So I’ve managed, it appears, to spend a couple of days without sending my Tac levels sky-high and spending all dy hurling, which is nice. I have, however, managed to do something to my left-hand side, which is causing me a great deal of pain right now.
We think – in our infinite wisdom (read: mildly-educated guesswork between one trained nurse and one former-CF patient, newly transplanted) – that I may have strained the stitches on my internal wound. Back visiting the flat on Christmas Eve, our little nephew came running into the study to see what we were all gauping at on the computer and without thinking I automatically hoisted him up on to my lap. We reckon the effort of lifting him may have pulled on the stiches (which won’t have fully healed and dissolved for another few weeks yet) and that’s what’s causing the pain.
The biggest problem is that it’s right on my Lat muscle (the sort of angular one that comes down under your armpit), which means just about any body movement twinges the stiches and gives me a nice, healthy, bracing shot of pain. I’m dosing myself up with Paracetamol and Tramadol at regular intervals, but it doesn’t seem to be doing a whole lot.
Still, the plus side of all of this is that the pain in my side is literally the only thing I’ve got to moan about. Everything else is absolutely brilliant – I’m walking around freely, my appetite is fantastic, I’m enjoying my days and sleeping pretty well through the nights. I’m full of hope and excitement for the New Year and just wondering which of my many possible projects I want to tackle first once I’m up and running.
Today I’ve had a day off from going to Harefield, which was nice as it meant I got a bit of a lie in. I had a wonderfully lazy Saturday morning lying in bed with K reading the paper and chilling out before I got up and had a nice soak in the bath (which did wonders for the pain in my side).
The rest of the day has been spent in similarly chilled fashion, watching TV, sleeping a little and doing the mini-exercise regieme that the Harefield physios set me before I left.
Tomorrow, K and I hope to get back to the flat to try spending a few nights there over New Year to see how we get on. At the moment I’m lucky in that I’m here being pampered by Mum and Dad but I really need to get back on my own two feet. While I know that K’s going to be there to do things for me if I need them doing (which, doubtless, I will to start with), it still feels like a pretty major and slightly scary step. But at the same time, it’s wonderfully exciting and I can’t wait – it’s one more step on the road back to “normality”.
We’re just a couple of days away now from the end of the most amazing year of my life – one that’s seen more ups and downs than an entire day riding Nemesis at Alton Towers, but one which will no doubt stick in my mind forever, for all the right reasons.
Despite everything that’s gone on in the last six weeks and despite all the hardships of the year before that, I’ve done some things this year that I’ve always dreamed of doing and can’t wait to have the opportunity to do again.
K and I sat watching a film last night which summed up my attitude to life perfectly. Funnily enough, I don’t normally credit Adam Sandler movies with being all that profound, but watching Click reminded me that life is about every experience you go through, good or bad, and that every single thing you go through helps to shape you as a person. I would not swap a single day of the last 12 months because the great ones were the greatest because of how hard I had to fight to get through them and the bad ones were the worst but taught be more about myself, my strength and my resolve than a million sessions with a phsycologist or life coach ever could.
Here’s to meeting with triumph and disaster and treating those imposters just the same. And here’s to 2007: year of wonders yet to cease.