Warming Autumn

This week saw the end of October, the clocks changing and shorter days, Halloween celebrations and the start of a brand new month. Here in Hertfordshire, we've been enjoying some late autumn sunshine and some glorious autumn colour. 

It's all felt very uplifting, as I seem to have had one thing after another healthwise over this last month or two and have been confined to home on and off during it all. Firstly, I caught a bad cold and following from that a chest infection, but thankfully with a strong antibiotic I managed to shift it without my lungs being damaged any further. That was such a huge relief. 

Next up came an adverse reaction to the antibiotic drug I was prescribed - the drug comes with a big warning that it can cause tendon inflammation and tendon rupture. All the drugs I have to take come with all sorts of awful warnings, so I wasn't too concerned. Basically transplant patients have to take the prescribed drugs to stay alive despite the toxic side effects. After a week on this drug though the calves of both my legs became inflamed and very painful and I had to stop the drug immediately. This is now an ongoing issue, but I'm happy it's very slowly improving. It is going to take a month or two to get back on track, but in the meantime it's a big struggle to walk and the only way to improve things is to rest up. It's just been pure bad luck and an inconvenience, but hopefully nothing to worry about too much in comparison to the lung problems. 

I then managed to pick up a sickness bug - the winter norovirus - which seemed to go on for days on end because of being immunosuppressed. These types of bugs can be worrying too, as it can affect the immunosuppression drug absorption and then lead to rejection. Luckily and with much relief I managed to keep up with my immunosuppression meds and eventually shifted that bug too without a hospital visit or stay. The only good thing about this experience was that I had to stop and rest totally, so that helped my legs improve a little - well every cloud and all that...

Anyway having felt it's been a little stop/ start during these autumn months, the week started with a gorgeous sunny day and I was feeling much better, so we decided to get out in the fresh air and see some of the lovely autumn I feel I've kept missing out on. We enjoyed a few days out, Rob pushing me around in my wheelchair and with Ted in tow usually leading the way! The wheelchair has kept coming in handy over this last year and this time has been a godsend because of the situation with my legs. 

I felt like a child at Christmas going around the gardens at Wimpole Hall - I think just because I'd been stuck in for days and having been worried about ending up back in hospital. It was just such a mild and beautiful day too for the time of year. We had lunch in a quaint little Cambridgeshire pub first called 'The Poachers', which was lovely and I was surprised by how many plants were still out in full flower in the walled garden at Wimpole. It was good to be out enjoying the real world again and enjoying nature - warm sunshine, beautiful warming colours and warming food.   

When the weather was good again the following day, we went off to Ashridge Estate: I particularly chose Ashridge because it's a huge ancient woodland and I thought the trees would look beautiful at this time of year. We weren't disappointed and there was a reasonable disabled route through the woodland and plenty of flat roads for the wheelchair so we had a good explore around. There's also a great little outdoor cafe restaurant, where we enjoyed lunch and then later an afternoon tea - well I do need feeding up at the moment! 

I'm working hard on getting myself back fighting fit now - obviously exercising and trying to push my lungs a little is a problem when I'm struggling with my legs, but I'm trying to stay as active as is possible and move around as much as I can. Rob's also been trying to feed me up with lots of nutritious homecooked dishes, so I've been spoiled rotten yet again. It seems to have been a recurring theme this year. 

I feel so sorry for him with all the running around he seems to be constantly having to do - always caring for me and nursing me as well as being chief cook and bottle washer. I'm never sure who it's worse for - me or him. 

It's been a really uplifting week and good to be on the mend again. Besides being out and about a little, I've also been back to my cooking again, with much relief to Rob. Here's one I cooked last night - lamb hotpot with crusty homemade bread... nice and warming for these colder and darker nights. 

Looking to the Year Ahead...

For me, autumn has always been a little like New Year, a time for a fresh start. I think it's after being in the teaching profession and working in school and the new school year starting in September. Autumn was always a time to reflect and plan for the year ahead. Now autumn will always be a very significant time in my life as it's the season I received my transplant and my second chance at life. Autumn, therefore, feels very poignant as a time to think ahead and into the next year.

I remember thinking how am I ever going to have a better year than the first year after my transplant. It was such an amazing year being able to do so many things that I'd believed I'd never do again and have so many wonderful new opportunities having been given my life back. Now I've just passed the two year anniversary of my transplant and I'm thinking the same yet again and wondering what my third year post transplant is going to bring. So I'm hoping and planning for it to be another good one. 

Health is always going to be one of my highest priorities in having another good year. I can only try my best to remain as healthy as possible with exercise and diet and following the advice given by my transplant team, who continue to look after me well. Autumn is flu jab time, so I had mine last week - it's another preventative measure in the hope of keeping my lovely new lungs working well. At the moment they work beautifully and I'm trying hard to keep it that way. Sometimes I feel like it's a game of dodging in and out amongst all the coughs, colds and sneezes. It always surprises me how many people think it's ok to cough and splutter all over others without a second thought - or maybe it's just me being more aware or even paranoid!

Another priority will always be campaigning to raise awareness of Pulmonary Hypertension and Organ Donation and I've been planning for the year ahead already on this front. For the last year or so, as many of you already know, I've been writing a memoir all about my journey with Pulmonary Hypertension and through transplant. I'm hoping it will give readers a valuable insight into what it's like to be diagnosed with and live with a life threatening, rare and terminal condition, the difficulties coping with a long wait for a transplant, as well as undergoing a major transplant operation and the life changing differences a transplant can make. I hope it will be of interest to anyone affected by either Pulmonary Hypertension or transplant or both, as well as anyone suffering with any type of life threatening or chronic illness. 

Hopefully it may appeal to a more general audience too, as it is about surviving against all the odds and a miracle happening! I'm planning my book launch for early in the new year and hopefully this will help renew and refresh my campaign to raise awareness and through my book I may be able to reach new audiences. I hope to raise some funds for PH genetic research and transplant support at Papworth hospital if anyone buys it! For me, it's a big project and as well as raising awareness for PH and organ donation, I'm personally very excited about it and looking forward to having my own book published and giving my campaign to raise awareness a new lease of life.

Through my hospital, I've also become involved with several patient focus and advisory groups over the last year, which has been interesting and is leading to more and more interesting projects such as  working with researchers and university students and of course work that is related to organ donation and transplant. I'm also part of the Transplant Patients Representative Group at Papworth and we are currently working with the Transplant Team on some new ideas.

One of the problems many patients face after overcoming many years of illness is finding a role and purpose in life once more and that takes time and I believe it's part of the recovery process. I'm hoping all these new avenues will develop and continue to keep me busy - they certainly have until now. I'm sure there will be unexpected surprises too -  I hope so and I'm excited to see what life brings next! 

Thanks for taking your time to read and to all my regular readers,

Kath x

PS. I've been working on this blog and my other social media sites in readiness for my book launch early next year.

Most importantly, I've changed my blog URL link for this blog - 'Life is for the Living' - to: 

 kathryngrahamwriter.blogspot.co.uk

So if you have any links to my blog they will need to be changed to the new link if you'd like to continue following. 

I have a new author Facebook page so you can track my book progress and see where I'm up to in my writing process. It'd be fantastic if you would click on the page below and 'like' and 'share'.

Life is for the Living