2023 Blog Data and Health Review

As noted last year, and thereby setting a new trend, the passing of the year means its time to update the pages of this blog, and to take the opportunity to review my health data.

In terms of the blog update, I've updated the four pages as follows:

• Index - easy!
• Survey summary (my on-line research page) - easy!

Blog statistics

There have been fewer sessions on the blog in 2023 compared with previous recent years, about half the number of 2022. The more popular posts are following the general pattern established in recent years, so its unlikely to be any differences in the content that I'm creating. There are several potential reasons for this, and I think its unlikely to be just one.

• Compared with previous years, I didnt plug the results of my 2022 survey when I published it on rare disease day 2023. This means there are likely to be fewer people looking at other pages after looking at that.
• In 2023 Twitter became X, and that might mean that my tweets about each blog post are now seen by fewer people than previously - although on the opposite side, I'm now posting about each post on Facebook as well as X.
• My mental health has been a bit lower in 2023, with a bit less enthusiasm for writing the blog, and feeling that I'm very busy with the rest of life. This may have filtered into my writing style.

Health data (Symptoms timeline page)

The health data for 2023 shows a few interesting patterns:

• My weight has gone up
• My alcohol level has gone up
• My sleep duration is similar to 2022 
• The number of active minutes is lower in 2022 and 2023
• My total number of steps is similar to 2022
• I didnt get on my bike at all during 2023

The consequence of this is for me to be aspirational in 2024 - seeking to get my weight down, and to improve my cardiovascular health. Essentially I need to do more exercise and pay more attention to what I'm eating and drinking.

Taking a broader look at health, earlier this year (as noted in August) I started using a muscle roller to try and help my spasticity a bit. I think my muscles feel a bit less tight, but its difficult to say. However, it is only taking a few minutes at the end of each day, and I'm carrying on with this.

Considering Pilates, I note that there are various movements that I'm finding less easy to do, and I'm having to improvise a few adaptions during classes. Some of these are about making sure that I have a chair/wall/table near where I'm doing my Pilates to allow me to keep my balance more. By having a light touch on something else with my hand I'm able to focus on the movement that we're working on, and not also having to focus on co-ordinating several different element together.

Disclosure

I think that 2024 is going to be the year when I decide that I am now a disabled person, or should that be a person with a disability? On the balance of things, I'm heading towards where the overall balance of impacts are significant, which is the switchover point from "not disabled" to "disabled". It means that I'm going to have to start thinking about the various things I might be entitled to, and to make sure that I'm updating work accordingly.