Four year ago I was full of energy. Teaching is demanding, all-consuming, busy. Never enough hours in the day, I became a multi-tasking octopus. In one moment, I’d be counting coins with a group, observing a few playing shop, and soothing another one’s tears. Break times were for tidying away the last lesson, setting up … More Managing My Energy
Until this week, I had never visited an Intensive Care Unit (ICU). Never visited as a patient. Never visited as a relative or a friend. The picture of it in my head had only been formed from watching ‘Casualty’ every Saturday night as a child, and binges of ’24 Hours in A&E’ more recently. Through … More Visiting Intensive Care
Exactly three years ago today, I was lying in a hospital bed in London. The most poorly I’d ever been; I couldn’t lift my arms or sit up unaided. A week earlier, a doctor had confirmed that I had Pulmonary Hypertension. I’d never heard of it, and I wasn’t ready to learn about it. I was … More The Card That Changed Me…
Afternoon tea seemed to become popular when I was out of the country. I went away for two years, and returned to tales from my friends describing the hotels they’d visited and the experiences they’d had. Three years later, Phil and I were treated to High Tea as a birthday gift… and I instantly saw … More Afternoon Tea With My Mum
I was four months in to a year long volunteer placement in Ethiopia, when my sister announced she was pregnant with her first child. My gut instinct was to rush home, but after some agonising, we decided to stay in Africa, as planned. Through photos sent over the slow sketchy internet, I watched her stomach … More The Ill Aunty
Growing up I loved the beach. Living in the midlands, visiting it was a once-a-year holiday treat. As young children life at the beach was all about the sand. We’d build great castles using our brightly coloured plastic buckets as moulds. Sea water would be collected for the moat, and shells or grass would be … More Watching The Waves
I last had a hospital appointment in June, three lovely long months ago. Since then I’ve been deliberately postponing them. I’ve received monthly letters from my Pulmonary Hypertension team inviting me along for a check up. I turned down June, I turned down July, I turned down August, I eventually agreed to go along in … More Time For A Check Up
Last week I got a letter from Harefield Hospital. Since getting ill, I have collated a whole file of medical letters. Appointments, reminders for appointments, notes explaining what happened in the appointments, follow ups from points raised in the appointment. Having three hospitals wanting to see me regularly, I’ve now filled a large lever arch … More A Letter
My husband is a last minute packer. He runs around manically the hour before we leave to go on holiday, scanning each room for what he might need, and inevitably forgetting something. 😉 I used to be the same. We could handle last minute and spontaneous short breaks; it was our norm. But since getting … More How Holidays Change
Having a transplant is not like having a routine operation. You don’t get given a date and a time to attend. You don’t get a chance to prepare and organise your life beforehand. You don’t even know if it will ever actually happen. Agreeing to have a transplant is agreeing to go on a waiting … More All About The Transplant List
We Can Adjust The Sails 