Driving has been a part of my daily targets and baseline routine, on and off, since May 2012. (On the rare days where I am seeing friends I don’t tend to do my drive because I swap it for chatting and laughing. I can’t have it all!) The stretches that I try to do daily have played a big part in my being physically strong enough to drive again and those sudoku puzzles enabled me to start reading again which has led to a general improvement in cognitive function, on the whole.
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| Super sensible as always. I started slowly with a drive up and down a private road |
To catch up on my first post about driving click here.
Three weeks ago I reintroduced ‘Driving’ as one of my baseline targets. It hasn’t taken me as long to get back into the swing of it, not like when I started driving again for the first time since The Beginning. It isn’t as straightforward as ‘Driving’ though is it? Not for an M.E. sufferer.
Your legs and feet need to hover over the pedal and apply the correct amount of pressure to maintain
a certain speed. Your left leg and foot need to be strong enough to apply pressure quickly to the
clutch when you need to change gear. Your arms need to, not only stay on the steering wheel and keep the car going in the correct direction, but also move the gear stick and release or apply the hand break. All this while your neck is turning your head and your eyes are moving in your sockets so that you can see your surroundings.
a certain speed. Your left leg and foot need to be strong enough to apply pressure quickly to the
clutch when you need to change gear. Your arms need to, not only stay on the steering wheel and keep the car going in the correct direction, but also move the gear stick and release or apply the hand break. All this while your neck is turning your head and your eyes are moving in your sockets so that you can see your surroundings.
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| The CFS clinic once asked what my main goal with regards to recovery was. My answer was simple to be able to drive again |
As for Mr Brain, well! He is remembering all of those basics; red means stop, green means go, give way to your right, stay in the left hand lane to go straight over a roundabout unless it states otherwise, be constantly alert for pedestrians and other vehicles, mirror signal manoeuvre. Plus Mr Brain is instructing Mr Body to carry out his job properly too. (I’m not sure why I’ve decided that they’re male…)
It’s all a work in progress. I couldn’t drive myself to a doctors appointment or cope with rush hour traffic just yet, but that doesn’t matter. It’s not a race. Just being back behind the wheel, as and when, is wonderful because it’s something I had tearfully declared I’d never be well enough to do again. In your face M.E!
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| Sometimes I go all out and listen to music AT THE SAME TIME! Poor Mr Brain |
Let’s see how long I last behind the wheel this time…
NB. All photos were taken when the car was parked, obviously.
M.E. myself and I 