The Recovery Bucket List

In June 2012, I spent 2 weeks in hospital with a relatively unusual kidney condition called Minimal Change Disease (a form of Nephrotic Syndrome). It wasn't pleasant to say the least, I had retained 18kg of excess fluid in my body, had very little energy and no interest in food. I spent much of my time in hospital lying in bed doing very little, just being a bloated blob of excess fluid.

One night at about midnight, I was feeling a bit down. I was restless from the steroids I was on to fix my kidneys, there was a crazy lady yelling and screaming on the ward, and I was feeling really homesick - I'd been transferred from my local hospital in country Victoria to one of the largest in Melbourne for more specialist care I just couldn't get at home. Sleep wasn't an option despite my lethargy, and it was wearing me down mentally.

Knowing that I would eventually go into remission and be able to go back to my normal life, I made a list right there and then. A Bucket List, of all the things I would do when I'm well again and back to my "normal self". Somehow I managed to keep my optimism up for about 99% of the time I was sick, and kept looking to the future and thinking of more things I could do.

This blog is my journal of completing my Recovery Bucket List.

Saturday, 7 July 2012

First and Foremost: The List

Welcome to my Recovery Bucket List!


This is the list. The spine of this blog, and the start, nay, basis of my recovery. The transcription of that original memo saved in my phone, annotated and added to as I see fit, until I have a huge long list of things to achieve.


I don't have a time limit, and some of these depend on my health and medications - technically, I'm not actually in remission yet, so some things may have to wait - e.g. item 1 - I'm currently on a low-salt, moderate-protein, high-energy diet. Yeah, and did I mention I'm a dietitian? This is serious stuff. It has to wait until proper, official remission. Some I might not be able to do straight away, and to be honest if I did them all at once I would exhaust myself, and my energy levels haven't been at 100% for some time.

The List is not that fancy, I don't have dreams of bungee jumping, climbing Everest or meeting the Queen (ok, so I do have the Bombers on there and that's pretty close) - these are mostly all the little things in life that I realised I wasn't making the most of when I was sick. Things I wanted to get back, while I was lying there feeling crappy. 

I love the quote "it is through the bitterness of disease that we learn the sweetness of health" (Catalan proverb). I'm (almost) done with the bitterness, and now I want to revel in the sweetness...



 Screenshot of my original List Memo on my Galaxy S2. 
Thanks to Vignette for the cool effects :)


Alors, without further ado...

THE LIST (in no particular order):


