Wheelchair races and a lunge too far (From Northwich Guardian)

Highlight of our visit to Leighton Hospital was a wheelchair race

8:58am Friday 25th February 2011 in Your Say

I’d hoped to tell you how my assignment was going for my OU course but unfortunately I’ve still not worked on it as we have had a bit of a family crisis in the Sherwood household this week.

My father-in-law took a tumble while in Northwich on Wednesday. Luckily for us a wonderful woman and her husband were nearby when it happened. Bev Daniels and her husband looked after my father-in-law until an ambulance came – we cannot thank her enough for what she did.

Although my father-in-law has some very nasty bruises and a fractured thumb, he is fine and after a few weeks rest he should be back to normal.

The highlight of our few hours spent at Leighton Hospital has to have been when we were heading out to the car park with my in-laws both in wheelchairs as they can’t walk far. The car park was quite empty so we had a wheelchair race with both my in-laws laughing like a pair of school children – it certainly lightened the mood!

On a totally separate note, I am still trying to get to grips with what exercise I can handle with my arthritis. I have been told categorically that running is out of the question.

As a keen runner who used to happily run 4 to 6 miles a day that is quite an adjustment to make. I have found a couple of fitness DVDs that I am ‘adapting’ to suit some of my current limitations. A great one is the Tracy Anderson mat method – I like using this as there is no high impact work but crikey you don’t half feel your muscles ache after you have done it!

Another one is good old Davina McCall. I tend to select the routines that don’t involve too much bouncing around however do be careful whenever carrying out any exercise. I was a little over enthusiastic the other night while trying some lunges – a snapping sensation followed by a noise which I am sure should not have come out of the back of my leg resulted in my letting out a loud yelp and limping over to the sofa.

That will teach me!

Readers who submit articles must agree to our terms of use. The content is the sole responsibility of the contributor and is unmoderated. But we will react if anything that breaks the rules comes to our attention. If you wish to complain about this article, contact us here