling slightly […]

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