In February this year I began to notice some discharge from my ear following a perforated eardrum. My family GP tried several antibiotics over several weeks but nothing seemed to alleviate the problem. He felt I needed to be seen for more detailed investigation but by this point Covid meant hospital ENT services had been severely curtailed. I was now in severe pain and had been to A&E but the severity was missed. My GP kept trying to get me in somewhere in the meantime prescribing strong painkillers and existing wide spectrum antibiotics. Eventually with blood coming from my ear and a large swelling on the back of my head A&E realised something was seriously wrong. I was admitted on the spot. An antibiotic resistant infection was isolated and emergency surgery carried out the next day to drain an abscess on the back of my skull. The infection had eaten all the way through the ear, mastoid and gone through my skull and was almost touching my cranial nerve. Somehow I'd avoided meningitis or encephalitis. Fortunately there are still are strong drugs doctors hold back for these cases which the bugs are sensitive to so the infection is in retreat, the skull is healing and I have about 20 days left to go. In all I've spent three weeks in hospital but home now and recovering well. My challenge. I've set myself as a keen photographer is to capture the spirit of wellbeing and health each day and post it to instagram on @retrophotoguy as a way of setting myself a recovery goal, and help offset the emotional trauma of recent events, while raising funds for this critical charity. This is a more public continuation of some £250 raised through friends on my Facebook Fundraising page.