Since Christmas update

Christmas left me quite exhausted, so I spent a few days doing very little apart from watching TV and DVDs :) And I've been very nocturnal too :P

So on TV I've watched:
~ Catherine Tate: Nan's Christmas Carol - which I really enjoyed. David Tennant was great and the programme was very funny :)
~ The Gruffalo - which was a good idea, but aimed at children.
~ The Day of the Triffids - this was a remake on the BBC over 2 evenings this week. It was quite good, but I struggled to concentrate through both 90min parts.
~ The Doctor Who episode Blink - I recorded this off the TV a few months ago and rewatched it with my mum today. I loved it, but it really scared mum!

And I've watched 5 Absolutely Fabulous episodes and 3 Black Books episodes on DVD.

On DVD I've watched:
~ My Sister's Keeper - a fantastic film, but not quite as good as the book.
~ Miss Congeniality - one of my favourite films, it always makes me laugh.
~ Sleepy Hollow - a good Tim Burton film.

And I watched a film called Just Like Heaven on TV, which was quite good.

I've bought a few DVDs this week too. I was looking on the Internet to buy a DVD called Stepmom which I rented a few months ago, but liked and wanted to buy. And then I found that it was in this Julia Roberts boxset, so I ended up buying the boxset and am looking forward to that arriving soon :) And I persuaded mum to buy the first series of Gavin and Stacey on DVD because we missed it on TV.

And on Monday I went to Tesco with mum and they had a DVD sale on :D So I bought 4 DVDs in that - Beetlejuice, 27 Dresses and The Snowman for £3 each. And 17 Again for £5. And mum bought Pride and Prejudice.

Dad and Alf went to the cinema earlier this week to see Avatar 3D and they both really enjoyed it. After seeing trailers I didn't fancy it, but Alf has managed to persuade mum that she'll like it, so Alf is hoping to see it again with mum next week. The only film I like the sound of in the cinema at the moment is Where The Wild Things Are. We all want to see that though, so I'm not sure if we'll manage to get it together to go before it disappears from the cinema! :P

I quite fancied going to a carboot sale on Sun, but discovered that our local ones are not on again til the middle of Feb :(

iTunes are currently doing a 12 Days of Christmas giveaway. Some of their free downloads so far haven't appealed to me, but I've downloaded 2 music videos. My new laptop is very whizzy (post on it coming soon), but unfortunately our Internet connection isn't so great - the 2 music videos I downloaded took 45mins and 1hour to download!

As well as getting out to Tesco on Sun, yesterday I went round to the post office to post off some parcels for mum (a DVD return to Amazon because Chris had already been given the Eddie Izzard DVD my mum bought him for Christmas and the socks she knitted for dad's favourite nurse at Hosp B). I had to queue for 20mins at our village post office! Hmph! And then when it was my turn I was told that I had to fill out a customs form because the Amazon return was going to their warehouse in Jersey! Got it done eventually though.

Yesterday mum also took me to Hosp H to have my bloods repeated, but luckily the more experienced phlebotomist was there as well as the new one, so she took my blood. I was a bit nervous about them losing my blood results though! Apparently Hosp B always phone Hosp H for my blood results, so I don't know why we thought that my results were faxed through. As far as I know, Hosp B haven't got my latest blood results yet, but unexpectedly this morning I received an email from my GP with my latest blood results attached. And all but 2 of my LFTs are within the normal range :D And one of the results that is marked as high is only just out of the normal range (it's 21 instead of being between 5 and 20). Yay!

I took my Tac blood at home this morning via a fingerprick. I should have done it yesterday, but mum was at work yesterday morning, so I attempted to do it myself as I couldn't leave it too late to take my Tac. Me and mum usually do it as a team and yesterday I discovered when trying to do it on my own that I needed 3 hands! So I gave up and we did it together this morning. Hopefully my Tac level will be ok today after my Tac dose has been changed, fingers crossed. We went to the post office to post that off to Hosp B and I also posted off a letter and a birthday parcel to my AYME buddy, Kate. While we were out we also called in at the GP surgery to collect some of my overnight feed and some high calorie drinks.

