Up The Farway Tree

Broken Foot!

Well I have just spent the morning at A+E and the bad news is that I have fractured my foot, so I now have a big padded bandage up to my knee and a pair of crutches! The pain came on suddenly yesterday and by this morning I could hardly put any weight on the foot. It's a stress fracture, probably caused by all the activity my poor bones are not accustomed to, in combination with the fact I have osteoporosis so the bones are already thin. I am already on medication for my bones, so not sure what else I can do. Probably some exercises to build the leg muscles so that they can protect the bones more effectively. I have to attend fracture clinic tomorrow morning so will get a better idea of how long it take to heal, and hopefully wont end up with a cast on! I can't believe this has happened when I am going to Ireland on Monday -I was imagining nice long walks on the beach and lots of sight seeing. I think perhaps I should take a good book instead ;-) I also wont be able to drive again, having just got this freedom back last week - not sure how long this will be for, but hopefully not too long as it really feels like a backward step. I do have to see the funny side of things though and you have to admit, it really is quite ironic that after going through major surgery and getting new lungs, I now can't walk because of a sore foot. We also had a good laugh in A+E when, sitting waiting on the doctor, Andrew said 'we could just put one of those on each and see if anyone says anything' while pointing to a pile of large plastic neck collars. I took an absolute fit of the giggles as the visual image of this popped into my head and by the time the doctor arrived I had tears rolling down my cheeks. Luckily I think he assumed it was just the pain ;-)

Other news is that I am going to be in the Daily Record - probably the week after next, but I will keep you posted. Some of you will remember that I was in the record last year, when they printed a copy of the speech I gave at Scottish Parliament, as part of the Live Life then Give Life campaign, where I talked about life on the transplant list. Well, they contacted me after my transplant to see if I would do a follow up article. I was initially very hesitant as I get really anxious about these things, however we have reached a compromise whereby I have written most of the article myself (a good 1600 words) - it's a sort of diary of my time on list until my transplant and hopefully will give people a good insight into the whole experience. As a treat they have organised for me to get my hair done at Taylor Ferguson's, a top Glasgow salon, and also for me to choose a new outfit from Debenhams!! This is all happening the week I come back from Ireland so it will be a busy but exiting week :-)

I also had a major faux pas this week (actually so far this hasn't been a great week!) I had the great news from my transplant doctor that I would be allowed to fly down to London for one of my September weddings, which is in Suffolk. He said I would be ok with a short haul flight. Anyway, I got myself all organised and booked the flights and arranged hire car at the airport. It was only when I was telling someone about the wedding and they asked the date, that I realised with that awful sinking feeling that I had in fact booked the flights for the wrong dates! I had booked them for the dates of one of my other September weddings. Arghhh...what a doughball! It cost me £80 to transfer the flights but at least it's sorted now. I could have potentially turned up that weekend with no flights. Feeling really stupid about the whole thing, I was saying to Andrew how it really wasn't like me. He did agree that I was usually a lot more on the ball than that but did suggest I had a slight problem with 'numbers on the internet'. He then cited the first example of the time I tried to order 3 onions from tesco online but did infact order 3kg. They actually brought 3kg as well - bags and bags of onions. I was giving them away for weeks! Then there was the time I sold a painting on ebay and only after the completion of the sale realised I had advertised it as 2 metres long when it was in fact 20cm. Not much difference there then! Fortunately the buyer hadn't realised the size and was probably just relieved she wasn't about to take delivery of a painting bigger than a human being. None of these are as bad as the time my mum managed to order 3 golf trolleys online, having thought the order has not gone through initially. Maybe the problem is hereditary...

Anyway, I won't be blogging for a wee while as I'm not back from Ireland until next Saturday. Until then if you haven't already voted for Seb (see post below) then do it now! How can this wee face not deserve 5 stars??!