Freedom !

Where has the time gone ? It has been so busy & I can't believe it has been over 2 months since my last post ! Well as you can see from the pic above I made it to Morzine & I made it back- safely ! It all went quite well in the end. I was really nervous but my man & his boys were incredibly understanding & patient ! I booked another  2 hour lesson with an instructor at the start of the trip & she was great. Pushing me where necessary to bring me on but also understanding of my fear of injury. It was very tiring, without the gym I would never have managed it but it did pay off rather well. During the ski trip not only did I manage to get back to my beginner level that I was at before the Lisfranc, I then progressed & was managing a stable parallel ski technique with turns/stopping on the lovely blue runs that Morzine has to offer. I think the 4-5 day trip was about the right length for a starting point too. So all in all I was happy with that.

The foot was fine mostly, the legs ached as they do with skiing but it was all reassuringly normal :-) I even did a couple of easy Blue runs on my own whilst the boys were tackling the fearsome Reds & Blacks. I can recommend Morzine, a great French alpine resort with fantastic restaurants & beautiful runs. The transfer from Geneva airport is a reasonable 1hr trip by mini bus.

I have continued to work hard at the gym since being back, I've introduced some other exercises & I'm really enjoying walking & getting out & about now it's not so painful. I find my new found enthusiasm for walking  quite amusing as before my injury I'd walk but not really enjoy it. Perhaps it's linked to the whole fear of not being able to that I had throughout 2011 & most of last year. Either way I can & I very much enjoy it these days ! I have added a new page to the blog just explaining a bit about the exercises that I've done, I thought it might be of interest to someone who is wondering where to start :-)

I visited Newport beach, OC, CA & Glendale CA in April with my work colleagues. It was an absolute blast ! Never have I ever had so much fun on a work trip or been so well looked after. We hired bikes & spent a day on a bike ride/pub crawl all around Balboa Harbour & Newport beach, beautiful scenery & sunshine. Lunch was at Mutt Lynches that day, a great bar just off Newport Beach I think. We had a union jack handkerchief tied into a hat which we all took turns to wear...........

This certainly got us noticed amongst the residents ! I consider myself very lucky to be part of such a great team of people & to have such a fantastic job. I reminded myself of how brilliant my life is now so many times during that trip ! We must have ridden about 6-7 miles that day as well. The bikes were great fun, some were without brakes, you had to back pedal to stop, tricky after a few beers or when tying to stop in a hurry ! Another highlight for me was seeing a Sea Lion frolicking in the surf at the end of one of the piers, I'd never seen one so close & not in captivity so adorable to watch !

The following day we hired a boat & took a trip around the harbour & along the coastline, we were fortunate enough to catch 3 sightings of a whale ! Again so amazing & all of this before we started work.......... We spent 5 days working in Glendale after our weekend in Orange County, but it was worth it.

I planned a surprise weekend trip to Cornwall & Devon for my man just a couple of weeks ago for his birthday. Last year we also went but sadly I was on crutches following an inflammation of my mid-foot, so we took the opportunity to revisit the area this year & what a great time we had. We visited Exeter Cathedral, one of the greatest Gothic style cathedrals in Europe. It is magnificent with one of the longest uninterrupted Gothic vaulting in the world ! Then we travelled on to the Eden project at St Austell, & spent the evening in Carlyon Bay. The following day we moved on to Charlestown harbour which dates back to 1790 & was built by a private owner for the export of copper & china clay. What is remarkable is that the export of china clay still happens from Charlestown to this day, about 30-40 ships are still loaded from here each year. Films are filmed here, Dr Who was filmed here a couple of years ago & interestingly it was up for sale for £4.4m last year !

After a nose around the harbour & a lovely cup of coffee from the Orange Farm shop, housed in a brightly coloured bus situated on the harbour wall we moved on to Dartmouth. A lovely historical town situated in Devon, home to the Royal Britannia Naval College & the artist Simon Drew. We did speak with Simon Drew when looking around one of his shops, You can't miss him actually !
So a superb weekend & now it's back to work.........
I go to college each Tuesday evening to learn about photography, this is something that I'd been meaning to do for so many years. It's been really interesting, a real shame that there is only a couple of weeks left to complete the course. Next week we are on a field trip to practise low light photography, this I am really looking forward to.
Before I go just one last thing; On Saturday June 1st I am joining the team of Yacht Scream, sail number GBR8837R who is competing in class IRC 0 in the 2013 J.P Morgan Round The Island Yacht Race.

