Today is my second Hospital Physiotherapy appointment. I have done the exercises I was given and have also tried to stretch my arm and shoulder in the shower and in the bath. I still can’t raise my left arm anywhere close to above my head but there is more mobility. Certainly when I was dancing last night I was able to move fairly fluidly, perhaps in part because I was not actually thinking about what I was doing.

I tell Ctr about the dancing. She asks what kind of dancing? I misunderstand her question and I answer Just normal, crazy dancing, and then I realise she’s asking what genre. Is she imagining me dancing a waltz, or doing salsa, or tango? I laugh out loud at the thought. I tried ballet when I was about 8 years old and the result was a heffalump in tights, crashing across the dance floor. I’m not what you’d call graceful.

Once we establish that by dancing I just meant moving my body while music is playing, Ctr agrees that it would also be a good way to exercise and stretch my muscles and scar tissue. Maybe I’ll make a Spotify playlist.

Ctr spends about 15 minutes massaging and working along my scar lines. There is still some cording in my armpit and at the top of my arm where it meets my shoulder. I have virtually no sensation at all on the majority of my scar lines but when she massages the area of cording, holy moly, I want to scream. It hurts like hell! Still, I want the cording to go away, so I suck it up. Ctr tells me to massage the area myself at home and kindly adds that I can be a little gentler on myself than she was. We arrange another session in 2.5 weeks time. I might try to book in a sneaky private session with Br in between then and now.

At around 6ish Susannah and I walk around to K and H’s. It’s literally about 1km on foot between our houses so a nice, short 15 minute stroll. H then drives us down to Highbury where we join in the monthly Birkenhead Brewing Company Pub Quiz. My family have regularly had a team going for about a year now but this is the first time we’ve joined in. The place is packed. We have a table right at the back so I park myself in a corner position safely away from the other patrons. I’m still not comfortable in tight spaces full of people. I wonder if I will ever be?

We order some food and a couple of beers and quiz the evening away. It’s nice to do something social outside of the house. We actually add value on a few questions – What Month is Breast Cancer Awareness month in NZ? is obviously in my wheelhouse but I also provide the answer of Tightrope Walker to What is a Funambulist? in the Circus Round. Our Team nails the Circus category – I wonder why that is? We end up coming 4th by only one point and a good time is had by all. I think I’d like to go again. It’s good to get out but I feel physically and mentally wiped by the end. Still good to get out and do something new.