My 2010

1. What did you do in 2010 that you'd never done before?
I stayed at home alone overnight (well it was actually for 6 nights) for the first time ever, kept track of absolutely everything I spent in a spreadsheet (which I found very interesting) and applied for ESA and filled out a DLA renewal form myself (dad has done them for me in the past).

2. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I don't usually make New Year's resolutions but plan to make some for 2011. In 2011 I want to get back to blogging regularly, become more active in a volunteering job I do for AYME, keep up with my communication (letters and emails) better, complete my project 365 (I'm trying to take a photo every day for a year which I'm putting up on Facebook), maybe try out some more volunteering, find something productive to do with my life and try to overcome my shyness a bit. I'd love to have a boyfriend but really can't see it happening.

3. How will you be spending New Year's Eve?
I don't usually celebrate New Year's Eve, but tonight my older brother and his girlfriend are coming round so we'll have a nice time as a family. Might move the Wii downstairs so we can play on that :)

4. Did anyone close to you die?
No-one I was very close to but a little friend from hospital died in September :( You can read a bit about Kennedy here.

5. What countries did you visit?
None, I'm waiting til my health is a bit better to go abroad again. There are loads of countries I'd like to visit though.

6. What would you like to have in 2011 that you lacked in 2010?
More energy. And teeth free of braces :D

7. What date from 2010 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
I can't think of a specific one.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
I've got lots of medical ones. Coming off all forms of articificial nutrition which I'd been on since 6 months old and managing to maintain my weight without them, not having an overnight stay in hospital all year (for the first time ever), completing my transition to the adult hospital, having my first scope without a GA...

9. What was your biggest failure?
I think my confidence has failed me this year, my shyness has got worse and I've felt disappointed at how I've behaved in lots of social situations.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Ongoing health problems but nothing new.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
I didn't actually buy it but the best thing I acquired was an iPhone thanks to my older brother :D As for things I bought myself I find it hard to pick just one - my camera, my Trollbead bracelet and my hard disc recorder are just a few that spring to mind. And of course all my concert tickets.

12. Where did most of your money go?
On concert tickets. But I spent quite a lot on DVDs too.

13. What song will always remind you of 2010?
Anything by any of the 8 artists I saw live in 2010! :D And Forget You/F*** You by Cee Lo Green because it's been played on the radio and music channels a lot this year and it's also been covered at 3 of the concerts I've been to.

14. What do you wish you'd done more of?
I wish I'd had a more productive year.

15. What do you wish you'd done less of?
I can't think of anything.

16. What was your favourite TV program?
This year I discovered some fantastic TV programmes including Outnumbered, Misfits, Miranda and Peep Show. I think I discovered Gavin and Stacey either right at the end of 2009 or right at the start of 2010. I thought series 3 of Ashes to Ashes was a letdown though.

17. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
Hate is a strong word and I don't use it lightly. So I don't think so.

18. What was the best book you read?
I'm currently really struggling to read novels, so have actually only read one this year.

19. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Marina and the Diamonds.

20. What was your favourite film of this year?
Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland or Toy Story 3 I think. And St. Trinians 2 was very good. I also saw E.T. for the first time this year :D

21. What did you do on your birthday?
I went to London with my mum and a friend. We went to the film museum, saw Avenue Q and ate at Yo Sushi :)

22. What kept you sane?
My family and close friends

23. Who did you miss?
I missed my friend Lizzy because I wasn't able to see her nearly as often as I'd have liked to.

24. Who was the best new person you met?
I've 'met' some great people over the Internet this year and a couple face-to-face too. I think the most amazing person I've met is Jay. I don't think I've mentioned her before but she is a huge inspiration to me and a great friend.

25. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2010:
That cognitive symptoms are really frustrating, hence me now not being able to think of anything sensible to write here! :P

I got this meme from Holly's blog :)

Apologies

As you'll have noticed my plans of blogging regularly again have failed. I just seem to have been very busy recently, but with lots of fun things as well as the usual hospital appts. I'm going to relax over Christmas and then try to get going again on my blog in the new year. I've got lots of things I'm looking forward to sharing with you, such as all the concerts I've been to (I think I went to 6 in about 7 weeks), my trip to the BBC Television Centre and more :)

And of course I must say,
Happy Christmas everyone!

