Back to Life

Back to the day to day after the Christmas holidays is always hard.
After all the hard work, it is all over so quick. I had a good time but it always feels like a anti climax now my wife is back working and my children have gone back to school and college.

I have finished my last pulmonary rehab sessions and had my final test which showed an improvement in my recovery after exercise,which is great. I will need to continue my fitness regime to see the benefits increase and I am embarking on a concerted effort to lose some weight while I get fit. To achieve this I am looking around for a gym that suits me and is within my means and I will make use of my own weights at home.

I am looking forward to this new year of 2012 with renewed vigour.
I am starting back at my camera club tomorrow and will be going back to Harefield Hospital on the 9th January for a clinic appointment, looks like January will be a busy month for me at Harefield as I am also attending a meeting on the 14th January.
I hope that I will be able to look into some new options to fill my time such as voluntary work and will continue  with organ donation promotion using twitter and Google plus. I am also considering some new options for this blog in 2012 and may be adding some different aspects to it in the future.

It Is fifteen months since I had my transplant today.

I am happy to say my transplant life has got much easier to deal with now

I feel like I know when things are good and when things are not good with my body. That took a while to happen.So much of your life changes after such a major operation and lifestyle changes can be hard to come to terms with.The constant checks to make sure that lung function is maintained, the daily temperature checks and the medication to maintain your health and the worry about what might happen become easier with time.
But given that my life before transplant was so awful it has all been a revelation. So quickly you forget how hard it was to walk up stairs one at a time and stop on every step.How 13% lung function was all you had to work with and a bath was a task to be dreaded the oxygen tubing trailing around the house and the oxygen tank in the car when you went out.All this now a distant memory for me.

There have been many success stories in 2011

Victoria Tremlett  Past The Point of No Return getting her new lungs after a very long wait.
Kirstie Tancock  2nd chance @ life getting her lungs at the last moment as we saw on Love on the Transplant List the great BBC3 program.
My friend Jodie Smith got a new heart and lungs in June jodiecf.blog.co.uk/
Finally in the last part of the year, six weeks ago and at the last possible moment as she lay in Harefield hospital on ECMO like Kirstie.
Kerry Maletroit who writes Transplant Tales received her new lungs and is doing well and awaiting a discharge date in January 2012

Transplant success stories 2011

Many are still waiting

But for others I follow on this blog such a Kimberley who writes the blog Being Kimberley these things are still current issues please have a look at her blog as she waits for a place on the active transplant list at Harefield Hospital in 2012
Also Kerry Alex Thorpe who writes the blog Come walk in My shoes also hoping for the gift of new lungs in 2012 and currently the face of LLTGL campaign  to promote organ donation these women are still hoping that someone will sign the register and become a donor so that there chance at a new life will be possible.

If you have not signed up as a donor please do

 Register as a Organ Donor

Back to school is there any money left?

We are into the last weekend before the kids go back to school and my bank account is straining to keep up with the equipment requirement and uniform refits.
Our children's school inform me that once again my daughter will need more clothes in a different colour to move up to the next year (why?).


This is being conveniently provided by a lovely company call Trutex who make there wares available mail order. Delivery is not included and they give the school a kickback of 10% of the price, which is very expensive anyway.This helps people unable to afford uniform I am told in the info?

As they say on their website.
"mail order 'Trutex Direct'  service where the school receives a donation from Trutex with every purchase of uniform made. Little wonder that Trutex remains the single, largest independent school brand and this year" 

Little wonder indeed, my money will fund the school that I already pay tax for!I will also get the pleasure of knowing I am helping others not to pay. The sports kit may be purchased from the school and only from the school.
I remember when I went to school we also had a uniform policy and we had to wear Blazers and tie plus black trousers but there was no specified supplier and everyone was able to get their uniforms where they wanted to.Now there are many more options, due to competition in the market, prices have fallen,the essence of a healthy free market economy. Yet we are forced to buy from a company operating as a monopoly the essence of autocracy.

Then there are the incidentals WHSmiths have built a business on the fact that kids need new stationary every year, I have lost count how many calculators,rulers,rubbers,pens and protractors I have bought!Then there is the pencil case where all these items are put till they are discarded and it must be the "right" one.

Finally there are the shoes, another expensive job that I have nothing to do with if possible, as the choosing of shoes is more than I can cope with. Thankfully my wife has volunteered for that job this year.
Then once we have paid for the books they write in, complete with adverts.The coursework books, so that they can revise at home, and bought the art book that my son will use for his work.

We might just have enough left to pay for my son to get  chips on the only day they serve them, Friday. He tells me that it is mad you have to run to get some before they all go!Then ketchup on his chips costs 10p a sachet. 

Aside from the expense my son starts his work on his GCSEs this year and is dreading it.
The pressure to do well at school is much worse now than when I was at school,and with the dumbing down of exams, the pass rate required for a good pass is ever rising.That coupled with the continuous assessment element mean that the pressure is unrelenting.

When I was at school it was simple, you mucked around for four years, then panicked for a couple of months and kept your fingers crossed that you did well in the exams.
The year I left only 10% achieved A-C passes at O level and CSEs were there for those who didn't do O levels.Now it is all one exam GCSE and 90% pass  but in the end many more fail because the exam is considered a poor judge of ability by employers and Universities and quite often a A* is all that will do.

Never mind I am happy that they will be off to school again. Once again I will again have the pleasure of moaning about getting homework done.Giving them access on the computer to Facebook so they can find out the details of homework that they didn't copy down .My daughter can spending hours composing her written work while I try to read my emails and I can use up all my printers ink on printing out work that will be discarded.

Hope so!