It is that time of year when we go on holiday and I do a journal. I call it a thrournal as I start with a journal and copy it into a thread. Hopefully others will do journals in the upcoming period as well. And the journal map is very helpful for holiday planning.
This holiday will be 28 days long and if things go anywhere near to plan we catch the Newhaven Dieppe ferry tomorrow (we are parked up already)
and arrive 1600 hrs french time then make our way to Spain on the Atlantic side. From there we will be cycling on disused railways as we make our way to Valencia for the fallas. No idea which ones we will do or which way we will come back.
As usual I have created a map of interesting to us stuff which might be natural spring baths, wine fountains, balcony roads, beaux villages, waterfalls and lakes etc. (and all the via Verdes)
I will add the via Verdes we do to the voie verte thread as well.
For those that don't know I had emergency open back surgery on L4 and L5 for cauda equina on 19/1/24. It was a laminectomy and disceptomy. In short you don't get an operation on this until your paralysis caused by a crushed spinal cord has caused lack of bowel and bladder control. My left leg was pretty much useless as well, never mind the pain from the disc and the sciatica.
Recovery because of all the nerve damage is 6-24 months.
I have been incredibly lucky in that all bodily functions returned immediately, I have very good leg strength, I m relatively fit, I m 58 and they caught it very early.
I am under the care of the spinal team for the rest of my life (I think kidney as well but hopefully not the liver !)
Just prior to leaving on day 39 of recovery, my current issues are (all on my left) a really annoying ankle pain across the front of the ankle, the outside of my shin has nerve pain but more full pain than shooting, my hip hurts in a morning when I get up so probably sleep induced, right inside my buttock I get shooting pains down my leg and they really really hurt. The outside of my leg is numb but I have recently got feeling back right at the top. Both my physios and doc know what I am up to.
I only take amitrytriptelyne from the prescribed medication and treat everything with some form of hemp or CBD product. I also have cold gels for hip shin and ankle, an ankle support, cushions for sleeping between knees, back straightener for normal sitting and a one that you plonk your bum on. Hot water bottle is also with us. I try to keep using my walking poles for posture but I don't need them.
We have travelled down today and stopped off at trundles hill at Goodwood
for a cup of coffee and also see if driving would have too much an effect on me. It doesn't appear so. It is an automatic and the wife (Paula) drives it as well.
Once we got here we parked in the free to us as passengers car park and went to the office to see if we could get on the night crossing but 60 quid extra wasn't worth it. Walked with poles to the town and to the range so probably walked more than I have done in the past 4 months.
KFC will be our choice of meal this evening whilst watching some football on free to air.
Other things to note if following are
We are both very frugal with money. Expect a lot of free Aires.
We ride E bikes with Bosch batteries
We have about 300 watts of solar and 200 ah of lithium and LPG.
This holiday will be 28 days long and if things go anywhere near to plan we catch the Newhaven Dieppe ferry tomorrow (we are parked up already)
As usual I have created a map of interesting to us stuff which might be natural spring baths, wine fountains, balcony roads, beaux villages, waterfalls and lakes etc. (and all the via Verdes)
I will add the via Verdes we do to the voie verte thread as well.
For those that don't know I had emergency open back surgery on L4 and L5 for cauda equina on 19/1/24. It was a laminectomy and disceptomy. In short you don't get an operation on this until your paralysis caused by a crushed spinal cord has caused lack of bowel and bladder control. My left leg was pretty much useless as well, never mind the pain from the disc and the sciatica.
Recovery because of all the nerve damage is 6-24 months.
I have been incredibly lucky in that all bodily functions returned immediately, I have very good leg strength, I m relatively fit, I m 58 and they caught it very early.
I am under the care of the spinal team for the rest of my life (I think kidney as well but hopefully not the liver !)
Just prior to leaving on day 39 of recovery, my current issues are (all on my left) a really annoying ankle pain across the front of the ankle, the outside of my shin has nerve pain but more full pain than shooting, my hip hurts in a morning when I get up so probably sleep induced, right inside my buttock I get shooting pains down my leg and they really really hurt. The outside of my leg is numb but I have recently got feeling back right at the top. Both my physios and doc know what I am up to.
I only take amitrytriptelyne from the prescribed medication and treat everything with some form of hemp or CBD product. I also have cold gels for hip shin and ankle, an ankle support, cushions for sleeping between knees, back straightener for normal sitting and a one that you plonk your bum on. Hot water bottle is also with us. I try to keep using my walking poles for posture but I don't need them.
We have travelled down today and stopped off at trundles hill at Goodwood
Once we got here we parked in the free to us as passengers car park and went to the office to see if we could get on the night crossing but 60 quid extra wasn't worth it. Walked with poles to the town and to the range so probably walked more than I have done in the past 4 months.
KFC will be our choice of meal this evening whilst watching some football on free to air.
Other things to note if following are
We are both very frugal with money. Expect a lot of free Aires.
We ride E bikes with Bosch batteries
We have about 300 watts of solar and 200 ah of lithium and LPG.