My 4th transplant anniversary

Today is my 4 year transplant anniversary. I'm having quite a reflective day and I've been doing lots of thinking about the last 4 years and of course thinking of my amazing donor family too. I feel very privileged to be in contact with my donor family and emailed my donor's sisters this morning to let them know that their family is in my thoughts today.

To me it doesn't feel right celebrating my transplant anniversary when I know what my donor family are going through, but some years I like to do a little something with my family. My parents asked me to choose our evening meal today because one of the biggest changes since my transplant has been me learning to eat. Mum is at work til 8pm, but when she gets in we'll all be sitting down together and having Chinese crispy duck with pancakes, yum.

If you aren't already on the organ donor register then please sign up here, you can save lives like mine. If you've already signed up then please spread the word. Thanks.

Quick Update

Sorry for not posting again for a little while. I know I'd just got back into the routine of blogging and was trying to get my blog up to date, but my health hasn't been too good over the last fortnight so I've not managed to keep up the blogging.

As you'll know I went to 2 amazing concerts a couple of weeks ago. I blogged about seeing Marina and the Diamonds here and hope to blog about seeing Eliza Doolittle soon. It seems that a combination of attending 2 concerts close together and then getting a virus (mainly manifesting itself as a bad cough) has knocked my health a bit and this past week or two my energy levels have been lower than they usually are.

I've got a busy week coming up with 2 more concerts, so am really hoping I'll have enough energy to manage those. I hope to get back to blogging soon.

Birmingham and Marina & the Diamonds concert

On Saturday (23rd Oct) me and mum spent the afternoon in Birmingham before seeing Marina & the Diamonds in concert that evening. In the morning we got prepared to go out and mum painted my nails for me.


We set off just after lunch and the drive to Birmingham went smoothly. We got parked and then walked into the city. On our way we spotted 3 or 4 upside down signs!


We walked to the Bullring and had a little wander round there before stopping for drinks in a cafe. While we were there the pendant bit fell off my necklace but luckily I was sitting down so caught it and mum helped me put it back on. I didn't have much luck with my jewellery - a matching necklace and earring set - on Sat. As well as my necklace coming apart, when I took if off at home I discovered the chain was knotted (I have no idea how that happened, maybe it was like that when I bought it), which took dad quite a while to un-knot. And one of my earrings must have fallen out while I was out because when I came to take them out I only had one in!

Then we wandered round an outdoor and indoor market. We both found the markets very interesting because they was so multicultural. I took lots of photos so here are a selection.

These suits said on them from age 1 upwards!

Mum bought a piece of purple material which she wore as a scarf that day and is now planning to use to make a knitting bag.



After that we spent a while in warm Waterstones - mum looked at knitting books and I surfed the Internet from my iPhone on one of their comfy seats :) Then we wandered towards the venue, stopping at a cafe in the train station to eat our packed sandwiches.

We got to the Town Hall quite early. We heard that the support act was called CocknBullKid and were each given a free wristband which would let us have a free download of a CocknBullKid song. We were given Marina & the Diamonds stickers and had a photo taken holding those which I think might be put up on her website or Facebook page at somepoint. There was a stall selling various Marina & the Diamonds merchandise so I bought myself a hoody. Sorry this picture isn't very good quality, it was taken on my iPhone so I could put it up on Facebook then.


Me and mum just sat and relaxed til the doors opened at 7.30pm. We saw this schedule so knew roughly what time everything would be happening.


We found our seats, which were in the middle of the front row of the circle so we had a great view. I tried to take some photos but my camera didn't work very well at that distance in the funny lighting and my iPhone camera isn't very good and has no zoom. I got photos 2 which show the set up quite well. The first was taken on my iPhone, so with no zoom. And the second was taken on my compact camera to try to show the set better.


