This past Thursday marked 2 years since I had my liver transplant. It's been interesting living out this past year in our new-COVID-era world, but to be honest, I think it's made it easier.

I've never been the most social person, so an iron clad excuse to keep my heavily-immune-suppressed-self indoors and away from strangers is definitely welcome! It's now more than ever that I appreciate being able to work in a fully remote job.

Des and I also had the second dose of the Pfizer COVID vaccine yesterday. Despite not expecting much of an immune reaction because recent studies … Read more →

People have gotten into some strange stuff during COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns, and I was no exception. My newish thing is baseball hats, which is a bit weird considering that going outside is not really a thing you can do in a lockdown.

Nevertheless, sun safety is a big thing for me, especially because I am at increased risk of skin cancer as a result of the immune-suppressants I am on following my liver transplant. I need a hat whenever I go outside to protect my significant—and I believe this is a medical term—chrome dome.

I started off just wanting to … Read more →

This quote is from the end of my 'Year in Review' post for 2019:

Needless to say, 2020 and the entire 2020s are looking a whole lot more brighter for us after the events of 2019.

Although that was still accurate for me personally; for the wider world... not so much. 😅

2020 was a strange year for the whole world. I can't think of something (at least in my lifetime) that has affected nearly every person on the planet like the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has. 🦠

The year started off ok. I attended linux.conf.au 2020 at the Gold … Read more →

Today marks one year since I had my liver transplant. It's hard to believe a year has gone by already, but looking back, a lot has happened in the past 12 months.

I commented to Des that it feels like the transplant wasn't that long ago, but other events, like getting on the NBN, seemed … Read more →

There's one word that fills an organ transplant recipient, or potential transplant recipient, with dread: 'rejection'.

TL;DR: I've just experienced an episode of rejection of my transplanted liver, but I seem to be coming out of it ok 🙂.

Before starting on the transplant process last year, I thought that organ rejection was an all-or-nothing thing. I thought that if rejection happens, it was like: 'well, good luck, go back on the list and hopefully you'll have a better time with another organ'.

That's not actually the case. Apparently, rejection is a common thing in the first … Read more →

So, nothing much happened in this past year, ey? 😂

Of course, this year can only be seen through the lens of the massive event in my life that was my liver transplant.

Now that we are also at the end of the decade, you could say that this whole decade has also been largely defined by my illness (diagnosed in 2010) and it's now hopefully-permanent solution (the transplant).

So, 2019 has been a massive rollercoaster of a year. I started a new job right at the beginning of the year, and only a few months into … Read more →