My Year.

The timeline...

Before...

T -2 Weeks

22/07/09 - Onsight F6c+ at Kilnsey (burning Lord Log off), working F7b+.
23/07/09 - 40min run comfortably.
24/07/09 - Trad puntering.
25/07/09 - 1.5 hours slog up to Kinder, more trad puntering.
26/07/09 - Redpoint first F7c - Another Choadside Attraction at The Tor.
27/07/09 to 02/08/09 - Mild but persistent lower back pain. Go running a few times, but only 25 mins due to 30'c heat in Spain.

During...

03/08/09 - Struggling to walk, can only walk a few yards due to severe hip pain. Doctor initially diagnoses sciatica. Prescribed strong painkillers.
04/08/09 - Painkillers help but right leg swells up (later weight tests indicate 5kg of excess fluid) and has blood rash in evening.
05/08/09 - Revisit doctor who is concerned and sends me to hospital. Admitted to Ward O2, Royal Hallamshire.
06/08/09 - Doppler scan reveals extensive Deep Vein Thrombosis around femoral, iliac and pelvic veins.
07-27/08/09 - Remain in hospital with occasional days out allowed. Struggling to walk, on max dose of coedeine daily, regular injections, blood samples, and tests. Doctors keep trying to find the cause of DVTs.
18/08/09 - Worst point of the illness: hunched over, can hardly walk, difficulty sleeping, left thigh extremely painful, scared to walk 10 yards to hospital toilet. Break down and am given morphine. Things start to improve.
23/08/09 - Go swimming with my dad. I can swim quite well but it's very difficult walking to and from the pool.
26/08/09 - Have MRI Venogram, the last in very many tests I had.
28/08/09 - Discharged from hospital. Can walk a few minutes with difficulty.

After:

T +1 Month

31/08/09 - First day out climbing! Lead 2 F6as and HVS 5a. Tiring!
01/09/09 - MRI Venogram results reveal I have a sealed vein in my chest (congenital aplaisic IVC) which has slowed the blood flow from my legs and allowed clots to form. Will be on Warfarin for life, climbing not recommended.
07/09/09 - Go swimming with Duncan Choadstable. Swim 1km for the first time ever! Can't walk up steep road out of pool so Dunc has to collect me.
12-14/09/09 - First weekend away climbing! North Wales - Lead 3 E1 5bs and 1 E2 5b, a total of 7 5b pitches. Boulder V3. Very hard walking up hill. Have to rest a lot with legs propped up.
19-20/09/09 - Second weekend away climbing! Mid Wales (Rhinnogs, yay!)- Lead 2 E1 5bs, 2 E2 5bs, 1 E3 5c. Very hard walking up hill, but can walk on flat fine.
21/09/09 - Start moving to Glasgow. Extremely difficult due to sorting out house in Sheffield, finding accomodation in Glasgow, and lots of difficulties with partner.

T +2 Months

05/10/09 - Move to temporary accomodation in Glasgow. Things still very difficult.
??/10/09 - First local climbing in Scotland at Weem. Have to rest on the 5 min walk-in and dog up a F6a+ due to general exhaustion.
20/10/09 - Go to Ratho for the first time. Rest on F6b and feel dizzy and exhausted.
29/10/09 - Finally get settled in a wee flat in Glasgow after a generally traumatic time.

T +3 Months

07/11/09 - Lads Bouldering Weekend at Hepburn. First V5 since illness.

T +4 Months

12-13/12/09 - First weekend away to North West Scotland. Amazing place with perfect winter suntraps. Lead 3 E1s and 2 E2s. T-shirt weather in December!
18/12/09 - Getting better at Ratho. Flash 2 F6cs despite (or because of?) Arctic conditions. Do falling practice.
27/12/09 to 01/01/09 - Climbing in Spain, 5 days continuously no problem, lead several F6cs. Walking uphill still desperate.

T +5 Months

09/01/10 - First time back skiing!! Did fine, cruising reds, legs a bit tired especially on lifts, but manageable.
14-15/01/10 - More skiing, fine.
22-30/01/10 - Climbing in Tenerife, 8 days continuously, 42 routes, many F6cs, a few F6c+s, and maybe 2 F7as.

T +6 Months

03/02/10 - More skiing, fine. Getting stronger at it.
07/02/10 - Attempted hill-walking, 40 mins with rests every few mins, desperate.
13/02/10 - 2nd day out trad of the year, first E3 5c in Scotland. Epic and cold but good.
17/02/10 - After various short running/walking sessions, attempt the longest time I can run. Can only manage 10 mins, down from 40 mins before DVT.
18/02/10 - Have consultation following 2nd MRI Venogram. Confirms the IVC is sealed and unopenable, and the clots are still present in my legs, blocking my pelvic veins. Prognosis is that they will likely stay sealed with minimal blood flow and the surrounding veins will have to take up the work. Will take a long time to get back to any sort of leg fitness. Get cross.
19/02/10 - Still cross. Book skiing holiday out of a mixture of passion and rage.
20/02/10 - Still cross. Do hardest boulder problem ever - first V8 - after 5 days effort. Raaargh.

