My Summer Summary

Hello!

I haven’t been very active over the last couple of months as I have had an awful lot going on. My beautiful stack of books has not been diminished and my Goodreads challenge has been glaring at me like a huge elephant in the corner holding up a ‘guilty’ placard. Unfortunately I haven’t been able to do much about it but I thought it was time for a summary of what I’ve been up to over summer.

Heatwaves, the never-ending heatwaves

My biggest problem this year has undoubtedly been the heatwaves that seemed to last all summer long in the U.K. Don’t get me wrong, I love the sunshine but once the temperature goes above the early twenties I struggle. Beyond generally being uncomfortable, I really struggle to breathe in hot and particularly humid weather. I have a severe heart condition, which I will get around to talking about in a post soon. If you have a medical background I am pretty damn interesting! The long and short of it though is that I am missing a pulmonary artery, my body did a DIY workaround and my oxygen levels suck. A normal person would be dead if their oxygen levels dropped as low as mine can go on a daily basis. Humidity and heat make it much worse. I have a small, portable air-conditioning unit in my bedroom, which was struggling to lower the extreme temperatures but did manage to take the edge off. During summer there were times where I pretty much couldn’t leave my bedroom other than to go to the bathroom or quickly grab something. When your oxygen levels are low it makes it very difficult to concentrate so all of my attention had to be put on the pieces of work that I could do from home. I really struggled to read as I couldn’t absorb the information in the same way that I normally would. Sufficed to say, I’ve been running rather behind on some of my reviews! Sorry! Gardening was a no go this summer too but luckily the tomatoes I planted out early managed on their own. Buddy was very interested in testing them.

Graduation

I graduated ten years ago. It is a fact that scares me greatly. My partner is the same age as me but didn’t have the opportunity to go to university at the same time. He always wanted to teach so made the brave decision three years ago to become a full-time mature student and study at university. His graduation was at the end of July where he was awarded with a 1st class honours degree. Luckily, I managed to attend the ceremony as I would have been heart-broken if I had to miss it. There were a few things to organise but all very nice things. Caps, gowns, family meals and of course, a cake. I am so proud of what he has achieved and that he followed his dream.

Weddings

“Always the bridesmaid, never the bride” is one of the most irritating sayings! I guess I should be hopeful though as I have never actually been a bridesmaid. In fact, I have only ever attended three weddings. I was truly honoured to be invited to the wedding of my old school friend Tom and his lovely new wife. It was a wonderful day. I know that is the standard thing that you say about a wedding but it honestly was. What really made it special was that it is the first time that I have seen a bride and groom actively enjoying themselves the whole time. They managed to spend time with all of their friends and guests. Not in a formal ‘we have to speak to everyone’ way but actually sitting and laughing, even dancing with them. They made everyone feel special and part of the celebration. It was a wonderful day.

Hospitals

I was so happy when the temperatures started to cool off. Finally, I could start being a productive and useful person again! Well that lasted about two days before I landed myself in A&E. I thought that my funny turn has been caused by dehydration but instead was initially treated for a heart attack. With my pre-existing condition nobody wanted to use the term ‘heart-attack’ instead preferring to suggest there had been a ‘cardiac event’. Obviously I was told that I would be staying in hospital. For me it was a pretty scary event as I couldn’t help but think that it could be the beginning of the end. I had a CT scan and was transferred to my local cardiology unit at 2am. When I arrived I was quickly hooked up to an advanced wireless monitor. The staff were absolutely wonderful. My own cardiologist kindly took over my case the next day. He was satisfied that I was ok and it was definitely not a heart attack. Phew! He let me go home and saw me in outpatients the following week. Apparently I had everyone in a bit of a fluster! The problem with having a unique heart is that people don’t really know what to do with you. It turns out that I was probably right when I said it was dehydration but it was explained to me why my body reacts so badly. Due to the way my heart functions, when my blood pressure is low from e.g. dehydration, the blood struggles to get to my lungs and basically cuts off my oxygen supply. So I can’t really say, bah it was ‘just’ dehydration but oops!

Thank you for reading!

Hopefully you can see why there has been a bit of hiatus around here! I really appreciate my blog followers and everyone who is kind enough to drop by, even when I have been struggling to get out content so thank you for the support! Fingers-crossed that it will be full steam ahead for the rest of the year. I have some wonderful books that I can’t wait to read. I am very excited to share my upcoming posts with you. I won’t be able to complete a full blogtober but will certainly be trying to do as much as possible. How was your summer?!

Delly x