I went swimming!

Today I went swimming for the first time since my op. It was great! Now before I go on, I should explain what kind of a swimmer I am – you see swimming is not really something that I do, it’s more what I am really. I’m sure any attempt to explain it will sound just like mystical claptrap, but I was born to swim, you see. I go to the pool and I watch other people struggle up and down the lanes and its obviously hard work for them. Well, and I don’t wish to make all you puffing and panting types jealous, it’s not like that for me. I just get in the water and I swim – if don’t go in for months I can jump in and swim a mile. You see, I could swim before I could walk and swimming is just who I am! Mystical, maybe, claptrap, almost certainly, but there you go.

Well, enough of all that, back to where I was. Today I went swimming for the first time since my op nearly 6 months ago. I was given the all clear to do so about 3 weeks ago but life got in the way and I just didn’t get round to going to the pool. TBH, I was a bit scared – what if I could no longer do this wonderful thing that I’ve been able to do all my life? What if my metalwork stopped me from floating? What if my scar pulled too much to do front crawl? ^*1 So many questions….

Anyway, I got in the water and did 25 lengths. It was fine apart from a few things. This is what I learnt:

1. My legs no longer seem to work in the water. This is odd but not completely unexpected. When I was a kid they never did very much at all and then I learned to roll my hips to get them to work – since I no longer twist in the back I can no longer roll the hips. Ergo, legs don’t work. OK, odd, but at least you’re more streamlined!
2. Pushing off from the edge hurts my back. This is not really true – it’s only if you hit the wrong angle (which is most of them). By the end of my time in the pool I’d found a way round this.
3. Men in the Jacuzzi are very nice at rescuing your walking sticks when you drop them whilst trying to find your glasses. I don’t think this is because I was in a bathing suit and that they thought I was beautiful. More likely they were mesmerised by my wobbling thighs.
4. Despite not using my legs I did 25 lengths in 12 minutes. This would put my mile at 36 minutes. When I was young I could do a sub 30min mile without breathing heavily or even thinking about it and it has been my dream to get back to that. Just before my op I did it in 30 minutes and 50 seconds which I thought was pretty good (especially considering my advanced years!) – 36 minutes would be fine and dandy (as a start!)
5. Fat ladies who have just come out of aqua aerobics and who are taking the opportunity to stand in the centre of the pool and gossip, occupy an awful lot of space and get in your way.

Well that’s it really, I went, I swam and I showered, I came home. It was nice…

^*1 I don’t do breaststroke, it involves moving your legs in some completely stupid way – goodness knows what kind of an idiot invented it!!.

Please note there are no smilies in this post because I am trying to cut down...