On Monday, I marked the significant marker of 5 years since my liver transplant.

These past 5 years haven't exactly been what I'd hoped post-transplant life to be: getting through a global pandemic notwithstanding, I'm yet to go a calendar year after the transplant without a hospital admission. Nevertheless, I'm still continuously and enormously grateful to be here with my donor's liver, continuing my—and my donor's—journey.

These five years have gone by so quickly, but I just have to look at how much the kids have grown to see that passage of time. They've changed from infants to little … Read more →

7 blog posts this year; I think I'm pretty happy with that 😁. Could be better, but could be worse.

Generally, 2023 felt like the first sorta-getting-past-COVID year, despite me getting COVID for the second time at the start of December.

There's no 'List of Tweets' blog post this year, because Elon removed easy access to the Twitter/X API for that kind of thing. Plus, the Twitter integration on this blog has been removed for the same reason.

Anywho, let's try something new for this end-of-year post in addition to listing the blog post highlights.

Health stuff

Health-wise, I had … Read more →

Today is my 40th birthday. Yay, I guess? 😆

When I started my 30s ten years ago, it was far from certain that I was going to make it to this milestone. So, two children, one new career, two jobs, three built computers, five mobile phones, and a replaced liver later, I'm glad to have made it.

The past decade has gone by quickly, but I'm also a much changed person from 10 years ago: like, literally; I don't even have all the same organs from then. It's been a ride. I've had some … Read more →

5 blog posts this year; a 25% improvement on the 4 I did last year! 😆😭

For me, 2022 carried on from where 2021 left off: COVID still dominating my non-work life, but despite my best efforts, the virus did eventually catch up with me in the middle of the year (shakes fist at children bringing things home).

Although I thankfully did not have serious complications immediately from the exposure, I did have gastro issues soon after, which saw me hospitalised twice. The Drs eventually found out why I've probably had ongoing stomach pain for the 18 months previous: ulcers … Read more →

After almost all the restrictions for COVID were relaxed earlier this year, we tried our best to remain COVID-free. We wore masks everywhere, stayed away from large social gatherings, and disinfected and sanitised everything coming in to our house.

Toward the end of last month, I received my 5th dose of the COVID vaccine. Because I'm a transplant recipient on a lot of immune suppressants, as per the government medical advice, I had 3 vaccine doses for my primary course as well as two booster shots (one at 4 months, and another for winter).

Despite our best … Read more →

😬 Only 4 blog posts for this year. A clear all-time low.

2021 was a bit nuts. The COVID-19 pandemic continued, and life rolled on. The first third of the year wasn't too bad: there were barely any cases in Queensland, and not many in Australia in general. Life seemed sorta normal in Brisbane.

That didn't—and was probably never going to—last.

In the past couple of weeks, after the great vaccination numbers in Queensland, the handbrakes have been taken off in terms of trying to keep the virus at bay. This is probably fine for regular vaccinated people, but for … Read more →