Major respawn, recovering from chronic illness!

[Keladris]

Hi everyone,

I last joined NerdFitness in 2017. This was during a period where for the first time in my life I started to enjoy exercising! I was doing martial arts classes and even started thinking about handstands and going to some acrobatics classes. However, I overdid it, landed a jump badly the day after going hard at kickboxing, and tore a ligament in my knee.

Anyway, long story short, but since then I went through a pulmonary embolism (blood clot), surprising every doctor I know since I was only 23! About a year later, in my final year of university, I developed chronic fatigue syndrome, or ME. Which meant that basic tasks like brushing my hair or making dinner were almost impossible and would lead to significant pain and other symptoms afterwards.

With help from functionalist doctors and occupational therapists, I'm now at a point where I can introduce exercise into my life again! This is a huge deal, as ME/CFS is such a strange illness and many people never recover. I didn't know if I'd ever be able to go for a walk again, let alone start thinking about strength and cardio workouts.

In the past few months, I got back on a bicycle, completed an hour's walk, and I've recently started doing ballet using youtube videos. My big goal is to ride a horse again, and I'm hoping to start doing some ballet classes online once I'm strong enough. A large part of recovery for me started with cleaning up my diet, and I lost 10kg. However, 2020 has seen me put that back on again! So I'm also looking at rebuilding good diet habits and lose that weight again.

In terms of nerdery... I play WoW and currently loving Red Dead 2. I've also spent much of this year roleplaying in Warharmmer campaigns. I recently re-watched GoT with my partner (who hadn't seen it?!?!) and Brienne is quite an inspiration for me. I want to be strong! I'm the kind of person who is a jack of all trades, so I'm excited to get fit and try new activities like ice skating, fencing and different types of dance (vaccine-pending!). 

Looking forward to connecting with you all!

[MindsEye]

Welcome back, glad to hear that you're  on the road to recovery and beyond! Definitely here for the updates on fencing , maybe I can experience it second hand since nowhere near me teaches it 😄.