Whenever you read someone’s story about their journey to get fit and live a healthy life you will often hear about the challenges and trials that they have faced that conspired to lead to the situation they are now in. I will be no exception to that great tradition. However, I will also tell you the real reason why I am where I am today at the start of my journey. 

I ate too much and exercised too little - the result - I am fat and unfit

So there you have it fairly simple really and it is the truth. I do have a story to tell as it is relevant for my progress over the coming weeks and months but the reality is straightforward. I like ice cream and specifically Häagen-Dazs Cookie Dough Chip this has been instrumental in my downfall. This coupled with avid TV watching. This has all changed now as I am not getting any younger and I don’t want to be another one of those blokes that dies before their time.

 

My Story

I tell this part of my life story not for sympathy or as an excuse but simply to set the context as to why I am doing the things that I am doing as they will not be relevant to everyone else wanting to do the same thing as me.

 

In February 2005 on a nice crisp winter morning I came off the subs bench for my local football (soccer for my American friends) team in the hope that I could turn around the match. We were losing 1 - 0 at the time. A full one and a half minutes later I was tackled from behind with a two-footed challenge aimed halfway up my left leg. I heard two snaps and saw my foot in relation to my leg at an angle that I hadn’t observed before. I was left in a heap nursing what I already knew to be a broken fibular and tibular. To make matters worse the guy who so clearly fouled me was only given a yellow card - what a disgrace. So an ambulance rid later I was in accident and emergency having my leg x-rayed and set in plaster to stabilise me for the night before an operation the following morning. At the recommendation of 8 doctors I had the leg set under general anaesthetic the following morning. 3 days later I was set home in lots of pain and told to rest. The leg had no chance of healing the way it had been set and every time I moved I could feel the bones rubbing against each other. 10 days later I was back in hospital to have a pin put in the leg so that it would fuse together properly and in some way a true leg. Before this was done I was given another cast for the night to stabilise the leg. This was a fibre glass cast that seemed to get tighter and tighter as it set and I had to have it cut later on in the night. In the evening I had the operation to pin my leg with a new type of pin that meant I didn’t have to have any nails put through the leg to keep it secure. When I woke from the operation I was struggling to breath properly and was put on oxygen. I was on oxygen for two days and told that I had an allergic reaction to an antibiotic that they had used, apparently it was touch and go at one point when my oxygen levels dropped dangerously low. 5 days later I left hospital a bit more mobile than when I arrived but utterly exhausted whenever I did anything. Two weeks later I was still feeling awful and was coughing a lot. One day I coughed up some blood and figured that it probably wasn’t a normal type of thing to happen when you have a broken leg. Back to hospital again and this time doctors are really concerned for me as they discover a massive blood clot on my right lung. Lots of drugs to make my blood thin and another 4 days in hospital. Go home feeling a lot better than I went in but still with a cough and raspy chest noises. A month on and the leg is healing pretty well and the cast will come off in another months time. Still having pains in my chest and lots of noise from my chest so back to see the doctor. Told not to worry just the aftermath of having a pulmonary embolism which everyone now agrees happened when I was on the operating table and the took off the cast that was too tight releasing the clot into my lung. (So no allergic reaction). The cast comes off and a long period of rehab is ahead of me I can’t even put my foot flat on the floor at this stage. Still suffering from chest pains and shortness of breath so another visit to my GP. She has a worried look on her face as she listens to my chest and I am immediately sent off to accident and emergency. This time the diagnosis is pneumonia and it is severe this time an extended stay in hospital as I am given a huge cocktail of IV antibiotics. Two and a half weeks later I am allowed to go home with a damaged lung but no infection. In time both the leg and the lung improve to a degree.

 

Where I am today is that my leg is more or less normal I have some numbness in my foot and my knee is sore where the incisions were made to put the pin in. I have lost a fair bit of muscle from my leg and this has taken a long time to recover to the point where I can run a bit now. My right lung has lost about 30% of its volume as it collapsed during the pneumonia and I still get pains from scar tissue and a lot of phlegm. I am working to try and improve my lung function. The up shot is nearly 3 years of inactivity during which my fitness has become really poor.

 

A side note is that 5 years ago I was diagnosed with a problem with my inner ear this means I have a permanent balance problem. Imagine being on a rollercoaster all the time except that you aren’t actually going anywhere and that will give you some sense of what daily life is like for me.

 

All this said I believe that you shouldn’t allow your past or any illness to define who you are. Like I said the reason I got fat and unfit was I ate too much and exercised too little. That is going to change now and working with some of the personal challenges I have I will still achieve my goals.