The venue slowly filled up but I was surprised that there were a few empty seats in the circle. Apparently they'd sold out so it looked like some people hadn't been able to make it. Downstairs was standing only. I saw a very little girl who only looked about 7 in amongst all the people standing downstairs. She was wearing ear defenders for the noise. Personally I think she was a bit young to be at a standing concert. I was seated next to an odd man who was there on his own. I think he may have had OCD as he kept using alcohol hand gel to clean his hands. Next to mum were 2 very drunk women who were very noisy and made the whole row of seats shake with their dancing! Luckily they calmed down a bit after a gay couple sitting the other side of them told them off and then they left. It was quite chilly in the circle to start with but once the doors were closed I got a bit warmer.

Here is mum trying to learn some of the lyrics before Marina came on.


The support act was on from 8pm til 8.30pm. She was called CocknBullKid and was very good, definitely one of the better support acts we've seen. The sound balance wasn't quite right and the music drowned her out at points, which was a shame. If you're interested you can find out more about CocknBullKid and listen to some of her music on her MySpace page here. And you can get a free download of a good song called CocknBullKid here.

After CocknBullKid there was a short break while they set the stage up for Marina & the Diamonds. She was on from 9pm til about 10.15pm.

Marina performed 16 songs in total - all 13 songs from her album The Family Jewels, an iTunes exclusive track called The Family Jewels, Seventeen and a new song called Jealousy. She opened with The Family Jewels which worked really well. All the songs were great but the atmosphere was brilliant with Oh No! because everyone knew it and was singing along, me included. I sang along to all the songs (apart from Jealousy of course because I didn't know it) and had nearly lost my voice by the end! You could tell that the audience was singing along when Marina changed the timings of some songs and caught the audience out! The songs weren't performed hugely differently to the way they sound on the album but there was more emotion in them and they were more performed than just sung, if that makes sense. There were spotlights dancing around the walls for Jealousy. And she sang Happy Birthday to someone in the audience.

The set was very simple but it worked very well because Marina was such a strong performer that she didn't need lots of props to support her performance. Her voice was fantastic, despite her having a chest infection. There was only one song (towards the end) that her voice didn't sound perfect on. The screen on the backdrop was used effectively throughout the concert. Before Marina came on a short film was shown on the screen at the back and after that it was used a few times between songs and a few times for videos or animations to accompany songs.

Marina was very friendly and chatty to the audience between songs. She needs her fans help to beat Enrique in the Europe category of the MTV EMA music awards. And she made a lovely thank you speech to her fans, which was genuine but not cheesy.

Marina wore 4 different costumes throughout the concert. She started off wearing a plain black long dress with a yellow pompom round her neck. Although she changed outfits throughout the performance, the yellow pompom remained throughout. And she had a blonde streak in her hair. She wore an amazing feathery hat for Mowgli's Road, performed Hermit the Frog with 4 red balloons tied to each wrist and held some pink plastic hearts for another song. Marina wore a couple of different pairs of heels (including some plain black ones and some with yellow blocks around the heels) but took them off for some songs so she could jump around. And of course she wore a few different pairs of sunglasses. Most songs were performed standing at the microphone with some dancing around but she performed Obsessions and Numb sat at the keyboard. Her second outfit was a short dress. It was mainly pink and white check but had silvery snake skin like patches. Her third outfit was blue and white striped and glittery and looked like a pair of pyjamas. She only wore that for Numb sitting at the piano. Her final outfit was just used for the finale of Hollywood. She went off before that and it looked like she'd finished, but I knew she'd have to come back as she'd not performed her big hit Hollywood yet. That outfit consisted of a pair of Stars and Stripes trousers (one leg was the stars and one leg was the stripes) and a yellow cheerleader jacket. Marina also held a plastic hamburger for the start of Hollywood.

Afterwards I persuaded mum to let me go round to the stage door to see if could meet Marina as I'd heard she might be coming out after the show to meet her fans. We'd only been waiting a few minutes when someone told us it might be up to an hour til she came out. I really wanted to wait but mum wouldn't let me wait as she was very tired and still needed to do the hour and a half drive home. I understand that but was very disappointed as I'd love to meet Marina. So we walked back to the car and then drove home. We got a bit lost on the way back due to the SatNav not getting signal quickly enough when we set off, but it soon got us back on track.

I've found a good set of photos from the concert posted on Marina's Facebook page, which you can see here. I've been having a look for Youtube videos from that night and most are very poor quality. However if you're interested you can see Jealousy here.

