8 Sleeps to go!

Only 8 sleeps til my UK trip!!!! SOOOOOOO EXCITED. It's going to be a very busy week, but I'm motivated to get everything done. Need to have medication delivered, finish up work, TELL strat session, gym/bio, go to pharmacy, Christmas celebrations, Dr's visit, blood tests, Parkrun, pack, etc...

It's been raining for like 5 days straight here. We really needed it and I'm not quite sick of it yet, but it feels like it's been preparing me for my trip! Two weeks ago myself and 3 fellow lung transplant recipient friends completed the Muddy Princess 5km Obstacle Race. It was super fun and surprisingly easy. I want to start doing some Parkruns now, and also have a bee in my bonnet about getting fit for next year's National Transplant Games!

Another highlight was Grandparents' Day at my nephew's school. My dad couldn't make it so I went with my mom. It was SUPER cute, and I feel so lucky to see this guy growing up!!!

All in all everything is good. I'm just so freaking grateful for so much right now. May my health continue to allow me to live my best life!

2 Year Second Lung Transplant Lungaversary and upcoming trip!

My life is going so gloriously fast-paced that I hardly have time to blog anymore! 16 Days ago I celebrated 2 BRILLIANT years with the second set of transplanted lungs! What a journey it's been.... emotional and life-altering highs and lows, Mauritius, New York, bushveld, divorce, living only own, dating, upcoming trip.... but what has been stable and dependable are these BREATHERS! My check-up on the 30th went swimmingly. Lung function fantastic, x-rays beautiful, bloods fine.

On the evening of the 31st, TELL's branding Company, Murmur, had their 1 year birthday celebrations just across the road from my house, so that was the perfect way to celebrate!

The other big news is that today in a months' time I'm off to the UK to visit a whole bunch of friends and my aunt & uncle. It will literally be all over... London, Bristol, Yorkshire, and some Scotland too!
I haven't been this excited in ages, and it barely feels real yet. But I have the Visa, all the tickets have been bought, Scotland accommodation booked... eeeekkkkkk.

Achilles Tendon journey

Yesterday marked a year since I tore my Achilles tendon playing squash. Largely due to years of being on Prednisone, combined with squash and bad luck. It's been a long recovery.... much longer than any of my lung transplant recoveries (how crazy is that??). It's still quite a hectic scar... I try to remember to put tissue oil on, but I forget. All that I really care about is that everything is functioning again and I can DO STUFF again! Below is what it looks like now... All the other scars on my body look great, so hoping this one will eventually follow suit.

The timeline was as follows:

26 Oct - tear tendon
1 Nov - surgery to repair tendon
14 December - cast comes off and instructed to wear a wedge heel.
17 December - fall in my parents' garden and tear open the entire thing, splitting it in all directions (did not post a pic of that, some people might faint)
17 Dec - second surgery to repair tendon and replace with artificial tendon
1 Feb - cast comes off and I get a moon-boot
Wound doesn't look great at the bottom so many visits to wound clinic.
17 March-ish - Moon-boot comes off. Slowly start walking "normally" again.

It took MONTHS to gain muscles back in left leg, a lot of physio... left calf muscles still not back to normal yet. Had to withdraw from the team for the World Transplant Games in Aug this year :-( See pics below (sorry if some of them are still gross):

In other news, TELL was featured in the Rosebank Killarney Gazette last week, and in the Times Online two weeks before that, which is great.

Andrew has also helped me hang my pictures in my flat, so it's really looking nice. The Jacaranda trees are also looking stunning! Pics of all of the above below! ONLY 3 MORE SLEEPS TILL MY 2 YEAR LUNGAVERSARY!!! Will blog again later in the week!

OCTOBER!

Whoop whoop we're in October! My lungaversary month! Will be celebrating at the end of the month with a picnic. Very excited about that.

I've been living on my own for 2 months now and loving it. Our divorce went through on Friday the 13th of Sept... So officially a divorced woman now. Every now and then I get sad and miss the way things were, but then I get excited for the future again and it passes.

We had a magnificent family holiday 2 weekends ago at a place called Evelyn Game Ranch, close to Mapungubwe National Park. Andrew ended up coming along as my plus one! We had an amazing time! The scenery is stunning, and we had the BEST elephant experience ever. My mom and dad and I were sitting in a bird hide, and these elephants just started walking past us... it was intense. The entire herd passed underneath us/next to us, you could hear every single noise they made! I uploaded the video to Facebook, you can see it here. I was a much needed holiday, the energy boost needed to finish off the rest of the year.

On the evening that we came back, it was the premiere of the documentary about my friend Talia and organ donation. It was a nice evening, and I managed to see my anesthetist again that I had for my second transplant! He was so cool, and have had him for one of my biopsies afterwards as well. Dr Hockman. Managed to get a pic with him and my lung Dr. You can watch the trailer for the documentary here.

Ohhh one last thing, since my last post I've also been indoor rock climbing with a new friend! LOVED it, hoping I'll be doing it again soon. It was super fun, and all those sessions at the bio paid off! I didn't make an ass of myself at all!

Loving feeling this healthy!!!!!! It will NEVER gt old. EVERY SINGLE DAY I think "wow... how amazing am I feeling?"... The thought that it might not last is always at the back of my mind, but I'm getting better at living in the NOW and not worrying about "what if".