Melanie Robinson: parenting blog
Single Mother Stories
Baggage List
31 March: Today I received the baggage list for what I will need with me on my walk of death. I have been a bit worried about this over the last few days and worried about how I will hydrate and nourish myself over the 100km. For the most part it is off road and there won’t be a McDonalds in sight. Not only won’t there be a hamburger around, but there will be no water source either. Bearing in mind I will start walking at 7 a.m. on the 12th May and I won’t finish till about noon on the 13th, I figure I am going to need some sort of replenishment, even if only of the caffeine variety to get me through the night.
Recently a friend of mine told me I had to ensure my back pack was filled with bananas because I would need the potassium to stop myself from cramping. Now bananas are heavy items and I figure that will hold me back so I am going to have to find potassium in the pill variety! Light and easy to carry.
I have been walking for hours every day despite the fact that I am either carrying or pushing about 35k in extra weight in the form of Toddler Child. I figured that though this was weighing me down, it would be great training and would make the walk of death less fatal. This training has however already started killing me. For starters, I am falling asleep by about 8 p.m. most nights, I can feel my muscles burning. My core muscles in particular are clearly strengthening up. Why is it though that getting fit which is supposed to be a good thing hurts so much? My fluid intake has increased phenomenally. I think I am now drinking about 6 litres of fluid a day. I wake in the morning and I am STARVING….. My eating habits are completely out of whack. I used to be a grazer. I’m so exhausted at night though, I’m not munching my calories in the evening, I’m falling asleep over my dinner plate! My portions have increased and I am generally eating like a horse. All I can hope for however is that I will have the legs of an eighteen year old racehorse by the time I am finished all this exercising and training!
I was fortunate enough to have a local business sponsor the servicing of my bicycle and I am so thankful to them for this. This will make it easier to “train”. Though cycling is not the same as walking, it’s an easier form of exercise to get fit with Toddler Child literally in tow behind me. I can actually get some proper pace in.
Coming back to the baggage though. That back pack I was worried about. I have become increasingly worried as I have been wondering now more about the fluid intake than McDonalds. How on earth am I going to carry all this water I have been drinking and will need on my walk? Will I pass out from dehydration between stops? So maybe carting 35k of Toddler hasn’t been to my advantage at all but exactly what I will need? I got the official email stating what I will need in my pack. Sounds like it will weigh about the same as a small child.
Their list included not just water and food which I already knew was going to be heavy enough but a whole change of clothes, spare shoes, bandages, sunblock, hats, clothes for layering and warmth in the night, a whole first aid kit with bandage care and antihistamine for bug bites and nettle rashes, head torch and hand torch for night walking…. might I point out that spare batteries needed as well and last time I checked…. they’re not light! Will also need wet wipes and disposal bags to keep the used ones on me in appreciation of the environment for my toileting needs. Crikey… the list goes on and on…..
So the way I look at it… I might not be at an advantage doing all this training pushing Toddler Child around but perhaps what I actually need to do is borrow her push chair and take it with me. Might be better to push than to carry right?!
The sponsorship has been coming in nicely and I am so appreciative to all of you who have been sending funds, kind words of support and who have been cheering me on. Please continue to spread the word and encourage others to donate/sponsor. Please use the Virgin Money Giving Link to send funds directly to my chosen charity SENSE who do amazing work for the deafblind and their families.
Find Melanie’s blog at www.singlemotherstories.wordpress.com
Sisters….. don’t believe a thing they say!!!
3rd April: It’s an on-going joke between Lil Sis and myself about her hypochondriatic ways. (Is that even a word?) To put it lightly…. she tends to over react! So really…… I should have known!!!! Walking into the park… yep… walking… that’s me… cause that’s my new mode of transport….. her son calls her complaining of leg pain.
Now, he’d been to the gym the day before after not going for some time and over did it on the weights. So of course his legs were hurting him! She directed him to his bed and we continued onto the park for a lovely afternoon.
Now, bearing in mind that this woman is an ex nurse… yes…. an ex nurse….. I take her medical opinion seriously, though I should know better after the incident years ago when Middle was just a tot. Middle Child had taken a little tumble and hit her head in day care. The normal course of action is to monitor for 24 hours in case of concussion. However, Lil Sis had me running into the Emergency Room holding Middle Child in my arms screaming:
“Brain fluid… brain fluid… she has brain fluid coming out of her ears….. HELP!!!”
I looked a right imbecile. I’m sure every doctor in there was snickering in the corner wondering what psych ward I had escaped from. It turned out Middle had a little weepy wax which was barely visible just inside her ear. Personally I hadn’t even seen it, but my sister?! She gave my child a thorough examination and declared her not just concussed but nearly dead and sent me packing off to the ER having insisted she had brain fluid coming out of her ears….. did I learn????
NO!!!!!!!
The morning after my nephew’s work out at the gym, I got a call at some ridiculous hour in the morning insisting that said nephew was at home and I had to rush over there IMMEDIATELY! I was just tying up my walking shoes to continue my training for my walk of death and reached for the car keys instead.
She explained that his condition had worsened through the night and he had the mother of all headaches. She had called out an ambulance at about 6:30 that morning because she was concerned about a DVT. The paramedics inspected him and ordered her to monitor him.
Yep! MONITOR…. you know that thing you do for 24 hours?!
She left him home and went to work, calling him on her way there from the bus. Apparently he didn’t answer the phone…… Diagnosis: DVT travelled and he’s laying unconscious on the floor.
I sped across town to rescue him from the jaws of death, not having questioned Lil Sis’ powers of diagnosis at all…. because that’s what you do right? When family calls and say they need you, you run! I couldn’t run there fast enough so I drove. FAST!
Got there and what do I find…. he’s lying on the sofa watching TV, exhausted because the paramedics woke him at the crack of dawn. I asked him why he didn’t answer the phone….. his response….
“My legs hurt cause I over did it in the gym and I couldn’t be bothered to get up and answer it”.
No worries…. panic over. Crisis avoided and I carried on with my day happily. Walked around the town for the next few days as I am in super diligent training and what the hell happened????
ONLY A SPEEDING TICKET CAME THROUGH MY DOOR!
So thanks Sis…… I won’t be speeding over to yours in a hurry next time you shout “Medical emergency! Get here….. STAT!” (Yes… I watch ER!) I’ll be walking over cause I won’t have a driving licence anymore! Good thing I’m doing all that walking training then!
My training for my 100km London to Brighton walk is going well though I have to admit…. my muscles are killing me! I’m still collecting sponsorship/donations for SENSE, the charity I am walking in aid of on May 12/13 2012. You can read the original story here or click the following links for more information or to donate. I will soon be starting a fund for my soon to be hired driver’s salary for when I lose my license as well!!!
Find Melanie’s blog at www.singlemotherstories.wordpress.com
