Sleep, braces, benefits and DVDs

I've had a few disturbed nights recently. Sunday night I was woken by my braces cutting my mouth and my dad yelling as he fell out of bed (lol!) and then Monday morning by Alf making a lot of noise getting ready for school. Then on Tuesday morning I was woken earlier than I would have liked because the hedge at the back of our back garden was being cut from the garden behind and the hedge trimmer was very noisy. And this morning my dad was slamming doors! Grrrr. The melatonin hasn't really made me feel less nocturnal and I can still read into the night because I don't feel tired, but once I make myself get into bed it isn't taking me long to fall asleep. So I'm going to keep using it and see what happens.

On Monday I phoned up the orthodontist about my sore mouth and asked for an emergency appointment. I was very surprised that they fitted me in that afternoon. My normal grumpy dentist wasn't working on Monday, so I saw a different orthodontist instead. And she was lovely, why can't I have a nice orthodontist normally?! She was very helpful and quickly worked out what the problem was. I knew the inside of my mouth was being cut, but I couldn't work out what by because I was covering all the brackets up with orthodontic wax. The orthodontist I saw noticed that the cuts in my cheek were actually wire shaped, so when I was sleeping (on my side), the wire that went across the gaps where my teeth used to be (before the extractions) was pressing into and cutting my cheek. So she took the wire out and put some protective casing (like a plastic sleeve) over the wire in those places and then replaced the wire. And my mouth seems to be slowly healing. She also tried an idea to stop the wire from coming loose when I eat, but it hasn't really worked. Never mind. I'm hoping that now my mouth is feeling a bit better my appetite might start to increase, as the only thing I can fancy eating at the moment is croissants. When I weighed myself yesterday my weight was exactly the same as last week and that was with 6 nights of feed. So it looks like I need to eat more to put on weight. I'm waiting to hear from my dietician, as I emailed her my weight yesterday.

I've been feeling quite good for the last week or two with regards to my tiredness and energy. I don't have loads of energy, but I seem to have more than usual and seem to be less tired too. I'm also feeling unusually cheerful and optimistic :D My rests aren't going very well though as I'm still finding resting boring (despite now having Harry Potter audio books to listen to), so am not resting as much as I should be. It's difficult because I don't feel like I need to rest at the moment because I don't feel too bad, but know I ought to to help myself in the future, if not today.

Alf is still happy at sixth form, though isn't impressed with the amount of homework he's getting already and he's not even started coursework yet! He's enquired about changing to chemistry, but one set of chemistry lessons is at the same time as his English Lit lessons and he knows that he doesn't want to give up English Lit. So he's going to look into what the other set of chemistry lessons clash with. A few days ago we heard that his application for a bus pass has been successful, so when that comes through my parents will just pay a discounted rate for him to use the bus to and from school, but it'll still be quite a bit of money. But it wont be as much as it's costing my parents for him to use the bus at the moment. Because he's not a child any more (he's 16), he has to pay adult prices. A return ticket for a journey that is about 7 miles cost £4.70! I think that's outrageous! So currently it's costing my parents almost £5 a day to get him to and from school.

I've not mentioned E for a little while. E will definitely need a second transplant. However, his parents are staying very positive about his future. And very excitingly, E's little sister, B, was born on Monday. Both mum and baby are doing well. So I made a new baby card for them and got it in the post on Tuesday. I'm looking forward to seeing some photos :)

On Monday I phoned up Job Centre Plus with the aim of getting an appointment at my local branch to find out what benefits I'm entitled to. But the person I spoke to on the phone said it could all be done over the phone. I'm not sure if I've mentioned before that I hate using the phone. I'm ok speaking to friends or family on the phone (but would still prefer to communicate via text or email instead where possible), but really struggle with speaking to strangers or people I don't know well. It'd taken me a lot of courage to prepare to phone up Job Centre Plus to arrange an appointent, so I was a bit worried about the idea of doing more over the phone. But I did and I'm so proud of myself :D The phone call took about 30mins and I found out that I was eligible for ESA and so put in a claim for that. I'm waiting to receive a letter through the post including all the details I gave on the phone which I'll have to check through to make sure everything is correct. And that letter will also provide details of a letter I need to get from my GP. I'm also going to look at getting my DLA reviewed as I feel that things have changed since that was last reviewed just after my transplant. That'll be a complicated process though with lots of forms to fill in.

Last night I finished an interesting novel called 'While My Sister Sleeps' by Barbara Delinsky. It was quite a sad book but it was well written and similar to Jodi Picoult's style. It was also about organ donation and I was very pleased to read a mention of intestinal transplants at one point! My concentration isn't very good at the moment, so I struggle to read, but I'm pleased that I managed to finish a novel, as I've not done that for a few weeks.

My Vicar of Dibley ultimate collection DVD set arrived this morning, that was a birthday present from my parents. I'm looking forward to watching some of it as I love watching episodes when they're on TV. And my HMV DVDs (Sister Act, Edward Scissorhands and The Corpse Bride) arrived in the post on Monday morning. And yesterday I had an online shopping spree thanks to some gift vouchers (£10 Borders, £10 Amazon and £15 Amazon) that I received for my birthday. With that I managed to buy 7 DVDs and it only cost me £3 because most of it was paid for with my vouchers. So all the fun of shopping but without the guilt of spending too much money :D All but one of the DVDs were dispatched yesterday, so should be with me soon. The DVDs I bought were: Cars, Ratatouille, Wall-E (can you tell I like Pixar?!), Shrek the Halls (to complete my Shrek DVD collection), Wild Child, While You Were Sleeping and Raising Helen. All but Ratatouille are DVDs I've seen before, but really enjoyed and would like to be able to watch again when I want to. And I know Ratatouille will be good because it's made by Pixar :D

Yesterday afternoon me and mum were originally planning to go to the cinema to see Julie & Julia, but we decided against it because I was tired and mum had a headache. So we stayed at home and watched a DVD called Muriel's Wedding instead. The film was ok, but I don't think I'd watch it again. My mum really enjoyed watching it though. She chose that DVD so when we decided to watch one today it was my choice. I chose Monsters Inc, which is very funny and is my second favourite Pixar film. We both really enjoyed watching it :D

I've watched a few things on TV this week including the second part of a fantastic BBC series called Lost Land of the Volcano. I'd highly recommend watching it on iPlayer if you're at all interested in nature and wildlife. I also watched the first episode of Design for Life earlier in the week. It's an odd new reality TV show that follows a French designer putting 12 contestants who want to be designers through various tasks and eliminating a couple each week. I didn't think it was particularly good, but will probably watch next week's episode to see if it gets going a bit more.

I've also been doing a bit of sorting out in my bedroom over the last couple of days. I have 2 storage units for my CDs and DVDs, but my growing DVD collection was running out of room, so my CDs have been moved to a box under my bed (I don't need to access them much because all my music is on my iPod and my laptop) to make room for more DVDs. And today I'm tidying my bedroom because I'm having a photoshoot tomorrow and there's a chance my room might be in some of the photos, so I don't want it to look too cluttered! My photoshoot tomorrow is with Sarah, mum to Wills, a little boy who had a small bowel transplant just less than a year ago, so met her through the transplant community. She is very artistic and is currently creating a photography project about organ donation called Gifts of Life. Sarah also blogs about her Gifts of Life project here. And I've offered to be involved, so my photoshoot is tomorrow :D Just hoping I'll feel ok for the photoshoot, fingers crossed. Will blog about it afterwards.