disbelief

[oldherbaceous]

Maybe we are lucky to all be lovers of gardening, it keeps you fit, and i don't know about everyone else, but i never can wait for the new day to start to see whats new out there in the garden.

[arthur e]

I have been doing garden maintenance for an old couple for the last two years bacause of the husbands bad knee's. He has had them both replaced on the NHS and has re discovered golf and a 14 handicap so I am still gardening for them
Arthur E

[lizzie]

It's all about having a positive mental attitude. You can manage your condition or it can manage you. By dealing with it you're not making it go away, you're helping your healthy bits to cope with the bits that are knackered.

Plus, having a revenge goal is always motivational

[maree t]

hi all
i have various problems and find that wearing a magnet really helps me. it keeps my hands much more mobile and although some days are a struggle i dont suffer so many problems the next day
maree

[Primrose]

Dear OH. Keep up the back exercises. I'm sure they will make a difference if you do them regularly. Having had surgery for a burst disc some years ago which occasionally puts me out of action for days at a time I suffer ongoing discomfort but find that back exercises do help keep the spine flexible. They're a far better way of coping with pain than constantly stuffing painkillers which slowly toxify the system. I also have my back "roller stretcher" which is a curved wooden device with moving rollers built into it on which you lie. Over a period of 10 minutes it slowly decompresses the discs and stetches the spine. My husband calls it an instrument of torture but I find that 10 minutes stretched out on it gives me more relief than a mouthful of painkillers !

[oldherbaceous]

Dear Primrose, i promise to do the exercises as i do believe they will help.
And i do only take painkillers if i haven't smiled for twenty four hours, and it must be bad for me not to do that.
I know it's tempting fate, but my back has been really behaving itself for a month now.

[Weed]

The only excercise that really counts goes as follows....


Breath in.....


Breath out...


Follow that simple formula and you can live forever!

[oldherbaceous]

I better remember that one then Weed, sounds as if it could be pretty important.

[Monika]

One of my hips occasionally plays up but half an hour's swim always seems to "cure" it. Does anybody find that?

[lizzie]

Hi Monika

I've been told by Vlad The Impailer (my physio)that swimming and horse riding are the 2 best all round exercises that a person can do.

Swimming for the cardio vascular, muscle stretch and tone and horse riding for the cardio vascular, muscle tone, muscle stretch and for keeping the entire skeleton in the correct position. As anyone who horse rides knows, one dodgy position and you're off Swimming and horse riding are the only sports that keep the skeleton in the correct position as nature intended. When doing either of the above incorrectly, your bod lets you know very quickly

I started swimming lessons to get my confidence in the water but was ill and fell behind so i'm going to re-start that. I would love to go back to horse riding which I adore but am now unable to do on the quacks orders because it's far too risky for me now.

Maybe i'll find somewhere that lets me ride a horse whilst swimming, that way I get the best of both worlds.

[oldherbaceous]

Trust you Lizzie, most people would love to swim with a dolphin, but you, oh no, it's got to be a horse.

Quite a few of my freinds have horses, maybe i should give it ago again, after many years of abscence.
Something i have always fancied ago at is carriage driving, it always looks so much fun.

And one more thing Lizzie, i'm not very good at swimming either.

[Gilly C]

I have arthrhitis and swimming does help and had to give up my horse about 10 years ago but this year I achieved a lifelong ambition to ride a horse along the beach and into the sea ans swim, it was amazing had half an hour in the jacuzzi back at the resort and didn't get stiff at all maybe the heat helped too never below 25C hubby came too and his bum was a bit sore !!

[lizzie]

I went back to horse riding about 2 years ago after an absence of 20 years. My son has taken it up and is very keen. I then slipped up to the quack what I was doing and I got an extremely stern telling off. I got told to pack it in right away. Fair enough, it's the sensible thing to do.

However, I have this "self destruct" button that I like to push on occasion so, as the saying goes, i'll never say never...... although the sensible part of me knows not doing it is the right thing to do.

What I am thinking of doing when I go to Dublin next month is to commemorate the occasion with a pair of tattoos. Just little ones. I thought an angel on one shoulder and a devil on the other

Or maybe another piercing.....

[oldherbaceous]

Dear Lizzie, why are unsensible things always so much more exciting.

I hope you don't think of me, if you get a little devil tattoo.

[alan refail]

OH
I'm sure she was thinking of you as the Angel

Alan