T +7 Months

06-13/03/10 - Skiing in Meribel!! Best ski-trip ever. Hard and fast every day. Legs no problem (apart from a wee walk uphill to the lift in the morning), skiied as good as I ever have, including every black run in Les Trois Vallees (only Grand Couloir is tricky).
14/03/10 - Lads Bouldering Weekend. Flash V4 at St Bees and V5 at Bowderstone.
23/03/10 - Climbing outdoors at Ratho, first E3 6a in Scotland, hardest route since coming out of hospital.
27/03/10 - Out clubbing to Dave Clark and Jeff Mills. 5 hours dancing no problems. Techno, yay.

T +8 Months

??/04/10 - Climbing in Sicily. 21 routes in 4 days. Several F6cs.
??/04/10 - Climbing in Northumberland. First E4 6a since illness, although probably only E3 5c. Amazing moves though.
14-15/04/10 - Climbing in Glen Nevis. Get sunburnt in Highlands in April!! First E4 6a in Scotland, great route. Survive 30 mins walk-in to Wave Buttress.
21/04/10 - Local sport climbing, first F6c in Scotland.
25/04/10 - More sport climbing, two more diverse F6cs.

T +9 Months

01/05/10 - Improving at Ratho, 3 F7as onsight, including possibly the hardest I've climbed indoors.
7-9/05/10 - Another awesome weekend away in North West Scotland. 2 E2s, 2 E3s, 3 E4s, F6c/+, and another V4 flash. Feel great climbing and totally inspired.
15-16/05/10 - Finally get to grips with Aberdeen climbing, 4 E1s, 1 E2, 3 E3s including the hardest moves (6a fisting!) I've done on lead since illness.
22/05/10 - Hill walk in to Ben Ledi. 2 hours. Fairly desperate but lots of rests taken.
24/05/10 - Doing well at Cambussbarron, E3 6a and E4 6a, climbed fairly well.

T +10 Months

??/06/10 - Hardest walk yet - 1.5 hours up to Aonach Dubh (should be 45 minutes). Utterly exhausting. Attempted E4 6a, properly fell off due to terminal pump, total body exhausting.
??/06/10 - Long weekend in North West Scotland, 1 E1, 6 E2s, 1 E3, 2 E4s, some great challenges.
??/06/10 - Good couple of days at Creag Dubh, 2 E2s, 2 E3s, 1 E4. Walk-in possibly the hardest bit.
??/06/10 - Keep doing various good climbing, the highlight being an awesome E3 slab at Rosehearty that I got completely freaked on, pulled it together, and enjoyed a great climb.

T +11 Months

4-5/07/10 - Training at Rob's Reed. First 2 F6c+s in Scotland.
17/07/10 - Back to Weem again. Did the walk-in without resting, although collapsed with exhaustion on reaching the crag. Retro-flashed the F6a+ I dogged (F6b and badly bolted). Lead F6c slab, desperate and sketchy but did it.
24/07/10 - Rob's Reed, first F7a flash in Scotland.

T +12 Months

05/08/10 - Saw a vascular surgeon in London for a 3rd opinion. No change. There is nothing that can be done medically / surgically / chemically to improve my blood flow, my pelvic veins will remain sealed, and any blood flow will be taken up by the surrounding veins....very slowly. However we did discuss useful ideas for exercise...
08/08/10 - Afternoon at Loudon Hill, hadn't climbed trad in ages but managed a cool E3 6a with little problems.
09/08/10 - First gym CV training session - 20 mins on recumbent cycle machine and 20 mins rowing, got a good workout but almost no problems with legs!
21/08/10 - Sport climbing at Strathyre, second F7a flash in Scotland.
29/08/10 - Went for first run for ages. 11 mins with a few walking bits, as crap as ever!
30/08/10 - Redpointed first F8a (soft) - Sufferance at Dumbarton, culmination of many days effort.

So...

That's my year since having DVT. From my first day back climbing after getting out of hospital to my most recent day out. In that time I've led trad as good as before, flashed sport as good as before, redpointed harder than before, bouldered harder than before, and skiied as good as I ever have. I can't walk to the bloody crags but when I get there....I think I'm doing pretty well :).

Warfarin second ascent.

I'm taking it. I suspect the FA was on the medication but I'd be very surprised if any subsequent ascentionists were. No anti-coag, no tick ;). I did it in one pitch on a mild still day and had the sweatiest ropedraggiest experience I've had for a long time. At one point my belayer could see sweat dripping off my back. At the end I had to crawl to the belay, hauling my own body weight on left rope. Bleh!! Good route tho, a fine adventure for an outcrop.

