Marilyn Stowe Blog

How I beat the Monday morning blues

When I woke up this morning I was filled with trepidation. This evening I am due some test results which will determine whether I need an operation.

However, following my 30 minute drive into work my fears have subsided and I am ready for whatever the doctor has to say. Why? Because I am blessed to live in such a beautiful part of the world.

My home is in an area which once belonged to the Harewood Estate and my drive to our offices in Harrogate takes me past the magnificent Harewood House – at the gateway to the Yorkshire Dales. At the top of Harewood Bank, near to the set of Emmerdale, I can see over to the west a panorama of fields and tiny farmhouses dotted over the land until it turns into vast hills on the horizon. To the north east, I can see across the fields of the Vale of York to the White Horse at Boltby on a very clear day like today. Below me, as I come down the Bank, the River Wharfe wends its way eastward with pretty houses on both banks.

The sky was bright blue as I drove through this beautiful countryside, and there were ever changing colours in the clouds. There was even a slight rainbow. I noticed that the hedgerows are becoming greener, the crops are growing. The sheep are in the fields ready for lambing, and best of all, I spotted two huge red kites soaring over Harewood, enjoying the clear skies. They’ve been there all winter, and how cheering a sight they are!

What a way to start a Monday morning! However turbulent our lives may be, especially in these awful times, the countryside is always there, if we need it, to soothe us all.

My medical appointment later today should hopefully bring to end a rather painful period recently in which I have been hobbling around with a nasty injury for two months.

Following a particularly emotionally-wraught meeting with a client about his complex divorce, I was consumed in my own thoughts about how best to proceed. Walking over the centuries old cobblestones of Covent Garden I lost my footing and fell.

As I staggered back to my feet with my left shoe quickly filling with blood, I wondered how many more people before me had fallen on those uneven cobblestones!

I’m pleased to say my Christian Louboutins survived the fall and the subsequent clean up beautifully, but my right arm, foot, hip, back and knee didn’t fare so well.

Four weeks later I thought I was better. Desperate to get back to the fresh air and beautiful scenery around me, I went out for my first run since the fall. Within days my knee and thigh had swelled to the size of a melon.

As well as enduring four weeks of high-dose pain relief medication, physiotherapy, enforced rest from running and long walks (which drove me scatty) and an MRI scan – I have also continued to maintain a full work schedule. In particular during a protracted case last week needing tri-partite agreement, the pain was excruciating.

Surrounded by up to a dozen lawyers and their clients for nearly ten hours, my leg became swollen and I spent as much of the day as possible with it raised on a chair. As the clock struck 6pm and agreement seemed several more hours away, I had had enough. Whether it was the pain, hunger, the quest for securing the best deal or a mixture of all three, I dragged myself from my position and hobbled determinedly down the corridor – Sigourney Weaver eat your heart out! Bursting into the meeting room, I was greeted by the shocked faces of the six men in suits as I announced the offer we were prepared to accept. Turning to leave, the pain in my leg intensified – but as I limped away I knew I’d done it.

Moments like that – and my drive today – show me how adversity sometimes brings out the best in people.

So, if you have Monday morning blues, then don’t hesitate – book a short break to Yorkshire and I promise it will cheer you up!

Update, Tuesday 10 March:

Last night, outside the orthodpaedic consultant’s room at the Spire Hospital, there sat three lawyers. All three of them baby boomers and all three of them refusing to surrender gracefully to age. All three of them with self-induced sport injuries. The first was a judge with a new knee. The second was a solicitor with a recurrent slipped disc. The third was me.

The judge assured me that I would never be able to run again. She suggested taking up sailing. (For me? A Jewish Princess?!) The solicitor with the slipped disc looked grim and did his best to comfort me. He is after all my husband.

We went into the consulting rooms and the grim-faced solicitor said to the orthopaedic consultant, “Please tell her that she can run again – or my life won’t be worth living”.

At this point the consultant began to laugh. He told me that in his opinion, I will make a full recovery and be back on the road within two months. Oh bliss! Perhaps the moral is that what you fear most will not necessarily come to be.

A huge thank you to my brilliant physiotherapist Maureen Bennett, my GP Dr Mike Gould and my orthopaedic consultant John Lawton. Not forgetting Wattbike, the best static bike on the planet, which has helped save my sanity – and the sanity of that grim-faced solicitor – these past two months!

Another update, Wednesday 11 March:

Arriving home from the gym yesterday evening, clutching his back and wincing slightly, the grim-faced solicitor discovered me with an ice pack on my knee, resting on a pillow.

“What’s the matter now?” he enquired. “You haven’t been taking your medication, have you?” Ever the mental health lawyer.

Ever the divorce lawyer, I replied not quite fully and frankly, “Possibly”.

I thought it wise not to mention my euphoric hell-for-leather 40-minute cycling session first thing that morning.

The pain worsened as the night wore on. “Don’t swell, don’t swell”, I kept telling my knee as if it was listening. This morning my right leg would not respond to the command, “get out of bed”.

So when the going got tough – well, I got going.

I walked up all 24 steps to my office (yes, I’ve counted them). And I’m wearing the most gorgeous bright purple patent high heels- I’ve been longing to wear these shoes for the past two months.

And tomorrow I will definitely be back on the bike.

Possibly.

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