A busy few days

On Sunday I felt exhausted after a busy afternoon the day before at the family get together. But I decided to go out in the morning to browse round a local carboot sale. Had a nice time at the carboot sale and bought myself a couple of Pixar DVDs. But I regretted it afterwards because I was even more exhausted, so spent the rest of Sunday relaxing.

On Monday I spent the earlier part of the day relaxing and tidying my room up. Then yesterday afternoon my friend Catherine came round. Catherine was my closest friend at sixth form, but because she lives quite a distance away, we've not managed to meet up much over the summer. Catherine is going off to university in a couple of weeks, so we were both glad that we managed to meet up before she goes. Catherine's mum came round too, so we all had a lovely evening. Catherine and her mum both knit though, so they spent ages chatting about knitting with my mum, which I found boring! Catherine liked my new look bedroom and we had a lovely BBQ for tea, cooked by my dad :)

Yesterday evening I was very nocturnal again, which is getting very frustrating! So I was on my laptop quite late into the night yesterday and got chatting to an old friend on Facebook. We've not seen each other for over a year, so have arranged to meet up on Friday. And today I arranged to meet up with another old friend next Tuesday before she returns to uni. This friend lives just across the road from me, but I can't remember the last time I saw her! So I'm really looking forward to both of those events :)

This morning I weighed myself, like I do every week, and was very pleased to find that after my first full week on overnight feeds I've put on 1.6kg in just 1 week! My dietician is very happy and so I can now have one night off overnight feeds a week. If my weight increases again from now til next Tuesday then I can decrease my overnight feeds to just 5 nights a week. Then I'll stay on 5 nights a week til I reach my target weight (which I'm now only 4kg away from) :D And I've found a better tape to use to hold my tube in place, so my cheek isn't sore any more. This tape is not as strong though, so if my tube accidentally gets pulled, then the tape rips. But it's fine if I'm careful :) And my tummy aches have almost completely disappeared this week which is amazing as I'd been really suffering with them for over a year. Fingers crossed that they don't come back!

Today I had a madly busy day, so am looking forward to doing nothing tomorrow :D This morning I had a gynaecology appointment at Hospital A. On the way there me and mum managed to get lost, despite having done the journey countless times before! And then we got to the hospital and got quite confused because the road we needed to take on the hospital site was closed and we'd never been to that department before! But I arrived in the department just before my appointment time of 11.30am. And then I wasn't seen til 12.15pm because they were running late! But the appointment went fine and the doctor I saw doesn't want to see me again :) Then mum grabbed some lunch and I had a look round the gift shops in the concourse where I bought a couple of people's birthday presents.

Then we headed to the orthodontic department (I rang them this morning to ask for an emergency appointment and they said to turn up at 2pm and they'd fit me in when they could) just before 2pm. And I was seen at 2.15pm :) My braces were easily fixed, but the orthodontist warned the wire would probably come loose again. However he said I should just be able to pop it back in place. Next time I see him (in 8 weeks time) he'll change the wires for some thicker ones, which will stay in place better. The wire has already come out once since then (it's too short, so pops out at the slightest pressure from food or my tongue), but after lots of fiddling I managed to get it back in place. Then I ate 2 croissants for lunch (my appetite seems to be coming back a bit, which is good :)) and we left the hospital at long last. Me and mum then went to visit my friend Claire.

I decided a couple of days ago that I'd like a hobby, so put out a message on Facebook asking for suggestions. Lots of people suggested knitting, but as my mum is obsessed with knitting I don't fancy that (and I don't have the patience). And another popular suggestion was photography. I only have a cheap point and shoot compact digital camera and don't want to buy any expensive equipment, but am going to have a play with my camera and see what I can do :) I'm not very artistic though, so this could be interesting, lol :p

Yesterday I heard from a friend in the transplant community who has a little boy, E, who is 3 years old and had a transplant like mine 2 years ago. E had a very rough time after his transplant with lots of complications and severe rejection, but this year he'd been going from strength to strength. So it was quite a shock yesterday to hear that E is currently very ill in Hospital B with 2 infections and rejection. Tomorrow his parents will find out how serious his rejection is, but it looks like there is a chance it may be so severe that he could need a second transplant. And E's mum is currently pregnant and expecting a little sister for E in just 17 days. E and his family are in my thoughts at the moment, but I wish there was something more I could do for them.

My friend Lou is doing a sponsored tree hug on Sunday to raise money for the fantastic charity Live Life Then Give Life. Lou has always been a fighter and a real inspiration - she beat cancer as a child, received a lung transplant just over a year ago because she had end stage lung disease, and is now battling heart failure and a form of post-transplant cancer. But she remains cheerful throughout it all and won't let her health get her down. Please sponsor her here.