Red Letter Days

Aged 28 I was diagnosed, in Oxford, with Ulcerative Colitis, which would not respond to treatment and aged 30 surgery was suggested. However I didn't fancy the idea of that and sought help from a homeopathic GP. The course he suggested worked within a week and I managed to go four years with no problems.

An impending marriage break up and pressures of full time teaching brought the disease back with a vengeance, although I continued to follow the doctrine of the homeopathic approach plus I took tablets each day. Still the disease hung on .

Finally aged 43 and remarried we moved to Scotland. I gave up teaching, changed my lifestyle and the Colitis went into remission within a year. I've remained in remission since then (apart from a three month spell following bad advice from a consultant - he told me I was cured!)

However the disease is always there, waiting to flare up again. I am lucky though to be able to pursue my hobbies, interests....my life as it can be a distressing and debilitating disease. For me every day is at least ROSY...if not always red ! Today (Friday) I have my annual review at Preston Royal Infirmary . This consists of the consultant asking me how I've been this year, taking a blood sample...and off I go (hopefully for another year). Yes I've been very fortunate.

So how do I do better than that and make Red Letter Days? The day I married my second husband was very special. The day we found a home in Buckie...dilapidated but destined to be ours ..was pretty fortuitous. The day trip from Uig (on Skye) to the Outer Hebrides  ...the Minch (known for its roughness) was smooth and gleaming blue...the sun shone all day ...the beaches were like Caribbean shores.  An anniversary never to be forgotten ! My flight to Switzerland after years of wishing to walk in the Alps. That first peak Neisen that towered over my sister-in-law's house . I thought I'd died and gone to heaven, I was so happy! Perhaps that HGV driving experience that I treated myself to after passing my Advanced Driving Test. Ah, but  then there's the first cruise I took to Norway . Gosh I'd wanted to live in Norway when I was younger...  No, the pinnacle could be the reddest days of all - going to Estes Park, Colorado, to follow in the footsteps of Isabella Bird whose book "A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains" I'd read when I was 18, and I finally got there aged 64! Then to make even more red days we travelled down parts of Route 66 and viewed the Grand Canyon!

The La-al Ratty train - taken recently on another Red Letter Day

But hey I'm not finished making Red Letter Days. 

  

To everyone reading this....keep on making those special days, keep them in your heart and memory.

 

Thanks for reading.    Kath