Sustainability isn’t just about the environment, it’s also about how you take care of your body, especially when it decides to malfunction.

I recently ended up in A+E. Not a place I go on a regular basis – in fact so infrequently that when my friend offered to drive me there I actually had no idea how to get to either of the two closest hospitals, Halifax and Huddersfield. Good job I wasn’t being assessed on my navigation…

I was surprised at the accident and the resulting injury. Basically, I decided to run up a staircase after four or five hours sitting down at a computer to help some people move some furniture they had come to collect from my apartment. About a minute later, I felt a twinge (like a trapped nerve) at the top of my left leg. The next thing I knew, I couldn’t move my leg at all!

I tried to listen to the guys who had come to collect the furniture as they were explaining something, but all I could really do was focus on my leg. Why had it stopped working?! I literally could not lift it up, even one inch off the floor. Bizarrely though, I could put all my bodyweight on it without any pain. Then the people left, and I took a moment to consider my options. I was assuming it was purely muscular, so knew it could just need some rest for a minute or two.

When you have an accident, or something unexpected happens to your body, the first thing you usually do is ‘test’ it, usually pretty gingerly. Does it hurt? Can I move it? Etc. Within an hour, I had recovered to a slow shuffle, where my right leg ‘led’ the way and my left would slide along the floor to meet up with it.

I also know, from previous back pain issues, that you have to be very careful not to damage tissue, and to treat the injury seriously. There’s a whole world of advice out there about treating injuries, and when I realised the shuffle was not improving much I knew I needed proper medical attention. My friend offered to drive me to A+E. Getting in her car was a task that required all sorts of messing about before I eventually found. comfortable angle to ‘haul’ my left leg in. To say I was worried about it is an understatement.

The doctor in A+E said it was a ‘psoas’ muscle problem, and could take between two weeks and a month to recover. He prescribed powerful painkillers and hot and cold compresses. I slept badly that night, and woke up with lower back pain, feeling nauseous. But I also noticed that my shuffle had upgraded to a slow walk. I was already recovering…

Having a positive mindset in rehabilitation, despite obvious negatives like all my hiking plans destroyed, a rescheduled coffee and meet up date with a friend, and my entire summer holidays from school being potentially filled with pain and physio, is really critical. I decided that first morning to fill my days with learning about the injuries and making, and sticking to, the highest quality rehab plan I could afford. This is really essential – value your body.

I rang the physio who had treated my back first time. The treatment had been amazingly successful and she disagreed with the doctor partly, and advised only heat applications if the pain became worse. She simply said I should gently stretch, but not past pain. I compromised on both pieces of professional advice, and decided to take Ibuprofen twice a day, hydrate really well and keep doing general easy walking. I added some very gentle, mild stretches is for good measure. The positive progress became significantly better.

I created a huge list of things I wanted to research and do in my new found spare time. This kept my mind active and busy, and my rehab workouts have become more comprehensive. Then, last night, I was able to lift my leg up to my waist without any pain or twinges. Huge result in just a few days. I also slept the night through without any issues.

I managed the staircase up and down to access the apartment I live in, despite needing to take the elevator on previous days. This has also helped. There are still the few twinges here and there in certain positions which means something needs attention, and I was lucky to be able to book a physio appointment this coming Tuesday. There is still a minor pain in my lower back, however from experience this usually takes around 10 days to disappear entirely and is actually not preventing me from doing or enjoying much of my daily life. I am still taking the Ibuprofen as it will help reduce any inflammation.

I will be very cautious for the rest of the weekend, and look forward to the physio appointment this coming week. In the meantime, I can plan future adventures and read some books that I was putting off for the evenings. I am, I feel, physically able to take on some walks but again these will need to be done methodically to re-introduce different levels of difficulty in a way which is sustainable on my current muscle weakness. When I have completed all of the ‘restart’ walks I can then happily go on a proper adventure. But for now, I’m just taking it a little easy and figuring out just what might have happened in case it occurs again, or to prevent it happening again.