I was scrolling through my photos on my iPad when I came across this photo. It was taken on the last evening of a cruise, four months after having open heart surgery. What struck me was how healthy I looked. And why wouldn’t I. I had just spent two weeks in the Caribbean. Relaxing. Having fun. With a daily run on the promenade and one cycle ride round St Maarten. 

It was all so different a few weeks earlier. My body had already taken a bit of a battering courtesy of a calcified aortic valve. I then, somehow, managed to lose 5kgs in weight during my hospital stay. I looked haggard and tired. Not helped by the mobile heart monitor hanging from my neck. Strangely enough I don’t have any photos to evidence how awful I looked. But believe me it was not pretty.

But four months on I looked great. My scar was fading and more importantly I felt healthy. I hadn’t planned to go on holiday so soon after my surgery. I was still being closely monitored by the anticoagulant clinic as it was taking forever to get my Warfarin levels stable. But an advantage of being on a cruise ship is the impressive medical facility. I could have my blood checked whilst on board and my Warfarin dose adjusted if need be. It was going to cost me an arm and a leg but my peace of mind was so important in those early days. I’m a little more cavalier three years on. 

To accompany my photo I looked for a quote. A google search later I hit on this one. ‘Health is not valued till sickness comes’. Attributed to Thomas Fuller, a seventeenth century Clergman. Never a truer word spoken. 

Up until the diagnosis of a poorly heart I had led a relatively sickness free life. As a small child and again in my late teens I had fairly bad psoriasis. In later life this manifested as psoriatic arthritis which may have caused my heart condition. But I was never ill. I thought myself as fairly indestructible. I believed that I would live to a fairly old age and enjoy a disease free existence. I was immune to the horror stories of poor hospital care as I believed I wouldn’t need them. But a visit to a Harley Street clinic on 25th July 2015 changed my belief for ever.

Not that I was ignoring my health. I had started this blog four months before that fateful clinic visit. But those early blogs were primarily focused on fitness not health. Of course the two go hand in hand but the blogs do reflect my belief back then that my health was a given. Fitness was about getting stronger and faster. 

So here I am four years on from finding out I was not indestructible. I’m still passionate about getting stronger and faster. But I’m conscious that this is only possible if I stay healthy. And disease could strike at any time. So I celebrate my health, I enjoy what my body can do and am grateful for every day that this continues to be the case.