Why I haven't been blogging much

This is my first post for 6 months so I thought I'd better explain why.

Put simply another part of my body has stopped working and I've found doing anything a bit of a struggle; be it physical or mental activity.  This all started around Easter 2012 when my wife and I both caught a virus that laid us low for several weeks.  I eventually got over the virus but I was left feeling tired and drained so I did less and less, put on weight and did even less.  My GP was puzzled so in April 2013 referred me to the chest consultant - who I saw in July!

The good news is that he quickly found out what's gone wrong - the bad news is they can't do anything about it.  The virus has damaged the nerve to the right side of my diaphragm so that side no longer responds.  This has cut my lung capacity by about 10-15% but, sadly, it has done this to my healthier lung - both have asthma but my left lung also has dead patches (bronchiectasis.)  Apparently there is an operation that may repair the nerve but it kills 10% of the patients any way so is rarely used.

The consultants instructions were to lose weight (excess weight pushes the lung up higher) and to exercise more and while I have managed to loose about a stone in weight (that's 14lb to any readers in the USA) I have yet to get the exercise going as I still feel very tired.

If you have managed to read this far you may be wondering what this has to do with my lack of blogging.  The simple answer is the brain is fuelled by oxygen so any time my lungs misbehave my mind goes all fuzzy and stops working correctly.  As a result I have found it hard to think and, sadly, even harder to read anything more than a newspaper.  The good news is the weight loss seems to be working and my mind is beginning to get back to normal; hence this post and, I hope, a few more in the coming weeks.