The landing is where the plan changes. You took the first flight of stairs at a normal pace, one hand near the rail out of habit. On the next flight the knee starts to catch on the way down, then grind on the way up. Shopping centres do the same thing. So do the back...
The seat is low. The kerb is higher than it looks. You swing one leg out, pause, and use the door frame the way other people use a gym rail. The drive was fine. The hard part is the last twenty centimetres between sitting and standing, when the hip has to take the...
The car park is fine. The short walk to the door is fine. Then you sit down for the appointment, or the cup of tea, or the drive home, and a familiar line of fire lights up from the lower back into the buttock and down one leg. Standing up again takes a moment. You do...
The blood pressure cuff tightens, the numbers flash up on the small screen, and your GP says the line you half expected: you need to keep moving. Then comes the quieter part of the conversation. Take it steady. Do not go hard. Find something you will still be doing in...
The jar lid that used to twist open on the first try now needs a tea towel and a second person. The step up into the car feels higher. A full washing basket is a negotiation with your shoulders. None of this arrives as a dramatic collapse. It creeps in through...
Halfway across the car park, you stop. You stop because your chest has decided the conversation is over for a moment, and you wait for your breathing to catch up before you carry on. Anyone living with COPD knows that pause. It reshapes how you think about movement,...
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