Yesterday while me and mum were at Hosp H, we also went to visit my nan. She was very cheerful and looked brighter than she had when we saw her before. She's still waiting for the results of some of her heart tests and is also still waiting to see the cardiologist. She's having loads of tests and scans done in the meantime though, they seem to be being very thorough, which is good :)

Yesterday morning I received a letter in the post from Hosp B saying that my consultant had requested for me to have 2 heart tests, so I had an appointment for them. That was a surprise, I don't have any heart problems, so why does my consultant want me to have heart tests? And why do I have to travel to BCH between clinics for them, can't they wait til my next clinic? Why weren't they done when I was in hospital 2 weeks ago? Hosp B is in a city which is about an hour and a half drive away, so I was not impressed with being given a 4.15pm appt on a Fri aft, how ridiculous! So I've rung Liver Direct at Hosp B and have left a message on the answermachine querying the tests. Hopefully they'll reply soon. If I do need them and if my consultant wants me to have them before my next clinic, then I'll have to change the appt. As well as it being a silly time, my mum works on Fri nights, so I wouldn't be able to get there.

I mentioned in a previous post that I had hurt my arm when I slipped over on the ice on Christmas Eve and although it was very sore for a couple of days it's completely better now :)

Today I was supposed to be going to see Lizzy and her family, but we had to cancel it because Lizzy has a tummy bug. We're hoping to go in a couple of weeks instead, but I'm a bit disappointed.

I was invited to a sixth form meet-up for New Year, but it's an overnight thing, so I'm not going to be able to attend it. I'm not too bothered though. Catherine, my closest friend from sixth form, is going to come round to see me next Thur evening before she goes back to uni, so I'm looking forward to that :)

There's no more news on M yet. The latest from Jess' Facebook page is that she's still in ITU, ventilated and sedated, but that's to be expected at this stage and she's stable. This article was in the Mirror today.

On Mon morning I had a very scary nosebleed. Before my transplant when my liver was failing I used to have profuse nosebleeds that would usually end up with me being admitted to hospital because they just wouldn't stop. And I'd need blood transfusions because I'd lose so much blood. Since my transplant I'd only had tiny nosebleeds until Mon. So when I had a big one on Monday it did scare me as it brought back so many horrible memories. Luckily it did stop, but it took about an hour to do so. I also had another one on Tuesday, but it was very small that time.

On Mon night I should have been on enteral feed, but the nostril that bled is the one I put my NG tube in. So I couldn't risk putting it in that one as it would likely start my nosebleed again. I tried to put it in the other nostril, but that was so unbearably painful (I'm not sure why though), I had to take it straight out again. So I missed my enteral feed on Mon night, but drank more than usual to make sure I didn't get dehydrated. That was tricky though because I'd swallowed lots of blood which made me feel very nauseus. And because of that I only had half a high calorie drink on Mon, instead of a whole one. So last week I only had 2 nights of enteral feed and missed half a high calorie drink, so I wasn't surprised when my weight on Tue morn was down by 0.5kg to 50.0kg. I emailed my dietician about that (and also asked for some advice on excluding foods from my diet to try to find out what is causing my tummy pains) and am waiting for a reply.

Yesterday I managed a whole high calorie drink as usual and then put my NG tube in with no problem in the evening, so had enteral feed overnight last night. Out of interest I weighed myself again this morning and my weight was 51.0kg. So I think my weight really depends on when I weigh myself!

Watching so many DVDs and so much TV this week has really got me thinking that I ought to find a hobby or something more productive to do with my time. So I posted on the AYME forums yesterday evening asking for suggestions. I got quite a few responses with loads of ideas. So I feel really inspired now and am going to enjoy trying some things out over the next few weeks :) Last night on someone's suggestion I downloaded Windows Movie Maker and am going to have a play about with that because my camera also takes videos too. Last night I made a slideshow with it using some photos I already had on my laptop.

I have loads of medical appts coming up over the next few weeks. Tomorrow I have an orthodontist appt at Hosp A where my braces will be fixed and my wires will be tightened, which will probably leave my mouth quite sore for a few days. Then next week I have a Pathways To Work interview in town on Wed (about seeing whether or not I can do a bit of work at the moment) and then my dreaded ESA medical appt in the city on the Fri, eeek! :( On Mon 11th I have a physio appt at Hosp A to see if physio might be able to help my ME. And Fri 14th is my current appt for my heart scans at Hosp B, but if I need them then I wont be keeping that date. Mon 18th I have a hygeinist appt at Hosp A. And depending on what Hosp B think of my latest blood results and what my Tac level comes back as, then I may need more blood tests over the next few weeks. Phew!