Having put it off for a few weekends because it seemed like too much to take on, having had a fairly chilled Saturday, on Sunday I felt it was time to make a start on laying the laminate flooring in the spare room. We got everything setup – including an electric saw to do the majority of the cutting, and laid the first few rows, taking it in turns to stand doing the cutting, and sitting on the floor doing the laying. My knees were the worst bit trying to get up, but I didn’t feel too bad, and made sure I took breaks fairly frequently. We got a bit carried away though and hit the inevitable point where we thought “oh well, might as well do the last few rows now”. Fatal mistake, particularly as the last row had to be cut around the door frame etc. The next thing I knew we had been going for about 7 hours in total. By the time I got up at the end, I felt like I’d just crawl around the house rather than actualy getting up on my legs.
By Monday morning I ached pretty much all over – not just where I normally have pain. I had a physio appointment with Katie first thing, and the first thing she said was I looked “pained”. I explained what I’d been doing and that I knew I’d over-done it. She went to check if my MRI had been reported yet, but it hadn’t. We concentrated on more balance exercises. I said to her that I felt like I was failing because I kept putting my foot out to stop myself falling over, rather than trying to correct movement with my core. Turns out I was doing it wrong. Putting our feet out and putting our hands up/out is normal reaction when we feel we are falling, and I should be letting it happen. She tried me doing an exercise where I go up on to tip toes, and then roll back onto my heels and bring my feet up. My left foot doesn’t come up very much, but I was generally getting the gist of it. I could feel it in my calves later though. She suggests I do that each day and also keep going with the calf stretches to try to get the movement back in my left ankle.
I also explained about my right leg giving way, particularly the fact it happened so frequently last Monday. She did the usual neurological tests and also checked my leg muscles. She said there was no sign of muscle wastage, and my quads are in pretty good shape, so it is a little puzzling why it is my right leg that goes, as this would be more expected in the left leg. She also noticed when I do the balancing exercises that I try to grip the floor with my toes when I feel my balance going. Apparently normal reaction is for toes to come up, similar to how are arms do.
I walked back over to the office after physio, and wasn’t too bad, but as the day went by I could feel my legs starting to ache from the exercises.