A TALE OF 2 ORGANS

Apparently life begins at 50 – in August 2019 when the big 5 Uh Oh! was about to bestow its magic on me, I wasn’t feeling it AT ALL! My friends and family were, however, determined that I had a great time, ignored my sulking, and they made sure I did – we partied big time and I was very spoilt.

I decided as part of my 50th overhaul I wanted just two things – blonder hair and straighter teeth. I do realise looking at these words on paper how shallow that sounds in view of what happened next! But I am from Essex after all and these things are virtually essential.

Well, I got two things – but not those – not yet – instead I developed a dangerous inflammation in my heart and lungs called Sarcoidosis. Err hello! That was NOT on the Vision Board on my fridge!!

I came out of hospital on 1 January 2020 with a pacemaker, scared, inexplicably angry, exceptionally weak, but determined to push through my recovery and get back to normal as soon as possible. Part of that process was regaining some control – and so with the help of my sister and support of my family, we switched to a plant-based diet to reduce the inflammation in my body. Of course, from March, all anyone of us could do was ‘control the controllables’ against the pandemic that changed our whole world for ever.

My Blogs are an opportunity for me to make sense of a life-changing illness that came out of nowhere and to document the last year. A rare illness can be a lonely place so if these help someone else suffering and make them feel they are not alone, that would be a wonderful thing.