I realise that many PWD are simply not able to walk, or are unable to walk far, and this post may not be of interest to those of you who care for people who fall into these categories.
For years after Sue's problems first started, and after I started working part-time, we tried to get out and walk as much as possible. At best we would walk 8-10 miles some weeks.
As things got more difficult, I aimed for at least 5 miles a week and sometimes managed 7. When Sue went through our most difficult months so far, which the early part of my blog describes, we started to walk again and still managed at least 5 miles a week. I'm convinced that this helped her recovery from the 'bad time' and that all the walking we have done must also have contributed to the relatively slow progression of the disease.
During 2014 we started to find it becoming more difficult to achieve the 5 miles, though we usually managed it. The various fixed things in our weekly schedule - singing, reflexology, care worker visits etc - all useful in themselves, didn't actually help with the walking. When we did have 'slots' when we could have walked the combination of earlier nightfall and autumn/winter weather made me look for alternatives.
We are lucky in that we live in a fairly spacious Victorian semi. I realised that, starting from the front doormat, we could walk 11 yards into the middle of the back room. 11 is useful in that it's easily multiplied to 220 or 440.
Since then, the target is three-quarters of a mile every day. Some days, it can all be outside. Other days when, for various reasons, we can't walk much outside, we make the distance up by walking indoors.
Amongst the various benefits of our walking indoors are nice level and easy floor surfaces (much safer than almost any pavement or path), much less danger of potentially harmful falls, the ability to sit down and rest whenever that is needed and an added bonus is the regular turning at the end of each 'leg' - excellent exercise.
I feel much happier now that I know that, at least for the time being, we can be fairly sure of achieving the weekly target.
There are probably people reading this who wonder why it took me so long to realise that indoor walking had a contribution to make.
P.S. The cat doesn't like it at all. Can't understand what we're doing and tries to get in the way.
For years after Sue's problems first started, and after I started working part-time, we tried to get out and walk as much as possible. At best we would walk 8-10 miles some weeks.
As things got more difficult, I aimed for at least 5 miles a week and sometimes managed 7. When Sue went through our most difficult months so far, which the early part of my blog describes, we started to walk again and still managed at least 5 miles a week. I'm convinced that this helped her recovery from the 'bad time' and that all the walking we have done must also have contributed to the relatively slow progression of the disease.
During 2014 we started to find it becoming more difficult to achieve the 5 miles, though we usually managed it. The various fixed things in our weekly schedule - singing, reflexology, care worker visits etc - all useful in themselves, didn't actually help with the walking. When we did have 'slots' when we could have walked the combination of earlier nightfall and autumn/winter weather made me look for alternatives.
We are lucky in that we live in a fairly spacious Victorian semi. I realised that, starting from the front doormat, we could walk 11 yards into the middle of the back room. 11 is useful in that it's easily multiplied to 220 or 440.
Since then, the target is three-quarters of a mile every day. Some days, it can all be outside. Other days when, for various reasons, we can't walk much outside, we make the distance up by walking indoors.
Amongst the various benefits of our walking indoors are nice level and easy floor surfaces (much safer than almost any pavement or path), much less danger of potentially harmful falls, the ability to sit down and rest whenever that is needed and an added bonus is the regular turning at the end of each 'leg' - excellent exercise.
I feel much happier now that I know that, at least for the time being, we can be fairly sure of achieving the weekly target.
There are probably people reading this who wonder why it took me so long to realise that indoor walking had a contribution to make.
P.S. The cat doesn't like it at all. Can't understand what we're doing and tries to get in the way.
