Health, braces, birthday plans and a nice week

Nothing big has happened since my last blog update, but lots of little things seem to have been happening, so I'll try not to make this blog post too long or too disjointed. Hope everyone reading this is well.

With regards to my health, I've been trying to introduce four 30min rest periods each day into my routine, but I've not been doing very well with this as there just doesn't seem to be enough time in the day! And I've not managed to get hold of any absorbing audio books yet, so have been finding rest periods quite boring, but hopefully the Harry Potter audio books I ordered from my local library will come in this week. I've been managing between 1 and 3 rest periods per day and am not sure if I've seen any effect yet. I've still been quite nocturnal, but hopefully my Melatonin will arrive soon, so that should help. There is a local post strike though, so I'm hoping it won't be delayed with that. I'm still feeling tired, but maybe a little less tired. And I'm feeling unusually cheerful and optimistic at the moment :) I'm going to try to make an effort to fit at least 3 rest periods into each day and if I do that each day then maybe I'll see more of an improvement in my health, I hope so.

I had one night off my overnight feed last Friday :) So had just 6 nights of feed last week. I weighed myself on Tuesday morning, but was a bit disappointed to find that I'd only gained 0.2kg in a week with 6 nights of feeds. I'd been expecting a bigger weight gain because the previous week with 7 nights of feeds I'd gained 1.6kg. My weight is never predictable though, I guess it's just one of those things. So I'm sticking with 6 nights of feed per week for now because I'm still 3.7kg away from my target weight. My cheek is still very red and sore from the 2 tapes I've been using to hold my tube in place at night, so I'm trying a new tape out from tonight. Fingers crossed that this one will be kinder to my skin.

Around the middle of last week the inside of my right cheek was cut very badly with my braces. I think it must have happened while I was asleep and I suspect that it was because my teeth are moving now that I've had the 4 extractions. So since then I've been using orthodontic wax on all the brackets on the right side of my mouth to prevent them from cutting my cheek any more. My cheek has been very slow to heal though, which has made eating quite difficult. The inside of my right cheek now seems to be almost completely healed at last, but last night my braces cut the inside of my left cheek! Grrr. I was running out of the orthodontic wax towards the end of last week, but luckily I managed to source some in Boots and it wasn't too expensive either. So I'll just keep waxing the brackets until my mouth is completely healed. It's a bit of a tricky process with the wax though as sometimes it just doesn't stick, which can be very frustrating if it's late at night and I just want to go to bed. And I have to take it off before I eat or brush my teeth too, as I think I've eaten some wax in the past! And the annoying wire I mentioned previously is still coming out of the bracket every time I eat, but I've become quite adept at putting it back in place now.

In a previous post I mentioned a little boy, E, who has been very ill recently. E's latest bout of rejection has severely damaged his bowel, so he will need a second transplant. E is such a fighter though, so I know he'll keep fighting. He's feeling better in himself though and is looking forward to the arrival of a little sister within the next week or two. Last Wednesday me and mum sent a parcel for E and his mum to cheer them up a bit. Unfortunately there is currently a local postal strike, so the parcel was delayed, but they received it on Monday :)

This week I've planning my birthday, as I'll be 19 on Saturday :D I've invited my friend Claire over for the day and we're going to watch DVDs with my mum. At some point during the day me and Claire will also pop round to see my nan as she only lives a 5 min drive away and Claire and her have never met before. Then in the evening dad is going to do a BBQ, so I've got my fingers crossed that the rain stays away. If it rains though he said he'll just do it inside on the grill ;) And I'll probably see my older brother Chris and his girlfriend Sophie either on my birthday or on the Sunday. They're on holiday in Mallorca at the moment!

The friend who I was meant to be seeing last Friday had to cancel :( But I caught up with another old friend on Tuesday. S only lives just across the road from me and we used to be very close friends. But she's a couple of months older than me, so went off to uni last September and so we've not really kept in touch. So it was lovely to catch up with her on Tuesday. I'd assumed she'd just come round for about 30 mins, but we had loads to talk about so she ended up staying for almost 3 hours! It was great, but I was very tired afterwards!

