Tandem Skydive!

As you may know from reading my previous blog posts, on Saturday June 22nd 2013, me and my two bestfriends Josh and Wade were due to complete a 10,000ft Tandem Skydive all in aid of the Cystic Fibrosis Trust. But I mentioned in a post back in June it unfortunately got called off due to bad weather and got rescheduled to August 10th at Swindon jump centre.

The date is now 24th August so you may have guessed...

I HAVE JUMPED!!!

Me, Mum, Dad and Lisa left the house at about 10:30am to be at the skydive centre for 12pm. But just before leaving we watched Dad's Skydive DVD back from when he jumped in August 2002. This made me really nervous and got my stomach turning upside down! On the way there I was so nervous and kept looking up imaging how high up I would be.  

Biting my nails nervously

We arrived at the airfield at about 11:45am where I waited nervously for Josh to arrive. Wade unfortunately didn't turn up due to not raising the required amount. When Josh arrived we went to the desks where we had to fill in the required forms and agreements and get our skydive license numbers. Then once we had done this we had to just wait around until our names were called! 

In the meantime, my wonderful supporters arrived; Grandma & Grandad, Uncle Mark & Billy, Jenny and her mum, Auntie Elsie, Robert & Wendy, Andrew & Karen and of course Mum, Dad and Lisa who I came with. 

Our names were called at around 12:30pm where we were to come and have our training. In the session we were told what to do with our arms and legs when jumping, freefalling and landing. The time it takes to reach 10,000ft in the plane which was 20 minutes, this shocked me and Josh as we thought it would be much quicker than this! Even more of a shock when we were told we would be freefalling at 120mph for 30 seconds! And finally to remember to pull some funny faces for the cameraman! 

After the training it was back to more waiting around. Me and Josh were on the whiteboard to go up in the 4th plane. So we realised we would be waiting around for over an hour as each plane takes 20 minutes to get up to 10,000ft and then it has to land as well. So I decided to have some lunch, probably not the best idea when I was due to fall out of a plane in a while! Josh was the smarter one and just stuck to his bottle of Pepsi.



"Naomi and Josh" was called at 2pm and it was time! We had to go and get our jumping gear on and meet our instructors. We were both so nervous! 

We're ready...

Let the nerves begin... 

       

Here goes...

 

We're off...

READY...

SET...

GO...

Travelling for 30 seconds at 120mph at 10,000ft I struggled with my breathing due to my Cystic Fibrosis and the panic of looking down and realising how high up I was. But I tried my best to give the camera man a 'thumbs up' and some funny faces as you can see above! After my instructor pulled the parachute, at 6,000ft, it seemed to calm down a lot and it was brilliant to see the views all beneath me at such a distance! 

You wouldn't believe the noise difference either; the free falling it's so loud where the wind is travelling at ultimate speeds and then it suddenly goes silent and I was able to have a conversation with my instructor right until we landed! It was so amazing and I recommend it to anyone willing to do something crazy or to help out a charity!

It's not every day you can say "I've just jumped 10,000ft out of a plane!"

Hospital check-up

It's taken me a while to blog this as I have been really busy with my new job and skydive etc..

I had a hospital appointment at Frimley a few weeks ago on 6th August. This was the follow up appointment to my annual assessment so I finished off any tests I hadn't completed at my last appointment and Dr. Higton compared my results to the last year.

Four days before my appointment me and mum did my glucose tolerance tests (tests for diabetes) at home as I don't let anyone else take my blood. This involves taking bloods, then drinking a horrible sugary drink, taking bloods 1 hour after and then again two hours after. This wasn't too bad as mums brilliant at taking my bloods! Just the drink is revolting!! 

Good news... Dr.Higton told us these results came back negative so I don't have CF- Related diabetes. Wooo! Most adults living with CF have some degree of diabetes or glucose intolerance. Cystic fibrosis—related diabetes (CFRD) is a unique type of diabetes that only people with cystic fibrosis can get. CFRD is similar to, but not the same as, diabetes in people who do not have cystic fibrosis. So touch wood I've got a few more years without it, or never get it!

I also did my lung function tests with Rhada, the health care assistant, which was a bit of a shock for me. After doing the tests I looked at the screen and told mum the results showed 76% which I was quite happy about. Rhada then told me I was reading the incorrect part and showed me a different page which read 58%!!! That will be for not doing my physio like I'm supposed to! A bit of a downer really as I didn't think it was so bad!

I had a talk with Dr.Higton about the importance of my health and future and that I really need to do my physio if I want to stay well! She prescribed me with some ciprofloxacillin to take on holiday to Turkey with me incase my cough gets any worse and some Bramitob as I do alternate months of this and my Promixin. (Check CF dictionary page).

After I had seen Dr. Higton, I did a fitness test with Jo, the physiotherapist, called the step test. This involved stepping up and down on a step at different speeds, there were 4 levels and each level the speed to step got faster and after each level Jo checked my heart rate. By then end I was so tired and out of breath!

Overall my appointment wasn't too bad just my lung function was a shock!