Friday 13th to Monday 16th October

For the first time in a while I wasn’t feeling well 🤒 I was feeling sick at times, a bit of a funny dizzy head, aching body, that kind of stuff.

I still went to work Friday. I went out at the weekend, wandered around Oxford on the Saturday. Felt a little better on the Sunday, went to the garden centre and fish shop in Bicester, went out for a meal which was 😋, then went to another local pub where there turned out to be a music quiz going on which actually was a bit of fun 🎵🎶

I went out for lunch with a couple of my Co-op colleagues on Monday. This was the day of the red sky phenomenon which was caused by Hurricane Ophelia. It really was extremely odd looking and a bit eerie. It did look like the world was about to end.

This weird atmosphere must have done something to me because I actually ordered my new phone! something I have been putting off for SO long.

Then I went for a nice sunny autumn evening walk with Robyn.

‘A consultant liver transplant surgeon explains the procedure‘ – click on the blue link to have a read of this article I recently came across (it just happens to be one of the surgeons that actually did my second transplant!) This took me back and got me thinking when I read this – basically a couple of years ago I was just led asleep on a table in an operating theatre in Birmingham with a big cut in the middle of my body and lots of medical people working on my insides in many different ways trying to just keep me alive 😱 
The whole procedure sounds pretty complicated doesn’t it? I’m glad that there are some very clever people about! Quite amazing really …

Sunday 1st to Thursday 12th October

And so it continues – working and walking! With not much excitement in between!!

The odd bit of sorting out at home, still checking and deleting photos to free up memory on my phone (which also needs doing on my iPad now 😏), odd jobs in the garden to try and sort it ready for winter, sorting out and cleaning the freezer, the list goes on!

I discovered that I have done over 900 miles in my walking challenge now … I’m getting there!

Have a look at this 👀 Here’s 15 reasons why walking is the healthiest way to exercise. Remember it also is completely free and you get to see some lovely natural things like this 🙂

A lovely sunset 🌅 and a squirrel 🐿 playing in the autumn sunshine.

Why don’t you start thinking about challenging yourself to #walk1000miles next year?

Saturday 16th to Saturday 30th September

The last two weeks of September were just as bad as the first two! There were some difficult times going on at home. And I was just SO extremely tired all the time, maybe the extra stress wasn’t helping me 😩 

I do find that now I’m regularly doing these extra hours at work every week I do get so very tired. I don’t think I have mentioned that a while ago I sent off letters from both my GP and my consultant supporting my claim to the Department for Work & Pensions, but they still came back to me saying that they would not change their decision 😏 So extra tired is now what I will always be!!!

I had to really talk myself into going on some of my walks during this time and then they seemed to be a little shorter, I just didn’t have the energy.

Of course there were some good times.

I had a couple of good volunteering visits.

And it was my niece Hannah’s 21st birthday. A cold and murky Monday morning and she decided that she wanted to go and do this 😳

So off we all went. Despite it being absolutely freezing cold the first time you got in the lake (it literally took your breath away) we very soon warmed up when we started to clamber about on the inflatable, it was quite hard work pulling yourself up onto things.

Tiring but fun 🤣 

We had all worked up an appetite and were looking forward to going out for our nice birthday lunch!

And look at the amazing birthday cake we also all tucked into later in the afternoon.

Hope you enjoyed your 21st birthday Han. I did!!!

And then on the very last day of September, while Leah was having a shower, the water decided to pour through the ceiling into the downstairs toilet (running down the walls and flooding the floor) onto the fuse box and so stopping all the electrics from working! We later found out that it may have been caused by some gravel causing a blockage, from when she was cleaning out her fish tank earlier 😖

Thank goodness September is now over 👋

Monday 11th to Friday 15th September

Walking and working is how I spent my week! I had unexpectedly ended up walking 5 miles on Monday while out with Robyn so had developed sore feet from having the wrong shoes and socks on. My big toe was also now hurting SO badly again. The rest of the week’s walking hurt, my poor feet 😩

Then on Thursday I found myself in this situation again –

but thankfully it was just a day visit. Time to have a hysteroscopy, biopsy and coil fitted. This was to see how my womb was looking, to take a sample to check there were no nasty changes in the cells and to hopefully sort out the heavy bleeding problem.

I had decided to be brave and just have a local anaesthetic for the procedures. But I was so scared beforehand. It was an even scarier moment for me when I was wheeled into the little room before the operating theatre, and then the doors opened … 😱 I remember that I kept telling myself to just keep calm and that I could do this. I think it was bringing back many memories from February 2015.

Once I was in there and the theatre staff and doctors started talking to me it became very slightly easier. They were so good and explained everything to me as it was happening. I even watched the camera on the screen. But I was glad when it was all over and nothing appeared to have gone wrong this time.

I was at work at 8.00am the next morning, which I guess wasn’t really the best idea. I really didn’t feel too great and when I got home I just spent the rest of the afternoon asleep 😴 

Sunday 10th September

On the second Sunday of each September it is International PBC Day.

The aim is to encourage ‘Movement as Medicine’

So I went climbing ‘the mound’ at Oxford Castle 

which was then followed by a walk around the city, passing the Radcliffe Camera

2.98 miles in total 🙂

Saturday 9th September

A trip to Cannon Hill Park in Birmingham to take part in the Big Fun Run. As it was a ‘fun run’ you were also allowed to walk or push a pushchair round the course, wear something silly, what ever you felt like doing really! So I took the opportunity of having somewhere different to walk and to add a few more miles to my challenge. Robyn and Leah came along and did the walk with me, but of course it was only my own miles that were counted (my phone tracker clocked this at 2.66 miles) From our promotion of this walk on social media we did raise a bit more money for Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham Charity 😀

Here we are at the end of the walk with our medals 🥇 We’re looking ridiculous, are very cold as we are absolutely soaked to the skin, the heavens opened as we were walking around, but we had fun.

Then look what I was lucky enough to have in the evening. One of Gary’s curry’s! This time it was chicken, sweet potato and cauliflower bhuna, which was apparently inspired by a recipe of Nadiya Hussain (winner of The Great British Bake Off in 2015) which was served along with one of my favourite things, green beans in mustard seeds. Absolutely 😋