On our living room wall, there is a beautiful wooden plaque, inscribed with a poem from our wedding ceremony. We’d never heard the words before, but as one of my best friends, Zoe, stood in the church pulpit, and read them aloud in front of our family and friends, they truly resonated with us. The … More Holding Up The Ceiling
It was a trip three years in the waiting. We booked the family holiday back in 2019. When Covid hadn’t yet started its deadly rampage, when ‘social distancing’ was unheard of, and when you could cough in public without causing alarm. With homes miles apart, my Mum and siblings and I were looking forward to … More Third Time Lucky
It was a typical Sunday morning. The radio was playing love songs, Kepler was chewing his toy squirrel, and the Covid tests were brewing on the side. As I served up the runny egg soldiers, I glanced across at them. Over the past eighteen months, we’ve stuck many swabs down our throat and up our … More I Caught Covid
I first noticed it in February; in the awful week of illness, following my lumbar puncture. Whilst battling sickness and headaches and strange sensations whenever I stood up, I also realised that my oxygen saturations were a little low. My body wasn’t getting enough O2. Since becoming an oxygen user in 2016, the amount of … More Strange Saturations
Nine years ago -this week- I collapsed whilst getting ready for work. Overnight my life changed. Completely and totally. Previously a busy and active primary school teacher, now I struggled to breathe and move and live. And no one knew why. For six difficult and exhausting months, I battled to subsist with my unfamiliar disabilities … More Happy Anniversary Lungs!
It all started three weeks ago. Phil and I were ‘playing’ in the bedroom -yes, this story is about sex 😉 – when Phil, quite literally, blew my mind. All of a sudden, my head felt like it was exploding. Boom. A wincing and jarring pain radiated from the back of my head, like spilt … More The Lumbar Puncture
For years, Phil and I have talked about moving to the hills. Whenever we sit down with a glass of (non-alcoholic) red wine, and daydream about our future, it involves mountain views and wild footpaths and open landscapes that stretch for miles. We holiday in the hills, we always choose the scenic route through the … More The House Search
We watched a nature documentary yesterday. With squealing monkeys and hungry lions. As the death throes filled the room, Kepler the puppy, continued snoozing. Oblivious. Last December, the sound of flamingos flapping their wings resulted in an evening of barking and zooming, as he searched for the scary pink birds. What a difference a year … More Living with PH and a Puppy
Back in March 2013, I was feeling rundown. Walking made me breathless, and life felt exhausting. I’d reported similar symptoms to my GP in the years prior; but was always told I was anxious or unfit or anxious or unfit. Desperate to improve, I started walking a loop on the outskirts of our village, that … More A Mini Miracle
I was behind the wheel of our car, when Phil rang. We were enroute to the MOT garage in our nearest town, driving in convoy. Except he was ringing to say we weren’t. Turns out that after two months of chilling on the driveway, the campervan battery was dead. So instead, he was five miles … More My First Taste of Freedom
We Can Adjust The Sails 