A busy week

Sorry for not updating my blog for a week, I just seem to have been busy. When I originally updated weekly it resulted in some very long posts, so I'm sorry in advance if this post ends up ridiculously long ;)

Last Tuesday I went into school for the day as my Japanese teacher said she'd be around all day to help us with revision. I thought the majority of my class would take advantage of this, but barely anyone turned up. I was on my own with the teacher for most of the morning, but that was good as I got some really productive revision done. And then a friend joined me for the afternoon and we continued to revise while eating loads of lovely Japanese sweets that our teacher kindly provided to give us energy! I'm not very good at motivating myself to revise at home, but that day I did about 7 hours of Japanese revision! And we finished the day by experimenting with the self-timer on my camera to get a photo of the 3 of us, as I thought that might be the last time I saw our Japanese teacher. And she wrote me a lovely message in my yearbook, but it was in complex Japanese, so I can't actually read it, lol. But my teacher explained what it said to me :)

On Thursday I had my 2 Japanese exams. There was an hour and a half reading paper followed by an hour and a half writing paper. We were in the coldest room in the whole school, so the majority of us sat the exams in our coats - in May! The reading paper consisted of 4 sections, the first 3 of which were fine. However, section 4 was very difficult and it had a little writing exercise tagged on the end of it. I spoke to my friends after the exam and none of us had been able to work out what we were meant to write about, lol. But I had a go. And the writing paper was good :) That was split into 2 sections. For section A we had a choice of 2 shorter writings, both of which were a bit odd. But I had a go at one - writing a letter to make a hotel reservation. And for section B we had a choice of 3 longer writings and I really liked one of them. So I chose that one and wrote about a holiday to Japan, which is the kind of thing we'd practised a lot in class. And I managed to get loads of different grammar structures in.

The only exams I have remaining now are 3 psychology exams. One is on Thursday afternoon and then the final two are on Friday morning. I've not actually done any psychology revision yet, so am planning to make a start on that today. I'm a bit concerned though as I know I need to get lots of revision done before the first exam on Thursday afternoon, and how much I can do will depend on how I feel. Tomorrow I'm planning to go into school even though I don't have any exams. I need to return all my textbooks to the relevant teachers and get my leaver's form signed off before I leave for good on Friday. One of my closest friends also finishes her exams on Tuesday, so I want to say a proper goodbye to her and maybe take some photos. And I'm going to try to get more friends and teachers to write messages in my yearbook. Hopefully I'll also be able to fit in some revision tomorrow around all that, as I revise much better at school than at home. At home there are too many distractions!

Last Thursday Holly's Battlefront programme was on TV. If you missed the programme you should be able to view it here soon and also on 4 on demand shortly. I thought the programme was brilliant and Holly came across really well on camera. She's such an inspiration with her campaigning :) I was also on TV briefly in the photoshoot and in the crowd scenes at the drinks evening. There was a very unflattering close-up shot of me and my mum at one point though, lol.

On Friday I attended my sixth form's May Ball. I was quite nervous beforehand as I've not really been to anything like that before, but I had a fantastic time :D There was a lovely buffet, a great band playing and it was a really good social event. I forgot my camera, but my friend Catherine took loads of photos for me, so I should be able to put them up later in the week, once I get them from her on Thursday. And there were a couple of professional photographers around, so I need to find out how I can get hold of those photos. My friend Claire helped me get ready, as I'm a complete novice with make-up and dressing up, but she was great. That was the first time I'd ever worn high heels, so that was a very odd experience, but I managed! There were some fruit drinks available as we went into the May Ball, but because I have to avoid grapefruit (it reacts with my anti rejection medication and stops it from working) I gave it a miss after the people serving it couldn't reassure me it was grapefruit free. Then one of my friends who had taken a glass said it definitely had grapefruit in it, so I was glad I avoided that! I'm not a dancer, as I have absolutely no sense of rhythm and so as the dancing started I opted to just sit and watch. Later in the evening I felt like maybe I should give dancing a go, but I was just too tired, which was quite frustrating. But all in all I had a really good time and it was a fitting end to my time at sixth form. Although I still have some exams to go, lots of people finished their exams last week, so on Friday I had to say goodbye to some friends. We will keep in touch though and try to meet up every so often.

I've been exhausted since the May Ball though, which I suspect is just because I had such a busy night. I spent a lot of the weekend just relaxing as I felt so tired, and had a great time watching Eurovision with my family on Saturday night - it was a real laugh! I'm hoping I'll feel a bit better today though, as I really need to start my psychology revision. At some point today I'm going to go to my local hospital (hospital H) to have blood taken. Hospital B ask me to have bloods done 3 monthly now, so the next ones weren't due til the middle of June. However, because my tiredness seems to have been worse recently I rang the liver team at hospital B and asked if my bloods could be brought forward because I wanted to be sure there wasn't any medical explanation for my tiredness increasing. The results will be faxed from hospital H to hospital B and then hospital B will contact us about the results. And I will also have my B12 levels checked, as the M.E. referral unit asked for that.

My dietician has been concerned about my appetite as when I'm tired, my appetite decreases, so I eat less, so I get less calories, so I become more tired... And so it continues. But my weight is remaining stable. So I had a shock last Tuesday when she suggested that she thought me going back onto overnight enteral feeds might help my tiredness. To me going back onto enteral feeds is like a last resort, as I love the freedom being off of them allows me. So I spoke to my dietician and asked her if I could try some other things first, and she agreed! So we'll review it in a few weeks. The plan is that I'm making a conscious effort to eat more, I'll try some high calorie drinks, I'm going to have my bloods done to rule anything else out and I'll see if my tiredness improves once all my exam stresses are out the way, which I suspect it might. So my dietician sent me a huge box containing a variety of different high calorie drinks on Saturday. I've only tried 2 drinks so far, the first was disgusting and made me feel very sick for a few hours and the second was ok, but I didn't really like it. I'm hoping in amongst all the drinks I'll be able to find one or two I like, as my dietician said ideally she'd like me to drink two a day.

On Friday I visited the orthodontist as I'd arranged an appointment because one of the wires on my braces had come loose, so I was worried it wasn't doing its job properly. At the appointment my orthodontist told me that my braces weren't broken, in fact the wire had just loosened because my teeth were moving like they were supposed to! I wish he'd warned me in advance as I just felt so stupid and that was time and petrol wasted driving 20miles to and from the hospital just to be told there were no problems. I've got to return in about 2 and a half weeks to have my braces tightened.

In this post, I mentioned that a few children in the transplant community were having a tough time. Luckily there's now some more positive news :) K is out of hospital and the little girl I spoke of who'd had complications with a liver transplant has now received another liver and is doing well so far.