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

Happy New Year to All

After my last post I was able to sort out my medication by Christmas day I had started to feel a bit better.

My stomach had settled and I was able to have a great Christmas dinner that I was able to cook all by myself and it turned out great:-)
I was reminded about how things were last Christmas and how I was still recovering and only able to help with the cooking. I was also to suffer a setback in January that nearly lead to my death due to CO2 problems this all seemed like a distant memory but I was still concerned about how long I had low levels of anti rejection medication in my blood and was that going to be a problem?
I was very happy that after a repeat blood test was sent yesterday I received confirmation today that the levels in my blood were back to a acceptable concentration to prevent organ rejection developing.

I thanked God.Then thanked the clinic staff for the information.

This Christmas was the first time that I had let alcohol pass my lips since the transplant.I had a beer with my Christmas dinner and although it nearly put me to sleep I loved it!

I will now be repeating the experience for New Year and while doing the weekly shop, I stocked up with a few cans for a celebration over the New Year weekend!

The other thing that happened today is that I had my last session of pulmonary rehab at the gym and because of the last six weeks I am starting to see muscles on my arms again! I am keen to continue into the new year now I have got a start on my fitness.
I hope to get back into swimming as one of my sessions each week as this was a particular favourite of mine in the past before I got unwell and I miss the freedom it gave me.
I hope that it will help me condition my legs as I am still finding it hard standing for any length of time without cramps and pain developing. My long term hope is that I will be able to loose the weight I have put on and walk much further than I can at present.

I mentioned last year that I didn't know what I would do with my health improvements and what I would do with my life.This last year was a long one and it has taken me a lot of the year to get settled and start feeling like my self again.

I am confident about my health again but for a long while I was not.

I felt that my body wasn't my own any more, and a large part of me is not my own but someone else's that I am doing my best to look after and nurture. 

This gift that I carry in me makes me so humble. 

 I was offered this second chance at life I want to do the best I can with it.

I have decided to look into voluntary work that I can do and see how my skills can be put to good use within some sort of charitable organisation. I hope that I can continue to work with the support group at Harefield Hospital. I will continue to support others still waiting for a transplant through social media like Twitter and Facebook and continue to develop Transplant News on G+ .
I will be attending a speakers training session in the early part of January organised by LLTGL I hope that this will enable me to share my story and so promote Organ donation registration.

Future is looking bright :-)

 

 

Finally I would like to wish all the readers of this blog

A Great New Year in 2012

  Health, Happiness, Dreams & Hopes fulfilled

Good Times and Support

I have been very busy over the last few weeks
I have been out to the gym twice a week for my pulmonary rehab course and am finding it great to be able to push myself again. I am finding the leg exercises are the hardest on me but am slowly making friends with the treadmill and exercise bike although I think that it will take sometime to get fitter after the inactivity since having shingles. The people on the course are great and I am enjoying getting out.
I have also been successful with another picture in the most recent competition at the camera club the subject on this occasion was Doorways and Gateways and I scored 20/20 for a picture taken looking out of Oxford Botanical gardens towards one of the Oxford colleges while two bikes were passing a typical Oxford sight I was very happy with this result and I have included the picture for you to see.

Gateway to Oxford Life

I did put another picture in but it scored less well but got a good response from the audience the judge felt that the doorway itself was not interesting enough to warrant a high mark It was of a piece of local graffiti which has since been painted over but impressed me a lot with its Oxford connection.

Alice was here

 

  Please let me know what you think?

The other thing that I did this last week week was to attend Harefield Hospital for the second meeting of the Harefield support group.I have been involved in. 

