Well that was a bad few days. Suddenly realising how fragile this whole (if Epic) journey is, how many different tiny little things could go wrong, and how terminal even a little problem could be. And it felt pretty terminal – painful to even straighten the leg, almost impossible to go down stairs, even walking around was hard on the whole skeleton.
I am a fervent fan of Polyanna and the Glad Game. My mother was a very determined pessimist (“but have you thought what would happen if an asteroid struck your bicycle”) and so often you will hear me say “Looking on the bright side…” (…”we’d have some rare minerals that nobody else on earth would have”). But even I was struggling a bit to find a positive angle to the very real probability that we might have to radically rethink the whole journey.
And then sha-zamm! As mysteriously as it started, it went.
So let me thank everyone who might have helped:
- The Czech doctor and the mystery bandages
- The Magic Goop that he recommended that I have been rubbing on since the bandages came off, and Anna on the cruise boat who convinced me that rubbing stuff on the outside of the skin can truly make a difference on the inside (please don’t tell me whether this is true or not, the important thing is that I believe it is true)
- My sister for making positive keep-going suggestions and who inspired us to find the cruise boat option from Linz and not to pack the bikes up in Prague
- Joe who came up with some humorous alternatives that were so truly dreadful that I think they might have frightened The Knee into giving in
- Sid who lit a candle for recovery in a church in Prague (and anyone listening who heard an atheist’s prayer and answered it)
- Mr Google who came up with all sorts of different suggestions for dealing with “arthrosis”, fuelled by my usual determination to keep poking around until you find an answer that you agree with (cf yachting weather forecasts, not recommended). Mainly I was looking for the answer “yes you can carry on cycling”, and in the end I did find it.
I am SOOO happy. Even if it goes wrong again I’m happy now.