Sunday, April 6, 2025

Blog nr 6 in Feedspot's 60 Best CF Blogs in 2025 and other updates

Had a nice surprise earlier this week! My blog was selected as one of Feedspot's Top 60 CF blogs on the web!  A very cool library of CF blogs, will def check out some of the other ones on there. What a great tool for parents of newly diagnosed patients. Go take a look at their site and the other blogs.

In other news... I've been on the island for almost 8 months now. It's spring, and the island is really starting to show off! Flowers and new leaves everywhere, and surprisingly an abundance of sun! It's an exciting time, and the island is also getting ready for the world famous TT motorcycle race that takes place at the end of May. 





We're off to Belgium in 2 weeks' time for the Easter long weekend! Followed by me going back to South Africa for 2 weeks, visiting my family. I'm literally counting sleeps, I CANNOT WAIT. We were also fortunate to spend a few days doing a road-trip to Scotland in Feb. We spend 1 night in Cumbria after taking the ferry to the UK, 2 nights in Edinburg and 2 in Glasgow, where we met up with my friend Carli and saw Snow Patrol, which was amazing.













We survived our first winter! We had visitors for Christmas... my aunt Annelie and her hubby Bernie came over from the UK. Unfortunately their visit was cut short by impending bad weather that would have lead to a cancelled ferry. But they were here for Christmas day and it was nice to have family here.

The snow pics are from January... our first snow (although it didn't snow much where we live, but on higher lying areas.






















Will try and post Belgium pics before I go back to SA... We applied for the Schengen visa in Scotland (after Brexit we cannot travel to Europe without a Schengen visa sadly), and they only gave us a 1 month visa. We're very upset about that - so much admin for one short trip! Will have to make the best of it!

Wednesday, October 30, 2024

Turning 40, moving Isle of Man and 7 Year Lungaversary of the 2nd set of lungs

I started this post about 2 months ago, just before I turned 40, but I was overwhelmed by how much there was to update that I gave up. So let me try again, this time for my 7 year lungaversary, WHICH IS TOMORROW!

Arno flew over to the Isle of Man on the 27th of July, and I followed on the 12th of Aug. It was a long journey, with 4 overweight bags, and very heavy/bulky hand luggage! Saying goodbye was obviously hard, but the new adventure awaiting was exciting. Especially after all the months of (what felt like) blood, sweat and tears to get the visas. 




We are renting a cute cottage in Ballabeg (although the car has already changed from that pic!), in the south of the island. I managed to get a job 7 minutes away from home, which is a massive change from my Pretoria-JHB commute. I started working on 1 Oct, it's been a month full of learning and getting back into a routine. Getting a job was stressful, as I applied for various positions at the same time, and you end up juggling interviews and try to hold off on making decisions while waiting for other companies to respond etc. But all in all I'm fortunate to only have been unemployed for 2 months in total, which was perfect for saying good byes on the SA side and settling in on IOM. I spent a week with my parents at their holiday flat in De Kelders, which was very special - apart from the fact that I had a cold.

We are STILL waiting for our cube with some furniture, clothes, crockery, books etc to arrive... it was delayed at the port in Durban, and now it's sitting in Liverpool, waiting to be brought over by a local removals company. 

The kitties arrived 2 days after me, they travelled for like 5 days. First 2 days in Joburg for private and state vet checks, then Frankfurt, Londen, Liverpool, IOM. My baby, Tay, has not totally adapted, he tends to stay upstairs, he is scared of going downstairs (we think it's the sound of cars driving past - we're on a main road). He is also scared of the wind when it blows. I'm hoping he gets a bit better, and hopefully the next place we live in is not as close to a relatively busy road.







The biggest challenge so far for me has been getting all my medical stuff sorted. I have an appointment with the Liverpool CF Team on 6 Nov, and waiting to get an exact date from Wythenshawe Lung Transplant unit in Manchester, but I'm "pencilled in" on the 8th. It seems like I'm the only lung transplant recipient on the island so it's been a bit of a back and forth to get me referred to the right centres. Manx Care (the local version/branch of the NHS) pays for the transport to these appointments, which is pretty awesome. I received airplane tickets in the post for the Liverpool appointment, and expecting the same soon for Manchester.

We celebrated my 40th with a boat trip to the Calf, a little island below the mainland (the mainland is the Isle of Man, NOT the UK. The UK is "across"). It was lovely! Can't even believe Im 40, that's a whole different mind boggle!







We've also had our first visitor, Carli! One of my oldest friends (not in age - we differ exactly 2 weeks!), who lives in London. It was great showing our home to someone special to us. Next up is Annelie and Bernie for Christmas! Will be nice to share Christmas with family.

Ending off with my LUNGAVERSARY tomorrow! It feels like so much longer than 7 years, considering everything that has happened in those 7 years. Travels to New York, Mauritius twice, UK twice, Norway & Sweden, got divorced, lived on my own, lived in a garden cottage by my sister, dated, moved in with Arno, got a proper job again after being disabled as a result of the rejection I had, became an aunt again, survived a pandemic... just so much LIFE in these 7 years! Tonight 7 years ago a family lost their wife/mother/daughter :-( Words are not enough to say how grateful I am, it just seems lame. But I hope she looks down on me and smiles. Alongside donor nr 1.


Oh and by the way, I saw Aurora!!!!