It has been a strange few months as March and April have been full of health issues. First, I had a middle-of-the-night dash to A&E, where I was quickly diagnosed with Sepsis, brought on by kidney and bladder infections. I was immediately put on treatment to bring me back from the brink.
What is Sepsis?
Sepsis is when you have an infection and your immune system goes into a crazy overdrive, starts attacking your organs and causes inflammation throughout the body. It is a life-threatening but easily treatable when caught early.
Visit The Sepsis Trust for more information.
Recovering from Sepsis is much harder than I would have ever believed and I was medication for quite a long time after getting home from the hospital. However, I was on the mend and just when I was finally starting to feel much better, I felt the same symptoms coming on again! The A&E doctors had told me that if I suspected I had another infection I should come straight back, so that was what I did. I was showing early signs of sepsis but I was put straight on antibiotics which seemed to stop it in its tracks. Then it was back to trying to get better again.
Basically, not dying has taken up an incredible amount of time recently!
Getting ill is strange after having had cancer. In a strange way, it takes me back to those old moments. Laying in bed recovering = feeling like I have just had chemotherapy. Going back and forth for hospital appointments = feeling like I am waiting to get some horrible life-changing results. It is amazing how the brain can immediately trick you into thinking something else is going on and bring old emotions back up. In some ways, the biggest challenge getting better was the mental battle rather than the physical one.
Needless to say, all of this put me rather behind with work, University and writing but I am finally getting back into the swing of things and I’m still in that dizzyingly excited period you get after you’ve been ill for a long time, where you just want to throw yourself into everything because it is just such a relief not to feel ill.
Writing
However, in March I did have a short story, ‘Connected’, published in Fifty George Street literary journal. It’s future fiction, imagining what it might be like trying to stay connected in a technological world.
You can read it on the Fifty George Street website.
Reading
I have read some wonderful books in the first quarter of this year, so I wanted to recommend my top 3 but I am finding it so hard to choose! So I have ended up going for 4. All 4 books are emotional but amazing and take you on a complete journey of the heart. I highly recommend them all to you…
Heart Berries by Terese Marie Maillot ~ The Tidal Zone by Sarah Moss ~ Soho by Richard Scott ~ Blue Nights by Joan Didion
Writing Workshop
After listening to the wonderful feedback I have received from people who have taken part in the ‘Let’s Start Writing’ workshop they have a had a bit of a revamp to include the chance to get more feedback on your writing. I am thrilled with it and can’t wait to get started on Monday 7th May. If you think you may be interested, please sign up here!
Let’s Start Writing – SOLD OUT
SOLD OUT - Sign up now to join the Let’s Start Writing Workshop
£20.00
For the rest of the month, I plan on getting on with writing and working and giving my body time to get stronger and stronger. What have you been up to? What have you been reading, writing and doing? Leave a comment down below so we can have a chat.
Happy April x
Talent Keepers
Nicola Jane
brilliant way of using a select few words to convey something immeasurably powerful. Generally I am not a fan of descriptive scenery but just as 
