Clinic day Party

I attended Harefield transplant Clinic today hoping that the improvement that I had seen since my last attendance had been maintained I got there early and had my bloods taken and the usual:
Temperature           -Normal,
Blood pressure      - Okay,
Oxygen saturation - Good
Lung function        -  Moderately better than my last visit
X ray                   -   Appeared good
Weight                 -   Not good, I had asked the nurse to convert my weight into Stones from Kg wish I hadn't     I have put on about 20kg that is nearly three Stones more than I should be.
What a fat git I have become!
I must record my weight in stones in future as it has more emotional impact on me.
Oh and eat less as well!

During the morning I met up with Russell Willis (@russwillis) and Dora, who I had met on the ward after my transplant. They had popped in for some blood tests,and  we had a chance to catch up.
Also I had met up with a fellow transplantee Richard Burbedge (@AwoogaBurbs)
who was there to have a gastric acid monitor fitted, a procedure that I have also had. I told him that although it was a pain to have done the benefits out weigh the discomfort.later that day I met up with him in the league of friends pavilion and was impressed by the way he was able to eat some food, a feat that I had trouble with until the evening.
Then I got a text from another double lung transplant lady who was also at Harefield for appointment
Justine Laymond (@LamLungArtist) who was accompanied by a friend of hers called Dawn Bostock and another man Steven Steel who had just received a lung transplant earlier this year and was on the ward waiting to go home  after a short admission.
We took over a large table and  sat around comparing notes on our transplant experiences and I felt for the first time that I was doing better than I had thought with my recovery.
I felt very privileged to be  part of a group of people who owed there lives to the skill of the surgeons in Harefields Hospital and the selflessness of those brave people who donated their organs so we could live!
Later that day when I went back to see the Doctor he conformed that he was happy with the improvement I had made  and suggested that if I could loss some weight it would help me with my progress,he also reduced by a small amount my anti rejection medication in the evening which was another positive move.
I left in a very positive frame of mind with another appointment for three weeks time to get my kidneys checked on the day of my next visit.
All in all I had a good day :-)  

Annual competition at Camera Club

Tonight I have my final competition of the year at my camera club our annual competition where the best pictures people have are shown. This year has gone by so fast and because of my stays in hospital I have only been able to enter a few of the competitions.
Because of this I have decided to use two pictures that I have not entered in any other competitions and hope that they are good enough. If they do not do well I will be happy to see what comments are made as the chance of a trained judge looking at my pictures and making suggestions is the reason I enter.
Last year I got commended with a photo of a Eagle Owl and this year I am using another bird picture of a Red Kite and have included a close up  picture of a Hover fly on a Passion flower.

I was able to get out with the camera this last weekend and get some pictures of a car rally that is held in the local town and I will try to post some pictures in the blog from this soon. I will also add some pictures I took of the local arboretum  where all the flowers are coming out early.  I shall post the pictures I am entering and let you decide what you think, I have included the commended picture from last year called “Eagle eye”

Finally my entry from last year Eagle eye that was included in the club entry into the 

CHILTERNS ASSOCIATION of CAMERA CLUBS  inter-club competition