Nicola Langlands who runs Look beyond the Heart is the driving force behind the group has worked with Harefields management to organise a meeting room. With support from Harefields Nursing staff, patients who have been attending clinic appointments plus patients on the transplant wards have been able to share their experiences in a informal setting and also been able to give feedback about their transplant experiences this has allowed people at all stages of the transplant experience to ask questions of others, network and make new friends

To allow the communication to continues between meetings and as a place to share information and support online Nicola has set up a Facebook page 

Harefield Transplant and Look Beyond The Heart Focus Group

I am one of the administrators and at present the group is a open group so people can join upon request.
It will be open to all people who have contact with or experience of the UK transplant services we hope that it will grow into a valuable resource for everyone to share information and offer support to one another so please join us soon :-)

While I was at the support meeting I was able to meet a several people. two whom I have mentioned in this blog in the past.
  The first one was Justine Laymond
She was up for a clinic appointment and will soon be sailing around the world on the Clipper Around the World Race as part of a crew of people raising awareness of transplantation.
She is the first double lung transplantee to ever attempt this gruelling race.But as a multi medal wining Transplant games participant she is looking forward to the challenge.
The second person I was able to meet after following her progress for so long was Victoria Tremlett
after a four year wait I was so very happy to hear that she had got the lungs that she had so desperately waited for. She had returned to clinic as part of her follow up care and I was able to to have few words with her and wish her well with her continued recovery.

I also took opportunity to get some bloods taken and sent of to check the levels in my blood with Christmas approaching I wanted reassurance that I would not need to attend until the new year.
I had a small amount of swelling in my legs but I was happy to find out that my blood work showed improvement since the last sample had been taken. I am presently waiting for a result from my anti rejection medication levels but feel much happier to breath easy for Christmas, can't wait!!

Things Are Getting Better Now

I am feeling much better now and feel that the shingles has finally gone!! 

Good things have been happening with my photography and I have started a new page on my G+ account. You may have seen this on the widget on the right hand column of the blog.

Many people are starting a business page to promote their photography or company but I felt that I would like to share information from all over the world about transplantation, developments and up to date research.
The other function of the page is to offer somewhere for people to publicly state their support for transplantation and Join a group for transplant advocates at
Group As a listing of people on G+ who have signed the register.

You can visit my new page Transplant News and I would love it if you +1ed it share it and add the page to your circles so that you will be able to get the news that is shared.


Other things to report is that I am about to start my pulmonary rehabilitation  course again on Friday with a assessment of my fitness then I will start the six week course on the Wednesday and Friday the following weeks this is happening at the local gym and although I started the course once before I had to stop because of the case of shingles that I got :-(   I am looking forward to it and will be on it till early in January when I hope to continue with my fitness improvements with the extra impetus of new year resolutions to fire my enthusiasm.I have yet to brave a swimming pool although I have been told I could as the extra weight I have put on is a bit of an embarrassment.

I am also hoping to go fishing again after getting the okay from Harefields team at my last appointment might be that i try a bit of pike fishing first with spinners and plugs.I realised that the last time i when fishing was back in 2007 when I caught this pike with my son

  I am hoping now I can breath a bit better I will be able to catch a bigger one!   

My photography is coming along well and in the first competition of the season I scored two 17s with my first two entries I thought I would include them for your comments 

dragonfly

This was taken at the Oxford University arboretum local to us, when I was taking pictures of the fall

Steller's Sea Eagle

This massive eagle was flown at a local event near us in the town as part of the attractions and stood three feet tall it had talons the size a child's hand a very impressive bird can be seen flying at Warwick Castle which is were the hawk show is based

One final bit of good new is that one of the pictures that I took on my holiday before the transplant is being used in the local camera club regional competition "The Rose Bowl" run by

CHILTERNS ASSOCIATION of CAMERA CLUBS in the first round our club won the round!!!  

I have been told that my picture scored highly at 19/20 I have included a copy of the picture for you to see it was called "winging it "

  let me know what you think?

If you like these pictures I have been including these and others in my G+ photo blog along with other inspiring pictures that I have found around the internet. 

You can see them at  Marks Photo Blog

The last bit of nice news is that one of my photos is being published in a calender being arranged by a couple of the club for sale to members if you want to see the photo it is on the club website 

Wallingford Photographic Club