I woke up in the middle of the night with a pain in my abdomen. The next day, it went away, but came back after a few hours. Just a stomach upset, right? The next day, I felt bad enough to go to the Birches for a lift to A&E

They took me in and fixed the pain with a drip, but no tests. That night, I was really unwell until I was fixed up with oxygen. The next day, a nice Ghanaian doctor diagnosed pneumonia, and antibiotics (at last!) put me on the right path.

Three days later, they let me out with a course of antibiotics tablets to finish, but also a nasty cough that I had picked up.

I started a daily short walk to start getting fit enough to play squash again, and this was OK for a few days. But then I went downhill, and found that the slightest activity (a coughing fit, walking to the kitchen, etc) needed quite a long session of deep breathing to recover, and yesterday, I was spooked by a slight ache in the same place as the original pain. So back to hospital via the Birch’s taxi, where I was given reassurance, another course of antibiotics tablets, and told to go home and be more patient.

I have seen a first sign of Spring, and Meg’s daffodils in the kitchen are another reminder of better times to come.

The cough has started to get better, and I can face writing a blog again. Both good signs for the start of my latest squash comeback.