An adventure in Cushing's and stroke

A moment of honesty

jennnigan — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 12:03:32 +0000

I don’t really know what to do with this blog/website now. It is primarily about Cushing’s, stroke and fundraising for the National Stroke Foundation. All of that is basically over now (it’s been a year and eight months since the stroke; time has flown!), but life continues. I am having an amazing time in Arusha, but that seems like it should be a different blog. Or is everything that is happening now just an example of life after stroke and should continue to go in here? Hmm…

A new year and a new charity

jennnigan — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 10:11:56 +0000

I’m in Arusha, Tanzania right now. Arusha is a fairly big city, right at the base of the Serengeti National Park and Mt Kilimanjaro. I’m volunteering at the Umoja Centre and will be here at least until the end of the year.

The Centre provides free education (English, IT and Key Skills) to young disadvantaged Tanzanians. I love being here because I can see every day the results of what we are doing. I’m in the office, helping out with research, fundraising and writing government applications. I’m running a newspaper club and teaching the students how to put together their own newspaper, the Umoja Journalist.

I’m having a fantastic time here, and it’s a bit hard to imagine how different life is now compared with a year and a half ago. On the one-and-a-half year anniversary of the stroke, I was in the Serengeti National Park, on game drives, camping, and marvelling at how everything turned out.

And now, a lot of the hard work of last year with fundraising is continuing, and I’ve discovered that it’s a lot harder to do fundraising in Australia when you aren’t actually in Australia.

In between adventures

jennnigan — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 00:00:59 +0000

I arrived in Sydney two days ago after five weeks in south east Asia. I leave again on Friday for Africa, where I’ll be for the rest of the year. I’m spending these four days at home uploading photos, seeing friends, and going to the gym. A nice little break to appreciate Australian accents, being a local and sleeping in my own bed.

The cycle through Vietnam was amazing. There was a group of six of us (two had fundraised for the National Stroke Foundation, and the other four had fundraised for Parkinson’s Victoria). We had a great Vietnamese guide who spoke excellent English and knew a lot about the country, and was very accommodating and kind. The people I cycled with were all fantastic, and by the time we left, I felt as though I made a new group of friends, which I didn’t really expect at all.

And the cycle! The country! It was amazing. It was fantastic to cycle through the back lanes and see rice paddies and rivers, and have locals wave and shout “Hello!” wherever we went. Cycling is truly a great way to see the country. Oh, and the food was great too.

After the cycle, I spent a week in Cambodia, in Phom Penh and Siem Reap, where I learnt a lot about its depressing history, and saw a lot of temples.

Nex stop after that was Thailand, and in the two weeks I was there, I went to Bangkok, Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai. It’s a great country, with beautiful people and fantastic food.

I took about 3500 photos, and some of them are up on my Flickr page.

Off on an adventure

jennnigan — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 05:31:32 +0000

Tomorrow, I’m getting on a flight from Melbourne to Hanoi, and the adventure begins for real. A year of fundraising has finally come to this, and it’s exciting and terrifying. I left Sydney yesterday on a train down to Melbourne, and so ended almost a week of farewells. I’ll be back in five weeks for four days before heading off to Africa. Fun times!

The last long ride

jennnigan — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 04:08:18 +0000

Today, I went for the last long ride I’ll do before leaving Sydney. I started at 6:30am and cycled 86km. I’ve done this route before twice, and what impressed me today was that I didn’t need to walk any of it. There are a few very long hills, and a couple of quite steep hills, that in the past I’d just got off the bike and walked. Today, every last centimetre of the ride was on the bike. I also didn’t feel like dying at the end. I felt incredibly sweaty and a bit tired, but not the “I think I might just lie down for a week” feeling I had the other two times.

I can only conclude one thing from this: If I can get fit, anyone can. I was the most unfit person on the planet before I started training for this, andd now I think I can say that I’m fit. Not super fit, and there are still many people out there fitter than me, but I think I’m fit enough to do this cycle. I hope so, anyway.

There are now two more pilates classes, two cycle classes, two weights sessions, and then I’m out of here.

