Up The Farway Tree

Sunshine and Gardening

I've had a good weekend - keeping myself busy and enjoying the sunshine (with my factor 50 on!) Yesterday we were up early and at Dobbie's garden centre first thing, as I still have to avoid busy shops. I know it sounds like all I ever do is visit garden centres, but we are just catching up on all the garden plans which were previously put on hold (plus I had a 2o% off voucher which was further incentive ;-)) We got the final lot of plants for the rockery and also a variety of herbs so we can pretend to be budding chefs. It's so great just being able to wander round a shop and not feel out of breath - I still find it hard to believe! Also the fact I can get up and out the door that early. I know I keep saying this, but not having physio to do and not waking up with a splitting headache, feeling unwell, has made such a huge difference to my life already.

My azalea - in memory of my donor

Andrew has spent the whole weekend trying to dig the rockery and put weed fabric down. This is something we wish we had done last year when we first built the rockery, but you live and learn. I have of course supervised all the work. I did contribute today by cleaning all the patio furniture in preparation for Andrew painting it (its metal and has gone all rusty). I did offer to paint it as well but Andrew pointed out that the paint is highly volatile and is probably not very good for my wee lungs. Good point. So instead I decided I would feed all the plants, which involved mixing plant food in 5 litres of water. I am not allowed to do any heavy lifting for 3 months due to the wound, but somehow it didn't occur to me that lifting a watering can with 5 litres of water constituted heavy lifting. I may or may not have repeated this four times. Funnily enough it wasn't long after this that my wound started to throb. I ended up having to take a cocktail of every painkiller I had, plus a heat pack to try and ease the pain. It may be the single most stupid thing I have ever done. I just have a tendency to get carried away - mostly because I have been so restricted in the past couple of years that the feeling of being able to do physical tasks is absolutely wonderful. Thankfully the pain seems to have eased now, so hopefully I haven't done anything that will impact on the healing process and as from now I am banned from lifting anything heavier than a cup of coffee.

I have continued to walk Seb every day and he is loving it. I am now managing to do the same route as I did 2 years ago, but the main thing holding me back is still my general fitness. I do still become breathless on any hills but I'm sure this will improve with time and for the moment I just need to pace myself. Seb is still trying to get used to the fact I am moving around the house more. He is used to me just sitting on the sofa while he naps in his basket, but now that I am more active he has been quite unsettled. He insists on following me around all the time and I'm not sure if he is worried that I will leave him again or whether he is just hopeful that I might take him another walk!

Seb trying to find a shaded spot in the garden

On the medical side of things, my blood sugars have been much better the last couple of days (which might be why I have more energy). I spoke with the diabetic nurse, who said I was doing the right thing and just to keep gradually titrating up the insulin. She said it was ok to take my 3 sugars in coffee but to take some insulin with this. Although this means a couple of more injections a day, it is worth it for good sugar control .... and I really couldn't give up my coffee ;-)

I don't know if I will be blogging for a few days as I am off to Newcastle on Tuesday. I will hopefully be back on Thursday night after the clinic, unless I have any rejection in which case I need to stay for 3 days of IV steroids. Hopefully not though! I am still going to do my transplant questions post, although only one person has actually asked me a question. You are obviously all very knowledgeable or all too shy ;-) If you wanted to ask something but are put off commenting publicly, then you can use the guest book privately. Otherwise I am just going to make up my own questions which could prove interesting to say the least...