My nan came round on Sunday afternoon and stayed for tea. She lives locally now so we see her most weekends, which is lovely. Everyone had a little bit of alcohol with the evening meal. My nan only had a very small amount of alcohol, but she got very tipsy. It was so funny! :p

As you will know from previous blog posts, I am a huge fan of Mika. He was on Jonathan Ross on Friday night to promote his new single 'We Are Golden' which was released to download on Sunday and in the shops on Monday. I've bought it of course and I really hope it gets to number one on Sunday in the charts. I'm really looking forward to the release of his second album on the 21st September :D

I've been watching quite a few DVDs recently as the Tesco DVD rental service I've joined is proving to be great :D The turn-around of DVDs is very prompt (unless of course there's a stupid postal strike on!) and all of the DVDs except one that I've received have been in perfect condition. One froze every so often, but when I sent it back there was an option to report that it was a faulty disc, so I did. I watched Hairspray which was ok, but wasn't as good as I expected it to be, Wall-E which is amazing and I'd highly recommend it, and The Secret Garden which was very good. And I borrowed Wild Child a few days ago from my local library, which was actually surprisingly good :) On Tuesday I watched a drama that I'd recorded off the TV a few weeks ago. It was called Gunrush and was shown on ITV. It was very well made, but quite depressing. I also finished a good book this week called Gifted by Nikita Lalwani which I'd recommend. I'm struggling to read books at the moment because my concentration isn't very good, but Gifted gripped me.

I've been out with my mum a few times in the last week. I went into town last weekend to help look for a school bag for Alf. He started sixth form on Friday and although he doesn't talk to me much, I think he's enjoying it so far. The school bag search was ridiculous as Alf really couldn't be bothered and no sooner had we got into town than he'd met up with some friends and wandered off! Mum was very patient though and found him a bag that he was happy with eventually. It was quite a successful trip for me too as I persuaded mum to buy me 2 DVDs for my birthday and I bought myself some much needed shoelaces, a great t-shirt from New Look and a new DS game - Pokemon Platinum :D I'd not played on a Pokemon game since Pokemon Silver about 10 years ago, but thought I wanted to try one again. So a couple of weeks ago I found a cheap copy of Pokemon Platinum on the Internet and so ordered it. When it arrived I was disappointed to find that it didn't work on my DSi. So I sold that to Alf as it worked on his DS and ordered another cheap copy from the Internet. I had the same problem so am trying to send that copy back. I searched on the Internet for the error message I kept getting and discovered that the 2 games I'd bought had been pirated copies. The original DS that Alf has can't recognise fakes, but my more advanced DS recognises fakes and so refuses to play them. Grrr! So on Saturday I paid full price for a genuine copy off the high street. I've had lots of enjoyment playing it though :D

This week me and mum also went out to a home furnishings shop. Mum of course was interested in looking at the knitting stuff, but we were both shocked to see that you had to be 25 to buy knitting needles or sewing kits!!! Mad! I looked for a thicker duvet for my bed for winter (as I only have a light summer duvet), but the store had switched suppliers so currently had no duvets in stock and wouldn't be receiving any more til the following day! I also looked with no success for a fleecy blanket to keep me warm when I'm curled up on my sofa, but none there fitted in with the colour scheme of my room, so I'll look elsewhere. I did however manage to get some new curtains for my room and a matching cushion. My room colour scheme is lilac and blue, so I'd originally had lilac curtains. However because they were so thin and pale they let all the light in in the mornings. So I bought some thicker darker blue curtains. Me and mum had fun putting them up together that afternoon, but I'm really happy with them :)

I've recently discovered that there are Japanese evening classes held about 20 miles away from where I live. I loved studying Japanese at sixth form and don't want to lose all the Japanese I've learnt, so am thinking about doing an evening course for a term. There are 4 or 5 different levels for different abilities, so I should be able to do it at a level that's right for me. I've decided not to do the evening course this term because I've not really had chance to give it much thought, but am considering doing it after Christmas. Putting it off til then will give me a chance to work out how I'd get there one evening a week and will also give me a chance to go over my sixth form notes to refresh myself on the Japanese I've learnt. I'm a bit unsure though as I'm quite shy in social situations. But I know it would be a great opportunity and I think my health would be up to it. Will let you know what I decide to do.

On Tuesday evening I watched a great nature programme on BBC1 with my family called 'Lost Land of the Volcano'. I'd highly recommend watching it on iPlayer if you missed it. It got us all inspired, but we can't really afford any exotic holidays, so we're planning to go to a local safari park in a couple of weeks' time :D Mum has got some Tesco clubcard vouchers, so hopefully they'll contribute towards the price. It should be a good day, but I'm a bit nervous about us all doing something together as a family because we've not done anything all together for so long.

On this post I mentioned my friend Lou who was planning to do a sponsored tree hug on Sunday. Well she did it! :D What an inspiration! You can still sponsor her here.

Sorry for such a long blog update, I know I write too much! I'm going to leave it here because I think I've blogged about everything I wanted to blog about and I don't want to make it any longer for you to read. Also, it's currently 1.10am on Wednesday morning and even though I feel very nocturnal, I think I ought to get to bed!