recovery Archives - Neil Turner's Blog

Unblogged July

July 31, 2026 by Neil Turner

Time for another round-up of things that I’ve been up to this month that I didn’t blog about. As with June’s update, it’s back to being a little longer than May as I’ve been able to do more things as I gradually recover.

Back from Wales

Our holiday in Wales was once again just a week, and so we got back last Saturday – all of this week’s blog posts were written before we left. Blog posts about what we did whilst we were away will start appearing next week, once I’ve had chance to write them.

We’ve decided collectively (our household plus my parents) that we won’t be making it a third year in Wales, having been there last year as well. So there will probably be a ‘what we didn’t do in Wales’ post, like 2024’s Northumberland post, coming later next month.

Returning to the office

Another update on my recovery is that I’m back to working full-time hours, and back to hybrid working. This means I’ve successfully managed the commute by train to Bradford and back a few times now, and made it through a work day in the office.

I realise that I’ve touched on this in my review of my OneLife ID wristband but it’s been nice to get out of the house and see my colleagues again. Working all the time at home was okay when we were all doing it (because we had to during lockdown), but when only some of us are at home, it can be a bit isolating.

At present, I’m (mostly) just working two days a week in the office, but this will go up to three days a week from September, as part of a wider policy change at work. To be fair, I’ve often gone into the office on extra days before, so it’s not a huge change for me, and I’m glad that we get to retain our hybrid working privileges.

This week also marked the first time I’ve taken my backpack into work. Since the fall, I’d previously not been able to get the straps onto both shoulders, and so I’ve just had a smaller shoulder bag in the meantime. However, my mobility has improved so that I can finally wear my backpack properly, albeit by putting it on in a rather inelegant way. Still, it’s progress.

Octopus Electroverse Plunge Pricing

On the way back from Wales, we got to take advantage of Octopus Electroverse Plunge Pricing for the first time. When electricity supply is exceeding demand, then public car charging providers who partner with Octopus Electroverse offer a discount when you charge your electric car (or plug-in hybrid). For us, this was 30% – we saved £2 on a quick 15 minute top-up – but can be anything from 20% to as high as 50%.

Generally this happens when it’s particularly sunny and/or windy, and so the electricity being generated by solar panels and wind turbines is higher than the demand. Whilst wind turbines are usually commercially owned and can be turned off (despite this being a massive waste of green energy), energy companies will still pay out for exported electricity from domestic solar installations (like ours). So, offering lower prices for electric vehicle charging gives electric car owners an incentive to charge their cars at a time when supply needs taking out of the grid.

It’s still not as cheap as charging at home, but being able to save a little money is always welcome.

New glasses

I’ll blog about them in more detail when they arrive, but earlier this week I had a routine eye test and found my prescription has changed slightly, again, so I’ll be getting new glasses next month. I’ve been wearing glasses for five years now, and these will be my third pair. My current (second) pair will then become my backup glasses, and I’ll be donating my first pair (current backup pair) to charity.

The four stages of getting better

July 5, 2026 by Neil Turner

I’m still getting on with my recovery, and I’m slowly regaining the ability to do tasks that I couldn’t do immediately after my fall. I’ve found that I go through four stages with tasks:

I can’t do it myself
I can’t quite do it myself
I can just about do it myself
I can do it myself confidently

I’m now eight and a half weeks post-fall, and most tasks are at stage 3 and 4 now. The things I can’t do myself involve stretching my arms up – namely, hanging washing outside. Indoors, I can use stepladders to help me reach things, but it’s more difficult outdoors.

There aren’t many things left in stage 2 – things I can’t quite do myself – but dressing myself was something I couldn’t do entirely myself until recently. My main issue was getting my head through t-shirts, and for this I needed assistance.

Stage 3 is when I can do something, but in a rather ungraceful way or with the help of additional tools. To take the example of dressing myself, I found that laying a t-shirt out on a bed, and then pushing my head through it like a cat going through a cat flap, seemed to work. Not graceful, but it gets the job done. Another example would be drying my back; I would lay the towel over the sink so that I could grab it with both arms.

It’s this third stage that has given me some insight into what it would be like to have a permanent mobility issue. I’m hopeful that I’ll make a full recovery, and regain all of my mobility (although it’s not guaranteed). But I appreciate for some, their limited mobility is the best that they can manage, and that’s where mobility aids and various life hacks come into play.

Jumping into July

July 1, 2026 by Neil Turner

A photo of Conwy castle taken through the gap in the town wall.

Here we are, into the latter half of the year. I’m continuing to recover, and this month sees us go on our annual summer holiday.

Recovery update

I’m slowly regaining mobility in my arms, following my fall, and I’m generally in less pain now. I’m still not fully back to normal, but may be closer to normal mobility by the end of the month. At least I’ve been able to help out with more of the housework; Christine and I normally split tasks relatively evenly, so a lot has fallen on her.

This month should also see me returning to work in the office on occasional days – until now, all my work has been at home.

I have a bone density (Dexa) scan coming up this month, as for someone to break both arms in the way I did at my age is unusual. I expect it won’t show anything concerning but my GP wants me to have one anyway.

Summer holiday

In the latter half of the month, once the schools have broken up, we’re off for a week’s holiday in North Wales. We’re actually staying in the exact same place as last year – it was nice, convenient, and there are plenty of things that we didn’t get to do last time. In fact, my potential to-do list has enough for a potential third holiday next year, although I doubt we’ll make it three years in a row.

Weather permitting, we’d like to go up Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon), although we’ll probably be taking the train to do so. We also plan to go down some kind of mine one day, and visit the Welsh Mountain Zoo.

As I’m not currently permitted to drive, Christine will be doing all of the driving this time. Which part of me feels bad about; however, I did all of the driving on our 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024 holidays, so maybe this will help balance things.

New tech

I mentioned at the start of the year that we’d be looking at getting a replacement laptop for home use. Christine bought one earlier this year, and now I have one on the way too so that we each have our own device. I’ll blog about it once it has arrived and I’ve had a chance to play with it.