Educational and recreational stay in Srby

The stay of the haemophiliacs was supported by Novo Nordisk for which I sincerely thank them.

Maybe some of you are wondering why to go. After all, we are dealing with other problems than Diabetes or obesity. I too hesitated for a while, yet in the end I thought why not try something different. Packed my suitcase and went. I won't hide that my motivation was also meeting my friend Vasek whom I hadn't seen since "our reconditioning". In the end, to my pleasant surprise, there were 6 haemophiliacs there, including one brand new friend Stefan from Bulgaria, who fit in perfectly and will come to the adult reconditioning in Bystré.

The workshops focused on nutrition literally opened my eyes and I realized that even if I don't move much it is not right if I don't eat, but on the contrary it is important to properly compose my daily diet and distribute its caloric intake. Because my thinking before was, "you don't move, so don't eat too much". And I was still surprised that I was gaining weight. I learned everything important at the education sessions and had the opportunity to consult with experts individually if I needed to. We already know body composition measurements from some of our events and it's great to have something to go off of.

The opportunity to play pool and ping-pong in the afternoon was nice. I also went to try my hand at archery, but I would sum up my success rate for this activity by stating that I ended up hitting my target. I should point out that I hit a target, not a live one. What was absolutely great, though, was that we hemophiliacs were accommodated with an exercise regimen. What are we going to do, the idea of Nordic walking was laughable to me, so I renamed it Franc walking (walking with a French walking stick) and mentally regretted to others how "briskly we would walk" when we were told to accommodate the slowest. But my fears turned out to be unnecessary. And this is where I would really highlight the personal touch of the great team of Jana Poláchová and Denisa Pex. With them we agreed on an alternative activity of exercising in the pool. So no worries for those of you who are like me. The fact that one can work out sitting on a chair or lying down convinced us all by feeling many muscles we had no idea about until then. The exercise was aimed at strengthening the internal stabilization system. So my frequent sigh that I would have worked out, but just today my knee, elbow, hip, ankle and basically everything hurt, did not hold up. To this day, I still try to follow what I learned there to exercise regularly. And you know what's best? That it all kick-started me into going swimming regularly again. The meditation on the last day, which anyone who wanted to could join, was the icing on the cake for me and enhanced my inner sense of relaxation and a weekend well spent. Now if any of you feel sorry that you didn't participate too, don't feel sad. The next educational retreat is already planned at the same location from 13 April 2023 - 16 April 2023 and you can sign up here: https://vstj.cz/?pg=pobytova-akce&id=66

The event is not organized by the Czech Union of Hemophiliacs.

Marek Šimoník

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)