Tiredness and trying to cope with it

Sorry I've not managed to write a proper update for a week. I'm going to apologise in advance for the length of this post as I imagine it'll be another long one - sorry.

Last Friday I didn't make it to the cinema as the showing we had planned to go to would have finished later than Alf finished school, so we couldn't go as mum couldn't arrange for anyone else to pick him up. Because we didn't go to the cinema we also didn't go into town, as we'd planned to do that on the way. But we still wanted to go out, so instead we went out for lunch to the Bistro where my older brother works. I'd not been since he'd started working there, so it was nice to see what changes they'd made and to see my brother enjoying his job. And the food was yummy too! Then Friday evening my friend Claire came round and we had a great night watching Comic Relief :D I watched it from 7pm til midnight and then recorded the last 3 hours after I went up to bed. The highlights for me were French and Saunders doing Mamma Mia, which I thought was fantastic and really funny, and Comic Relief does The Apprentice. I love The Apprentice and can't wait for the new series to start again next Wednesday.

Writing about TV has just reminded me that I mentioned 'Deborah 13: Servant of God' in my last post. Thanks for your opinions Jessica and Becky. I'll write another post soon with my views, as I don't want to make this post even longer!

Over the weekend I didn't manage to do much because I was really tired. I also felt very fed up as my tiredness is so frustrating and has been going on for 8 months now (since last July) and I still don't have any answers. And I'm struggling to keep up at school and am concerned about my looming exams, as I'm always so tired and am now struggling to concentrate. So I spoke to my parents and we made a bit of a plan. My consultant at hospital A, Dr W, had suggested at my clinic in January that he thought it could be chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). So I emailed him last weekend and asked if it would be possible to have a referral to a specialist for a diagnosis. If it is CFS, then I might be able to get some support and coping strategies, and if it turns out that it isn't CFS, then I can chase up my consultants to find out what it is. I've not had a response from Dr W yet though.

On Monday I spoke to Mrs K (the deputy head of sixth form), as she's always been a great support to me, and arranged to have a meeting with her on Tuesday lunch time. She's very supportive and helpful, but I got the impression from our meeting that she doesn't really understand how I'm feeling. But we came up with a few ideas. We came up with a schedule for getting on top of my work (preparing for my Japanese oral til Friday, then making a revision timetable and beginning revision at the weekend as the exams are looming - they begin 1st May!) and after Mrs K saw that my timetable for the next day was relatively empty (only 2 lessons), she suggested I have the day off to work on my Japanese oral and hopefully get some energy back for the end of the week. And because I'm struggling to concentrate in lessons, but especially in double lessons (which are 2 hours long), she suggested that I try having a short break every 20mins in double lessons to see if it refreshes my concentration.

I managed to prepare for my Japanese oral successfully this week and had it today. It wasn't a disaster, but could have been better. I'm relieved it's over now though and am just trying to forget about it now as there's nothing more I can do. This week I've got some homework, but am hoping to start revision - as long as I'm not feeling too tired. Having Wednesday off worked well and I had a really good day when I got back to school yesterday, but then didn't feel very good today - probably partly as a result of doing too much yesterday! Despite being exhausted and having stomach ache today I managed the whole day and am now glad it's the weekend. I hope I can get some answers to my tiredness soon as it's really frustrating and I'm concerned about missing so much school. And I've not put the new plan for coping with double lessons into practise yet, but will do on Monday.

This week at school as well as trying to keep up with school work, I've also been doing some bits for the school yearbook. I'm part of the group who've been producing it, there are about 6 of us. The deadline for sending it off to the publishers is this weekend, so this week has been quite hectic! Me and my friend Catherine produced a montage page of the best of the Japan photos to be included in the yearbook. So it was nice to look through all the photos, it brought back lots of memories. I promise some photos will be put up on here soon.

On Wednesday evening I babysat for H, the 10 year old girl I often sit for. It was from 7.30 til about 10.15, so I took one of my Wii games for H to play and then a book to read once she went to bed. But her mum let her stay up til she returned, so the evening wasn't as relaxing as I expected! But I had a nice time watching H on the Wii, as she really liked the game I lent her. And I gave her a couple of gifts I'd got her from Japan - some chopsticks and a fan. I was quite tired by 9/10pm, but H was hyper, I don't know where she got her energy from!

This week my weight was about the same as last week, but it's still a bit under my target weight. So the plan is for me to try some high calorie drinks to get my weight up a bit. My appetite hasn't been very good over the last couple of weeks, but I think it's probably just because I've not been feeling very well in myself. Next Wednesday I'm speaking at the study day at hospital B, so I'll see my dietician there. I'm also going to chat to her about the British Transplant Games as she's my hospital's team leader. I received the information pack and application forms through the post this week and they look very complicated, so I've got a few questions for her about them. I'm really looking forward to speaking at the study day next week, as I love doing things like that. I've almost finished planning my speech and am going to find some photos to go with it this weekend.

This evening I'm just planning to relax as I'm so tired. My friend Claire was going to come round this evening, but she couldn't make it as her dad is ill, so she's going home to see him this weekend. Over the weekend I don't have many plans, but will probably spend some time with my mum and nan on Sunday because it's Mothers' Day. And I've got some school work to do. Tomorrow evening me and my family are planning to go to the theatre, so I'm looking forward to that :)