`I love Christmas. It is magical. For one week of the year, the world becomes brighter, sparklier, shinier, louder. It is a chance to take a break from normal life, to get excited like a child, and be surrounded by love. But it is also exhausting! Thus, the way I celebrate has had to change … More Christmas With PH
I fondly remember the first night in our current home. We sat on the floor of the living room, eating fish and chips, drinking wine, discussing what we wanted to do with the house. We were excited and enthusiastic, and had grand plans and intentions. Decorate every room, convert the garage, build a conservatory. The house … More The Upheaval of Decorating
I’d got it in to my head that I was deteriorating. I was conscious that this time last year my health had shot rapidly downwards, so when I started to feel ‘different’, I assumed that history was about to repeat itself. For two months, from the end of October to the start of December, I … More Nervous, Nervous, Nervous
Anyone who has watched him lose a point, will know that an angry Andy Murray is scary. So, imagine an angry Andy Murray staring and glaring straight at you.. it’s alarming. Had we cheered too loudly? Imagine an angry Andy Murray arms in the air, racket flaying around, stomping towards you.. it’s intimidating. Had we … More My First Tennis Match!
Ten days ago I sat down at my computer to write a blog about Pulmonary Hypertension. The UK’s first ever PH Awareness Week was looming and I wanted to do my bit. I started typing with great intentions to write about the biology and the physiology, to write about what was happening to my body … More The Masked Murderer
As I flipped the calendar over on the first day of October, I felt a little nervous. Since getting ill, I haven’t had the easiest time in the tenth month of the year. In both 2013 and 2015, October was the month when my PH worsened, and my health spiralled down. Hospital visits and emergency … More The Medicine of Friendship
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
We Can Adjust The Sails 