BA 13: A Stunning Weekend
I was heading to London to take part in an event hosted by the British Heart Foundation. The Weekend Stunner. It was a three day residential event that would allow us to take part in activities and…
BA 12: What We Did In The Shadows
I walked into the ward they had assigned me for my first day and stuck my head into the office, asking if anyone knew the whereabouts of the doctor I was due to be shadowing. A nurse led me quickly to a room near the far end of the ward.
The doctor looked like…
BA 11: From A Certain Point Of View
Back home meant back to school, even whilst continuing the powerful drug therapy that was fighting to stop an aggressive bacterial infection slowly eating away at my heart. (Can you tell I enjoy a bit of drama?)…
BA 10: Supply Shortages
After thinking I was going into hospital for a minor procedure, only to find out that I was being prepared for open heart surgery, the only logical thing to do was drive a couple of hundred miles to Southport beach and hide out for a week…
BA 9: Sun, Sea and Surgery
It was midsummer in the year 2012, with the hot sun scorching the cracked paving stones of Glasgow when I showed up to hospital in innocence, expecting to undergo a simple keyhole procedure to help with the troublesome infection which had been plaguing me for many moons…
BA 8: A Key Moment
After over two months in hospital being pumped full of powerful antibiotics and seeing very little reduction in the severity of my infection, it was becoming depressingly clear that the previously suggested “six weeks” of treatment was going to need to be extended…
BA 7: With a Little Help from my Friends.
A couple of weeks into my daily routine of waking up, antibiotics, watching Frasier, more antibiotics, going to the hospital café for a dream ring (best part of the day), antibiotics, playing Minecraft, antibiotics for supper and then sleeping, my mum got a phone call from my head teacher…
BA 6: A Reason To Wake
I was a sixteen year old, only half a year out of his latest major open heart surgery and looking forward to getting rid of this infection in order take full advantage of the repairs and tweaks done to my heart. So six weeks in hospital was not just a slap in the face, it…
BA 5: The Enemy Within
As a family we had spent a number of weeks preparing ourselves for what was to come. Fortunately, it would be nothing like as traumatic as the procedure I had undergone the previous year but still, any surgery comes with its worries. Then came the phone call…
BA 4: In The Blood
Having gone through all the stress of waiting for open heart surgery, the trauma involved in the procedure and finally the pains and worries of recovery, the last thing anyone would want to hear is that the surgery wasn’t as successful as first thought and that corrective work was required…
BA 3: The Long and Winding Road
In the buildup to my 2011 surgery I hadn’t really noticed any problems with my health. It isn’t always so easy, particularly when the change is gradual. However my parents had both noticed my decline and after a few visits to the hospital, the decision was made to insert a stent into an artery…
BA 2: The Great Divide
Coming round from my second open heart surgery was rough. After a while the breathing tube was removed and I was able to properly wake up. One of the first things I noticed, aside from the aching, were the three pipes emerging gracefully from my…
BA 1: The Heart of the Matter
It was when I was fifteen that I finally realised my condition wasn’t going to be just a minor annoyance in the background of my life. My health had gradually been declining and after a visit to the hospital they realised…