It's crazy to think that it was one year ago today that I was hurrying off (probably not hurrying tbh) to London to meet my surgeon and sign the papers that would allow him to cut open my chest and play with my heart (that's not the technical term, but the emo within me).

Two days ago I went back to hospital for a check up, and it's all pretty gosh darn good. YAY!!! So obviously I celebrated in the best way, by going for a country walk in the April sunshine/snow!

We did a whole 4.5mile walk from Ditchling, to Streat Church and then to Westmeston and back, that ended up being a bit longer because we got lost, twice. It did mean some decent pictures though!





Many weeks ago, not long after I had come out of hospital I wrote about some of the little things that were helping me feel better, both physically and in general.
So we are now 25* weeks on from my operation. That's right, 25 weeks ago I was sitting in St Thomas' Hospital watching the filming of James Bond from my window, listening to Young Guns praying I wasn't going to die in a few hours.

I am (obviously) so much better since then, but some days things are still hard and frustrating, like my legs wounds still hurting when the cat sits on them, or the fact that I sometimes struggle to remember things or multi-task when my brain decides to have and off day (this is normal for the amount of drugs I've had, apparently).

So here are 5 more little things that have changed, and are making me smile now;

1, Walking up hills!!!
So anyone that has read some of my past post from ages ago might have noticed that I complained about not being able to walk up hills. I could do, but I would really really struggle and often feel awful afterwards, quite problematic when you consider I live in a really hilly part of Brighton, in the middle of a big hill. But recently (like that last 6 weeks or so) I've been tackling hills like its no ones business!! I've been making a effort to walk up the hill from the bus stop at least once a week, and not avoiding hills in general!
It's still very exciting for me, I'm not feeling nearly as bad during or after walking up hill!
This means night buses can be a thing for me once again! woohoo!!
I also walked down to Pooh Bridge, in Ashdown Forest earlier today and the walk back up took me ages last time, BUT NOT TODAY. TODAY I AM THE QUEEN OF THAT HILL!!!




  2, Putting my jeans on!
Okay let me explain; as part of my surgery the doctor cut open the tops of my legs, in-case he needed to get any veins out to use in my heart, luckily he didn't need any veins, but I did leave me with two very swollen and gross scars right at the tops of my legs, then one of the stiches didn't dissolve and the whole thing got a bit grim to be honest. what was really infuriating for me was that my legs were too swollen and painful for and denim shorts or jeans. So now (thankfully) my legs are almost back to normal and my jeans fit and aren't painful!



Museum visit - IN MY JEANS!

Just a little note about the last couple of weeks...



It's been 10 weeks since my Fontan conversion. It's been a weird 10 weeks.
Some of it I can't remember, most of it I've been super positive and some of it I've felt down and teary.

Normally I don't bother keeping track of how much exercise I get. 


I'm pretty good at knowing how my body works and 
making sure I stay as fit and healthy, but now is not 'normally' and I'm trying to build up my strength and I've been looking for some kind of device or app to help, without having to spend loads of money, after trying a couple of other apps I discovered Google Fit.


Using your phones location services or GPS  it can track the distance you walk, cycle or run, you can also add plenty of other activities.