Is is now 2008 - I wonder what this will bring. It started well standing on the North Cobb wall in Lyme Regis seeing in the New Year with friends. A enjoyable if not slightly weird New Year.
Went for a walk with a group of local family friends - amazing day with great views across the sea and coastline. See photos at end of post. Felt pretty good in myself - and for the first time felt that my legs and lungs had some real power back in them which suggests to me that I can start doing some small amounts of running and gradually build it up over the next month.
Life for me is now starting to change - for the past 2/3 years I have really had to pass time waiting for the treatment and transplant. I am now in the mood to start getting things achieved in all aspects of life and have already made a few decision about the next few months that have been positive. I am still of course mindful that it is early days with the transplant but as my doctor says the kidney (at present) is operating as a normal persons kidney would.
Over the next week I am aiming to get a lot done including working out what needs to be done to set up a charity, getting and raising awareness for the London marathon and things that can be done beyond that.
I am also going to start looking for work. I have been advised not to start teaching again until September but will start doing private tuition in Science and IT. I am also going to look for a job in the local area - ideally part time 3 days a week.
I had a number of text message from my friends who are on dialysis and had to dialyse last night. I was on the beach having a good time, being able to drink (in terms of as much liquid as I wanted) and alcohol without feeling instantly ill and bloated. I did spend a moment thinking about them on the machines and how dialysis does effect your life in a lot of ways - mostly in the restrictions it puts on you. This does change the way you feel about life, about close friends and loved ones - at the moment it is making life for me more vivid and focused in terms of experiences. My last few years on dialysis (I think) has changed me in a lot of ways. It has made me more understanding and more patient - I also feel more relaxed around people.
I have also found that this blog has helped loads - it has helped because people who read it have an understanding of what is going on and where I am up to. This makes it easier to talk about the transplant and treatment. Previously - I have often found that people struggle to know what to say and ask (I have always been pretty open about the treatment I am undergoing etc) and the blog allows me to share that with people who are interested. It has made it a lot easier over the Christmas party period and among my friends. Interesting when I went to the local gathering on Christmas Eve in Lyme - the pub had about 200 people in it of which I probably knew 120 of them. So many friends (who I may not have seen for years) came up to me and knew what was going on and felt easy in what to say. I put this down to 2 things - both due to the Internet. Firstly this blog and secondly facebook. I believe that social sites are revolutionising communities already. They reconnect old and new communities and provide a link between people. I think that most people want to feel and have a support network of friends around them and want to feel that they belong to a community (what ever that is) facebook provides this - it provides news (gossip) on what people are up to. I think that we are just seeing the effect of these community websites are having and truly believe that they will begin to start bringing communities and like minded people together.
Of course their are a number of precautions and risks to community facebooks and people do need to be considerate of others feelings, beliefs and actions but if used wisely then great.
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