Sounding like a broken record

jennnigan — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 23:58:35 +0000

I love my endocrinologist. I really do. I had an appointment with him on Friday to get the results of my latest cortisol and thyroid function tests, as one final check up to see if I’m good to leave. Everything is fine – cortisol is 461 nmol/L (range 138-650) and ACTH is 6.1 nmol/L (range 1.4-8.1). So in exactly two weeks time, if everything goes according to plan, I will be in Vietnam.

The reason why I’m saying my endo is awesome this time is because at the end of the appointment, he wrote down the contact details of a friend of his in Vietnam. He said that if I have any free time, I should give him a call and say I’m a good friend of his [my endo's], and meet up with him. My endo told me to have a great year and to send him photos and emails, and to enjoy this year.

I know there are a lot of fantastic doctors out there who are great at their jobs, but in my own experience, and from what I’ve read and been told, there are very few doctors out there who go out of their way to know you as a person and treat you as a friend.

The wonder of Pilates

jennnigan — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 09:31:32 +0000

Pilates is awesome. Really, it is. It’s even more awesome when you don’t have Cushing’s! I first started doing it in May 2007, and continued doing it until October 2008. I really loved it, and I would feel more flexible and stronger, but I never noticed a huge difference in appearance. In around June 2008, when all the Cushing’s symptoms appeared alarmingly, there was no difference at all. The Cushing’s belly remained no matter how much Pilates or exercise I did.

In October, my endo told me to stop Pilates, and only do really mild kinds of exercise, until Cushing’s was sorted. So I sorted out Cushing’s, but then had a stroke and couldn’t do anything. Even when I was at a point where I could do it, I couldn’t drive to Pilates, and my gym didn’t have classes. My gym now has Pilates classes with a great instructor, and I’ve been going for about a month now.

And this time, I can totally see the difference. It’s awesome and I love it. I feel taller, stronger, firmer and more flexible after every class. Twice a week at the gym there is a cycle class followed by a Pilates class and that is such a fantastic combination. I am enjoying exercising so much right now, it’s like a drug.

Getting ready

jennnigan — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 07:16:13 +0000

I’ve bought the train ticket to Melbourne. Booked my flights for between Thailand and Vietnam (I’m doing a bit more travelling after the cycle), sorted out the vaccinnations and travel insurance, have most of the gear I’ll need (still need to buy a toothbrush…)

Almost there! 19 days left in Sydney

Mmm, sweat

jennnigan — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 11:33:12 +0000

There are a few different instructors at my gym who do the cycle class. I went to my first ever one on the 30th of July 2008, and that was with Steve. I didn’t go again after the first time, and instead did other sorts of training. About a month ago I started going to them again, this time with Mel. And tonight, I did one with Steve.

Between the first time I did a cycle class and tonight, I think I got a lot fitter. I remember after the first class feeling like I was about to explode from exhaustion (Is that even possible?) I felt incredibly unfit, even though I suppose I was fit enough to keep up. Tonight, I left the class not feeling like I was about to die, but feeling awesome and thinking, “I love cycle class”. I still sweated profusely, but that’s half the fun.

There are now exactly three weeks before I leave Sydney, and that means there are still thirteen cycle classes and about four or five days with cycling on a real bike before I do the Vietnam cycle. My goal is still to just be able to complete it.

Getting fitness back

jennnigan — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 02:05:25 +0000

About two weekends ago, I went for a 52km cycle, and it was really hard. There were parts that I walked up and I suspect the reason that a previously easy ride turned into something quite difficult was because I hadn’t done a lot of exercise for the three weeks prior. After that day, I’d been back at the gym and back to regular exercise, and last weekend I did a 24km ride which was easy. Today I went a bit further. I started at 7am with a friend, and we went on a 44km ride, which was easy. (I’m judging how easy a ride is by whether I walk the last long hill or cycle the last long hill; today I cycled it).

There are about four and a half weeks left in Sydney before I go, and I’m planning my life around cycling on weekends, cycle classes at the gym, pilates classes at the gym, and other cardio and weights training. I figure the more I do, the more likely it will be that I’ll actually complete the Vietnam cycle.