Um, hello.  Seems a bit wrong just writing stuff down without offering some sort of introduction, so....

I'm 35 years old, six foot two and a bit tall, a little rounder than I should be, slightly receding of hairline (shaved to avoid looking like Terry Nutkins), with a job and a mortgage, engaged to the lovely Sally, Dad of two young boys, love sports....  in short, nothing at all out of the ordinary.

But for the fact that one summers day about twenty years ago, somewhat out of the blue, my left leg pretty much doubled in size.  In a day.  "Hmmm", thought my teenaged self, and I bravely did what any other 15 year old would do when faced with such a situation.  "Muu-uumm!!         Daaa-aaadddd!!!

"Hmmm", said the parents, helpfully.  Luckily enough, we lived virtually on the doorstep of the local Children's Hospital, so a quick wander there will soon sort it out...

"Hmmm", commented the doctor.  "Hmmm", added the consultant.  "Errr.....", noted the Professor.  I was beginning to think that all medical professionals wore constant quizzical looks, as if bafflement and confusion was a module you did in med school.  It was a feeling that remains to this day.

It took donkeys years to find out what the problem was.  Eventually, more by a process of elimination than anything else, lymphoedema was identified as the cause, and I was left to make the most out of things with an extra 6 litres of fluid permanently attached to my left leg.  So this blog is going to be about what I did in the intervening 20 years since, and hopefully will resonate with anyone unfortunate enough to not be built correctly in some way.  It will also hopefully show that despite one or two ups and downs, life basically carries on regardless.

So the journey will take us down such unlikely roads as; illness, mates, holidays, women (and girls), mis-diagnosis, hospitals, calendars, BBC, magazines, sport, the time I got off with Cameron Diaz, verbal abuse, party tricks, confusing drivers at zebra crossings, bandages, stockings, skin, trousers, operations, little victories, minor irritations, and so on.  One of these topics may be untrue readers, but time will tell which! (Everyone - It's the Cameron Diaz one).  Oh.