Tai Chi

Some of you have asked how I got on with the tai chi class that I began last Monday, 11th May. I logged on at 9:55 but couldn’t get the video part to work. I could hear Matthew perfectly but I couldn’t see him and as I know nothing of tai chi at all it was all a walk in the dark; literally. But, for the first 10-15 minutes I was able to follow him and all we were doing with the minutest of movements, was just beginning to move one’s head and then moving onto the hands, wrists and elbows,and then I’m afraid when we got down to the hips and legs I couldn’t keep track of what he was doing so I kept listening but I’m afraid I didn’t carry on with the exercises as they were impossible so I had to be doing them wrong.

A week later, yesterday, I was all ready to logon at 9:45 in order to sort out the visual part of the Webex tai chi session. So I would then be ready to start the class at 10 o’clock. Then the telephone rang. Having been prompted by the pain clinic my GP was telephoning me to discuss reducing my pain relief, specifically, the Gabapentin. Having just been tussling with a honey badger and a puff adder it wasn’t the best of times to be discussing with me reducing my pain relief when I was thinking of pushing it up another hundred milligrams. So after a 20 minute conversation with the GP who I think realised that it wasn’t the best of times to be talking to me, she finished the conversation, with some pretty general questions about my health; temperature, loss of smell, loss of appetite; which seemed to me coronavirus based queries.

I suppose, in a way, it was good the GP rang me when I was experiencing the pain attacks I described yesterday, and with her questioning things that have happened over the past three or four years, at a time when I could hardly speak it wasn’t difficult for me to start crying which of course made her realise things weren’t too good. 10 minutes after she rang off – I think it may have been less than that – she phoned me back and said that something doesn’t seem quite right to her and she wanted me to give blood in order to ensure I didn’t have an infection. So this morning I have an appointment at the surgery so she can check my liver function and other things. During the two conversations she made it quite clear that she was reluctant to get me into the surgery or hospital because of the coronavirus problem, but felt my distress permitted such a visit. I made it quite clear that I was more than prepared to run the risk just in case there is something else going on in my body and they could give me the right pain relief.

So that is this morning’s excitement and I am only writing this up in case things do go off in a different direction.. I have a feeling that the test may show up that my kidneys or something are objecting to the gabapentin. So then what???

And I still haven’t got to grips with basic Tai Chi.