Meribelly!

When I arrived back in Glasgow prior to the Official Lads Bouldering Weekend, I had arrived back from Geneva and thus Brides Le Bain and thus Meribel and Les Trois Vallees, where I had of course been skiing with Madamoiselle Rogers.

It was an awesome trip. Great weather, good company, I skied loads and slept equally loads (I love the simplicity of this), we covered a vast amount of the Les Trois Vallees (including one day when I skied from Meribel to the far side of Courchevel and then back to the far side of Val Thorens). The only downside was the snow was quite icy which limited the offpiste options (too crusty) and made for some hard landings, but I'd take hard snow and good visibility over good powder and a whiteout.

HOWEVER as good as all that was, the highlight for me was how well I did with my legs. They might be fucked for walking uphill and running but evidently they are fine for skiing, despite how thigh-intensive that usually feels. I skied as well as I ever have - hard and fast (for me) all day every day, did all the blacks in Les Trois Vallees easily (although they are all well soft-touch apart from Le rather cool Grand Couloir), and had no more thigh pump than usual. Walking a few mins to the lift in the morning was tiring, but skiing all day was fine. \m/ yay \m/

There was another highlight too, the roaring success of my attempt to liven up my boring but very cheap and very functional Decathlon ski jacket with a pimp orange camo headwear combination (which was supposed to match the jacket but I'd forgotten it was more red than orange)...


...and yeah I know I need slicker goggles, I'll get some for next year. I had to order the beanie via express delivery from the University Of Minnesota, the only place I found doing a proper orange camo one, and I'm sure you'll agree it was worth the effort. Or maybe not.

Our stars, our sky.

The recent weekends of getting back climbing on proper weekends away has reminded me of the things I love about climbing, specifically the things that aren't climbing....the beauty of the mountains, the tranquility of hidden valleys and quiet venues, the unexpected wildlife, the sun and the wind, the burnt face, the chapped lips, fingers curling into claws, bleeding hangnails on most fingers, simple camp cooking being the most delicious meal ever, falling into a sleeping bag bed and falling into sleep from pure and positive physical tiredness...

...and the skies, the vast, diverse and spectacular canopy that is so much better appreciated from the active lifestyle of a climbing trip than with furtive glances from a hospital bed:

...a burning, broiling cloud layer over Manchester, reflecting a distant sunset...

...swirling tendrils of cloud wrapping around Snowdon, tempting our burnt bodies with the promise of imminent shade that never arose...

...the joyous twinkling clarity of a star-filled night, bisected by the Milky Way and stretching into incomprehensible infinity...

...the fading of a dusky navy blue into a deep sullen red over the Lleyn Peninsula...

...a vividly sunny autumn afternoon in the Rhinnogs, with a blue sky so pure you could almost steal some to paint with it...

It's good to be back, and it's good to have this appreciation, maybe stronger than ever. Oh, and this was Aberdeen last weekend:

Release relief.

After the better part of 3 weeks in hospital, I was fully discharged Thursday night. After 22 blood samples, innumerate blood tests, 4 X-rays, 3 ultrasound scans, an echo scan, a skin biopsy, a PET/CT scan, and a MRI venogram, there is still no answer as to why a fit, healthy, non-smoking, moderate drinking, suave, sophisticated, virile, handsome, ethically pure, technically adept, big number ticking etc etc, young man would get bi-lateral DVT blood clots with no obvious preceding events. In some ways it's good that a lot of serious and scary factors have been ruled out (literally everything apart from my blood inflammation level has come back normal), in other ways it's still very worrying that this seems to be a random event and thus could randomly occur again - a nasty threat to be living under.

Thus one of my plans is to pursue investigations by seeing someone privately, obviously costly but this is a fairly concerning health issue. The NHS doctors and services have been excellent and treated me with impressive diligence, nevertheless, firstly there is a limit to how much time and resources they can spend on me now I'm mobile and improving (I am due back in for blood tests and clinics and check-ups and stuff), and secondly second opinions can be very valuable.

Other plans....Recover, recuperate, readjust my body to activity and exercise. I am improving daily at the moment, maybe it will be smooth, slow progress, maybe not. Either way I'm just doing what I can, looking after myself, trying to keep moving, trying to do stuff without over-exerting myself. I've been swimming 5 times in the last week, done some arm exercises and stretching too, my walking is improving as well. I want to get back climbing too, obviously this is not medically recommended, but I'll be taking a lot of care and I want to feel the rock (or even plastic) lurrrrve. It's a big part of me I want to get back in touch with.

So this is me....recovery mode again.