A few busy days, then a chance to relax

After I wrote my last blog update I went out to babysit for H. I look after her quite regularly, usually for an hour or two each time, so I expected similar on Wednesday. However, just as H's mum was leaving the house (at 7.30pm) she said "I'll be back around 11pm"! I don't mind sitting for H for longer spells as she's very well behaved and good at amusing herself, but I was a bit shocked as it was unexpected. And H's mum said she could stay up til she got back - H is only 10! But the evening went well, despite H being full of energy and me being very tired.

Thursday was a very busy day. I had an early-ish start for the orthodontist. While I was there I had a new bracket glued on to replace the one which had fallen off on Tuesday. I was a bit surprised though as I thought the bracket had fallen off a tooth at the bottom, but in fact it had fallen off a top tooth! And the man gluing the bracket on didn't give me much confidence in him, as after he'd set the glue he asked the nurse if she was sure it was a top bracket, because it looked like a bottom bracket to him!

At the orthodontist I also saw a surgical registrar about the 4 extractions I need. It wont be him that does them, but he reassured me that all the extractions should be straightforward, so I've opted to have all 4 done in one go with just local anaesthetic. He had my notes in front of him, but asked for my medical history, so he'd clearly not read them. I didn't know where to start! He said he could just look through my notes, but that would take him 5 minutes - I think it'd take a lot longer than that! Because I've had a liver transplant I'll need to have bloods taken a week or two before the extractions to check that my clotting is all normal. Initially a date at the end of August was suggested for the extractions as it was the earliest they could fit me in and it'd be convenient for me as it's after all my summer plans (British Transplant Games, America...). However, then while looking through my notes, the nurse discovered the date that my orthodontist had referred me to the surgical team. The hospital have a target to get patients seen within 18 weeks of their original referral and for me this 18 weeks will be up at the start of August. So they then tried to fit me in before the start of August, but they were very booked up and made it very clear I didn't want the extractions in the week before the British Transplant Games or the week before I go to America! So a date hasn't yet been fixed, but we'll receive a phone call from someone shortly who will try to fit me in before my 18 weeks is up, but I suspect it may not happen til the end of August. I'll let you know.

We were at the hospital for just over 2 hours, but once we'd finished there me and mum went to see some friends who live in that direction. Mum used to work with M and I've become very good friends with M's daughter, H. It seemed ages since we'd seen them, so it was great to catch up, even though I was very tired. When we finally got home after a busy day I enjoyed relaxing and watching The Apprentice that I'd recorded the night before while I was babysitting. I was happy at the result of that episode and am now really looking forward to the final 2 episodes. That evening I also watched Britain's Got Talent, which I watched all last week during the semi-finals. I enjoyed watching the final on Saturday night and was very happy that Diversity won as they were my favourite act :D

On Thursday I also received my new Filofax in the post, which I'm very happy with and have been finding very useful. And that evening I also got my fixed laptop back :D I didn't do much with it on Thursday, just surfed the Internet. I can't believe how fast it is now it's been repaired!

Friday was a more relaxed day, which was nice after a busy day on Thursday. I was also feeling very tired all day. In the morning I put all my files back onto my laptop and reinstalled iTunes. iTunes wasn't very happy though and although all my music and videos are fine, I seem to have lost 3 games which I'd previously bought from the iTunes store. And I took the opportunity to reorganise all my files and documents and get rid of old ones. I also set my mum up with a Facebook account on Friday! After lots of persuasion from me, Chris (my older brother) and a few of her friends, mum decided that she could use a Facebook account to share photos of her knitting! She's not learnt how to use it yet though. Chris came round for lunch, which was nice as although he only lives 8 miles away, we don't see him that often. In the afternoon I attempted to write an article for PINNT, a support group for people on artificial feeding who have been a big support to me in the past. I want to share my positive transplant story in their magazine to help others who might need a transplant. However I'm not yet completely happy with what I've written, so I wont send it off yet. And then Friday evening my friend Claire came round for tea, which was nice as she always cheers me up :)

On Saturday I was very tired again and had stomach ache on and off all day, so just relaxed for most of the day - watched TV, surfed the Internet, read, played on my Wii... I did manage to do something a bit more productive in the evening though :) I'm an active member on the Transplant Kids forums and have recently become a moderator for 2 sections of the forum. So on Saturday I made a start on improving one of the sections I'm now moderating (Kids Korner). All I managed to do on Saturday was to remove all the broken links, but I've got some ideas about what else I want to do with it over the next few weeks.