We are the 1st class to start the race at 5.00 am (GMT) & will be competing against some fearsome competition including ICAP leopard. The race is world famous & this year 1450 yachts have entered so far. The course is 58 nautical miles long & follows a course around the coastline of the Isle Of Wight. Wish me luck ! If you'd like to see how we get on you can find details on the following link;
http://www.roundtheisland.org.uk/

Small Victories .......

This morning I awoke safely tucked up in my own bed, the foot was tired but OK, no traction, hospital beds or fractures- PHEW!............
Phew because last night I Skied ! Yes SKIED !
Oh how happy am I this morning :-) My Inner self was dancing victoriously last night & still going this morning when I woke up.

I didn't manage to persuade my employers to let me tag on a trip to Canada in April after my weeks work in California as I was hoping but  my lovely man is taking his two sons skiing to Morzine, France for Easter & in an impetuous moment I agreed to fly out & join them for 4 days before I fly to LA. So after much deliberation & of course shopping for the right outfit (Yes...... all the gear & no idea!) I decided that a couple of lessons on the artificial snow slopes in the UK could be a sensible plan. So last night was my first lesson. I have skied once before, a couple of months before I broke the foot I had a week at ski school in the three valleys & although it was hard work, challenging & scary I had got bitten by the bug & have really wanted to try it again since my Lisfranc.

I nervously met my instructor & after coaxing my foot into the ski boot off I went, out onto the nursery slope. To begin with I had forgotten most of the basics, my legs were shaking with fear & the butterflies in my stomach were more like a fast spin on your washing machine cycle. Anyway my instructor was very patient & we went through some warm up exercises, including jumping with my skis on would you believe ? "Now I want you to jump" my instructor said, I looked at him open mouthed & after swallowing back the "NO, I DO NOT JUMP!" that my brain was screaming I bit the bullet & did it.
Just a few inches from the snow but I did it.
After nearly an hour of hard work practising snow ploughing, trying to turn & testing my leg strength I did manage a controlled run down the slope of about 50 meters with turns & stopped neatly at the bottom. I was knackered I can tell you and sweaty and hot but absolutely thrilled !
The toughest bit was taking the mental leap of faith. Physically I was fine (although very glad I'd been working out at the gym & aware that lots more work is needed) but mentally I was apprehensive to say the least. But by breaking it down into baby steps & gradually working my way up the slope I got to a point where I felt relatively safe & happy.
So there you go, we can recover from Lisfranc to a point where life becomes fun again !
I have one more lesson in the UK in two weeks, then I'm off to Morzine. They've just had another 5 cm of snow, conditions are good according to the reports so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it stays that way until we go. I'll let you know how I get on .......

Thursday 7th April

The next three days had been painful & awkward but luckily I was well supported by new boyfriend, my dad & my grandad who had all visited me & helped me out with cooking & general day to day stuff, eating takeaways, watching movies etc etc :)
So I attended fracture clinic on Thursday 7th April & after having my cast removed, the registrar looked concerned. The location of the bruising & the amount of swelling were atypical to a Lisfranc, I later found out.After having my back slab plaster removed, I went for X-ray & also attempted a weight bearing X-ray, returning to Fracture clinic to meet again with the registrar.....
An orthopaedic consultant appeared along with the registrar & with a grave expression on his face proceeded to explain that he thought it was highly likely I had in fact broken more than one bone along with injuring the Lisfranc joint. At this point I'd never heard of the Lisfranc joint, but the consultant then proceeded to explain I would need surgery, but this wouldn't be possible until the swelling had subsided. I was referred for a CT scan & fitted with a walking boot, although told strictly no weight bearing & to keep the foot elevated at all times to reduce the swelling as quickly as possible. A possible 3 month recovery period was mentioned & after now realising the potential seriousness of the injury I booked a private appointment to follow up the CT scan results with the consultant on Saturday 9th April...............