 
(item 16)
    1. a. Cook a fancy 3-course meal for my partner Lachie and I, and enjoy every last mouthful!
  1. b. Acknowledge everyone who's helped me out along the way, especially my family
  2. Abuse the bejesus out of the camera in my phone - I'm talking lots of random Instagrams, lots of fun moments, beautiful things I see. I'm in no way pretending to be anywhere near as good as my sister, but I want to capture more of my life. And make it look blissfully hipster in the process, because I'm shameless. This will probably look nice on the blog too :)
  3. Get my hair done all nice (I am well overdue for a cut)
  4. Get my eyebrows done professionally. They got so manky in hospital.
  5. When I'm off my blood thinners, I want to book in a massage at Madison Spa, and spend the day there getting pampered. I can't go do it right now because I'm on medications to thin my blood, and can't have massages for risk of internal bleeding and bruising... icky! Might have to save up for this one, but it'll be so worth it!!
  6. Go for a walk along the Goulburn River or lake in Shepparton one sunny Sunday arvo (this may have to wait until Spring!)
  7. Make a classy mocktail - cocktails are so overrated, mocktails ftw!!
  8. Finally make a crème brûlée! I got given a crème brûlée set for Christmas, but have been too chicken to use the gas torch for fear of burning the house down.
  9. Get stuck into coffee again - one of the first signs I was sick was that coffee suddenly repulsed me. It was devastating. I want to experience and savour all things coffee.
  10. Spend a day in bed, but not sick and out of my mind like before I went to hospital, or in the doona-less hospital beds. I want to spend one of these cold winter weekend days tucked up under the doona, with a book to read and cups of tea.
  11. Go out for breakfast around town. Not just once either, I'm talking several nice meals and coffees (see point 9 above).
  12. Have a quiet weekend away with Lachie somewhere. It'll have to be a weekend, as I have exhausted my annual leave completely whilst being sick. What a great holiday that was. 
  13. See more of my local area. I didn't grow up here in Shepparton, or even in the Goulburn Valley or North East Victoria for that matter. There's a lot of my adopted hometown that I haven't seen yet, so I want to go on lots of drives and day trips to see more of the area.
  14. Make more stuff. I like making stuff. Always have, even since I was a kid and had never heard of the term "indie stereotype". I like crocheting. I like sewing. I like any sort of crafty stuff I can try my hand at. I Pin so many ideas that get me overexcited to discover, but how many do I actually make? Maybe one or two. That WILL change!!
  15. A notable addition to the above item: finish the crochet square blanket I started. Nan-style. It will be awesome.
  16. Learn more songs on the guitar. Particularly North by Phoenix. Why? It just came on my iPod. Why not.
  17. Try Yoga. I love doing Yoga on the Wii Fit. But it's not Real Yoga. I want to try Real Yoga.
  18. Do my tax return. I don't really want to, but I have to. I guess I could do it on my own and call it a challenge...
  19. Buy a car. I've needed one for so long, but have been really fussy and rather hesitant to deal with used car salesmen!
  20. Do more "fun" things in Melbourne. I spent the majority of 4.5 years at University in Melbourne (Monash Uni), and I regret not seeing more of the city - it's really quite beautiful. I'll be having lots of trips to Melbourne for doctor's appointments as I recover, so I want to make the most of those days.
  21. Visit more of the local farmer's markets and orchards and stock up on local produce - we do it so well here in Shepp.
  22. Get a pet. One that we can actually have in our rented unit that won't get us evicted. Like a fish or something. I still owe Lachie a Fighting Fish for his 22nd birthday. He's 24 now.
  23. Go to the snow. I've never been! I saw a bit of snow once, on a school trip in year 10 - I accidentally threw a block of ice at Lachie's head, not realising it wasn't a soft snowball!! I don't want to go skiing on the most difficult slopes (that would probably land me back in the hospy) - but I just want to experience the snow and have hot chocolate afterward!
  24. Experience the food of at least 3 cultures I haven't tried yet. Either homemade, or restaurant/takeaway. Can you believe it, I haven't even tried Vietnamese food before. And to think I think of myself as somewhat of a foodie.
  25. Go on a ride in a horse-drawn carriage. Ok, so this one is probably a little bit more along the lines of "random bucket list item". But come on, how cool would it be!!
  26. Meet an Essendon footballer. I love my Bomber boys, like they were my own sons or something. Weird, as many of them are my age, but I just feel so much immense pride when they do well, and feel for them when they don't. I would go nuts if I met at least one of them!!
  27. See Black Rebel Motorcycle Club live. Once again, they just came on my iPod. But I think they would be great live, and if they tour Australia sometime soon, count me in!
  28. Encourage as many people as I can to donate blood or plasma to the Red Cross Blood Service (or international equivalents if anyone from overseas decides to read my blog). Because of my kidney disease, my blood albumin levels got so critically low that I needed albumin transfusions, which are sourced from blood plasma donations (for which I am indescribably thankful). I think I had about 12 or so transfusions altogether, so my quest is to get 12 donations back to the Red Cross. Fortunately Lachie is already a regular blood donor, so that's one down... 

Additional items added 13th July 2012:

I've thought of a few more things! I also noticed I had 2 Item 1's, so I've made them 1a and 1b, as it would be too hard to go back and change all my posts and references to various items!

29. Read "100 Things" (as suggested by @MelissaCarmody over at Twitter). His list looks a lot "fancier" and on a bit of a grander scale than mine, but will be an interesting read nonetheless!
30. Create a recipe book. I cook a lot of recipes. I make up lots of stuff myself. Some of them taste pretty good! I'd like to at least start documenting some of my favourite creations and have them in book form, something I can pass on to my kids/grandkids. One of my life goals is to be one of those Grandmas whose grandkids get excited to go visit because of the food eaten.
 
So that's my List. For now. I might even add some more things as I think of them. Why not, it's my recovery so I'll do what I like!


I'm not a greedy person and planning on doing all these things solo, I am more than happy for my friends and family to help me on my quest to achieve these 28 items (and counting). Hell, I might even make new friends along the way, who knows! So if you're one of my nearest and dearest and reading this blog, I would be more than happy for you to pick an item and experience life with me - my illness has taught me that I have the most amazing people in my life supporting me, and they all mean the world to me :)

So here goes!!
- Kait :)

donateblood.com.au
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