On Sunday I just did odd bits and pieces for most of the day as when I'm very tired I can't really concentrate on one thing for long. I was hoping my tiredness and concentration might have started to improve now my exams have finished, but I've seen no improvement yet :( And I had stomach ache again on Sunday, which didn't help my concentration. Chris and Sophie came round in the morning, but didn't stay for long. I tried some more high calorie drinks (chocolate fortisip and banana fortisip) but didn't like either of them. This summer I've set myself the task of decluttering and tidying my bedroom as I've got too much stuff and as a result lots of things live on my floor at the moment. Last week we got a charity clothes collection sack through the door that will be collected tomorrow (Wednesday) so I decided that was a good incentive to sort my clothes out. I just sorted through 3 drawers on Sunday, but almost filled the sack! I'm planning to sort out the clothes in my wardrobe today, but it's quite a formidable task! On Sunday I also spent quite a lot of the day just relaxing as I didn't have enough energy to do anything else, so I played on my Wii and DSi for a bit. Sunday evening we had a BBQ which Claire came round for, but I didn't have much of an appetite (as my appetite decreases when I'm very tired). However I did have some of Claire's yummy pudding (jelly with strawberries, raspberries, cherries and blueberries in it). For some reason, Alf (my younger brother) decided he'd have a shower at 11.30pm on Sunday night! So that woke my mum up and kept me awake for a bit, what a muppet!

On Monday morning I accompanied my mum to her physio appointment and then we went into town. Monday was the first day it felt really nice to not be at school any more, as the previous week had been half term, so everyone else was off school anyway. But on Monday it felt great :) In town I went to the opticians as one arm of my glasses keeps coming lose, even though my dad keeps tightening the screw up. At the opticians they just tightened the screw again and said to let them know if it came lose again, and they'd replace the screw. I also went to GAME in town and traded one of my old DSi games in, so I can get £8 off my next purchase :) When we got home I was quite tired, so relaxed for a bit. I treated myself on Amazon and bought the first series of Ashes to Ashes on DVD and Taylor Swift's Love Story Single (because one song on it - Beautiful Eyes - isn't available on iTunes). I haven't had much of an appetite recently, but really enjoyed tea last night. It was chicken, yellow peppers and mushrooms in a lovely sauce with rice. And very unusually for me, I ate all of my portion, finished off Alf's portion (as he didn't like it) and then had some more! Last night I really enjoyed watching Ashes to Ashes on TV, I think this series is better than the first. I'm a bit disappointed though that next week will be the last episode of this series.

Today I woke up early, so am quite tired as I had a late night last night. My weight this morning was the same as last week, so that's good. And when I emailed my dietician about that I also let her know which high calorie drinks I like best, so she can get me them on prescription. Surprisingly I managed to find 3 drinks I liked - Strawberry fortisip, neutral fortisip and vanilla clinutren :) I also received an email from Beverly this morning about the summer camp in America with more information. However, I've not responded yet because I'm really concerned that I might not be well enough to go. I need to have a think about it and probably a chat to my parents and see what we think, as I really don't want to miss such a fantastic opportunity, but need to consider my health. I also received my first letter from the local M.E. unit this morning along with quite a big questionnaire about my symptoms, my past medical history (eek!), my emotions... They can't put me onto their long waiting list until they've received the completed questionnaire, so I'm going to try to fill it in this afternoon so I can get it back in the post to them ASAP. On a more positive note, my Mika tickets arrived in the post this morning :D I can't wait til me and mum see him in concert again on Monday - I'm so excited! I loved his album 'Life in Cartoon Motion' and his new record 'Songs for Sorrow' is growing on me with each listen. I'm hoping that he'll play some old favourites plus some new material at the concert.