Up The Farway Tree

Hello again!

Well I have managed to come back and update before Christmas!

A great way to end the year was a successful visit to Newcastle for transplant clinic last month.   I had a drop in lung function in the summer - probably because of the shoulder surgery - but it has been worrying me since.   In fact in recent weeks it was playing on my mind all the time and I found myself waking during the night worrying about my next results. However I was VERY relieved to find my lung function back up to it's normal and everything else looking perfect.  That is actually the best Christmas present I could get :-)

The rest of November was pretty busy as I just went a bit mad and wrote the entire 6000 first draft of my essay!  I used to work like that at school and at uni - mostly because I never knew when I would be unwell or end up in hospital, so I couldn't risk leaving work until the last minute.  It's probably a good habit to have developed although most people think it's a bit strange ;-)   I am waiting on feedback from the tutor on the content and Uncle Hugh is checking my grammar.  My plan is to do no work on it over Christmas but hopefully get the final draft completed in January.

I gave a talk on my experiences of transplant to a group of pharmacists, which was interesting.  I put a few extra slides in talking about the regime of medication that still needs to be followed post transplant.  It is nothing compared to pre transplant but I think people do sometimes forget that it is not a cure as such.  Not that I am complaining - taking some tablets is no hardship in return for life!!!

One days tablets:

We made a start to the Christmas season with a visit to my friends Louise and Barry.  We had a fab festive weekend, starting with a trip to the local farm for the kids (and me!) to see Santa's grotto and a nativity play.  We watched a Christmas movie, ate a mini Christmas dinner and decorated the tree.  I felt rather festive by the time we left...!    I have yet to put my own tree up but that will be this weekends plan :-)