"Be careful, don't overdo it, know your limits, if you do too much then rest up and recover. Phone us if you feel ill."
That's the universal advice given when they send patients home to continue their inter-chemo recovery away from all of those ill people in hospital.
The trouble is, some of us don't feel like we're doing anything of worth unless we are pushing our limits or ourselves. How do we know when to rest up?
Old Jack may well be pushing his limits (and his luck) by asking his missus to pass the TV remote control to him for the umpteenth time this afternoon, so for his own safety he should probably back off a bit and have a snooze. Or maybe he should simply use a laggy-band to fix the thing to his person so that he doesn't drop it every five minutes.
But we're not all as doddery as Old Jack. We don't all need Zimmer-frames to get to the shitter, we don't all need "Care in the Community" rob-dogs to dispense our pills while eyeing up the family silver on display in the corner-cabinet.
Today I've dug a fair wedge of garden, tidied up one of the sheds and moved eleven 3x2 slabs (yeah, the thick council ones). Not wanting to be caught standing around doing nothing, I then laid five of them, sorted out the mains electrics in the sheds and in the greenhouse, entertained three sets of neighbours, shot some wood-pigeons and then made plans to walk unaided to the shops, and hopefully back again, without having a bob-a-job boy-scout dangling from my arm to help me to cross the road, in order to purchase some milk (so that I can entertain more neighbours tomorrow). And I still found the time and the energy to castigate the postman for delivering yet another tranche of junk-mail.
And I've yet to find something to do this evening.
Tomorrow is already planned... try to finish building the frame & wire fruit-cage during the day, and, without a safety-net or a parachute, walk to and from the pub in the evening with the intention of imbibing more than a little liquid propellant.
That's not really overdoing it, is it?
Or should I look forward to another bollocking during this Thursday's out-patient appointment?
