Islands, knees and pushing it too hard

My visit to the rheumatologist just over a week ago was fantastic. She was attentive, took a proper history, drained over 50ml of fluid from my knee and added in some cortisone to help with the swelling. She set me up with a plan to keep my knee functional and I felt good about the plan.

I perhaps pushed the newly "recovered" knee a bit hard in the last two days and paid for it yesterday with some swelling, which if I'm entirely honest, set me to panicking. I have no desire to have a hugely swollen and non functional joint for any longer than necessary. And I need to remember that just because it looks normal, or a close approximation thereof, it is not currently normal and needs to be treated with some care. 

The first mistake I made was to go and visit Brännö on Thursday, an island in the archipelago off the coast of Gothenburg. We walked quite a bit and climbed on rocks and paddled in the water at the little cove we found ourselves at. It might have been a bit much.  But check out the overcast, but still lovely view we had. 



I sat and watched a group of five geese eat their way across the shoreline while TWO and the boy went and climbed the rocks at the side of the cove. It was all rather lovely to be outside, enjoying the breeze and the warm weather. 

The day was exactly what I needed mentally. We were unhurried, relaxed, well fed and TWO behaved brilliantly throughout the whole day. She collected shells and threw them in the water, searched for crabs, paddled in the water with me and had a brief snooze in the pram as we walked through the unexpected rain shower back to the ferry. She was entirely convinced that the ferry was actually a pirate ship and was very excited about that fact. We even got to pick some wild blackberries that were growing at the tram stop. I collected them in my hat and we have just a few left in the fridge. 

Yesterday was possibly a step too far after my island adventure, when I walked with a friend to visit a cafe. We ended up walking about 4km and I'm guessing that wasn't the best idea because I felt the knee start to swell as we walked. Fortunately, rest and ice seem to have done the trick and brought it back down. 

My lesson has been learned. I need to exercise, but not that much. It is so difficult to go from running between five and eight km semi regularly to not being able to walk even half that distance without setting off the knee into a swollen rage.