Trip to Norwich

I'm out tonight seeing Marina and the Diamonds in concert but wrote this blog post last night and scheduled it to post tonight so you'd have something to read :)

Back in August I asked mum if we could go away for a couple of days so I could have a change of scene. The rest of my family had been away to Glastonbury Festival in June but I'd not been away that summer. We looked for a city that would be easy to get to on the train(s) and that had a Premier Inn (because my older brother Chris works in one so could get us a discount) near the city centre. We decided on Norwich and booked just a week or so in advance. We decided we'd only be able to fit in staying for one night but that was enough for us :)

In the morn of Wed 18th Oct we got a lift to our local train station with mum's friend and work colleague so we wouldn't have to pay for overnight carparking. We caught the 10.10am train I think and while we were waiting there was a man also waiting who was playing the music in his earphones so loud that everyone else in the shelter could hear it, so I wasn't sure why he was even bothering with the earphones! We made sure we didn't sit near him or a drunken man (at 10am!) on the train. The first part of the journey went fine and then we only had about 5/10mins to wait for our next train. We found seats (facing forwards like I like) and had just got settled when we got turfed out those seats because someone else had reserved them, yet there weren't any reservation signs on them. We could only get seats facing backwards so mum complained when we saw an official person and apparently the reservation signs get left off a lot but it's the responsibility of someone at a different station so they can't do anything about it. Anyway, it turned out that at one of the next few stops the train went into the station and then back out again the same way, so we actually ended up facing forwards for most of the journey :) I just listened to my iPod on the train and mum knitted a sock.

We got into Norwich station at 12.30pm but couldn't book into the Premier Inn til 2pm. As we were going past anyway I persuaded mum we ought to pop in and see if our room was ready - and it was. So we could drop our overnight bags off then rather then lugging them round the city. We presented Chris' work card when we checked in as Chris had said it might entitle us to a discount, but it's at the member of staff's discretion when it's a weekday. We had a lovely lady checking us in and she agreed to let us have a discount. I think it was about 20% off :)

This was the Premier Inn we stayed in:


We walked into the centre and on the way looked in a few shops including some charity shops. We also visited a film shop and a lovely independent bookshop which we spent a bit of time browsing round.


Then we sat on some benches and ate our packed lunches.

After that we went to somewhere called Strangers' Hall which was like a museum and each room of the building was made up to be like it would have been from a different era in the past. Mum wanted to look at rooms from a certain era because she was reading a novel set in that time. I found the Victorian rooms quite interesting. In some of the rooms there were guides to tell you a bit about it and answer your questions but most of them seemed to be quite lonely elderly women who just talked and talked and talked! Hehe. On our way out we spotted a guidebook which we both thought would have been helpful before we went round the museum! The lady selling them said they were new in so we could be the first to have them, but we had to not look for typos because apparently there were a few! So we bought one to have a look at in our own time.

We then stopped for some drinks.


After that we went in another film shop and then went to the market. The yarn stall was just closing so mum thought we might go back the following day, but we didn't in the end. We then looked round some more charity shops, visited a shopping mall (where we picked up some toothpaste because before we set out we discovered our two small tubes were 3 years and 18 months out of date, whoops!), had a sit down (because my feet were really painful) and visited a few more shops. In The Works I bought a book of short stories to read while we were away. Then we had drinks in Starbucks, where they were testing all the alarms out! When we left there we passed a busker playing a penny whistle who had his pet ferret with him. It was very small for a ferret and so cute, so I had to stop and stroke it :) I want one!

By that time it was about 6pm I think so we headed to a Japanese restaurant for our evening meal. We went to an independent one called Shiki. I had green tea to drink and rather than having one big meal I had 2 half sized meals - chicken katsu and salmon teriyaki. My mum had avocado & tofu salad and vegetable tempura. We had a lovely time and enjoyed our meals.



After that we weren't ready to go back to the Premier Inn for the night so we walked out of the city centre and along the river to an area where there was a cinema, 10 pin bowling and lots of places to eat. We bought tickets to see a film a little while later and had drinks while we were waiting. It was good we bought the tickets earlier because when it came to time to go in the ticket queue was out the door!

After that we headed back to the Premier Inn and stopped for apple juices in the bar. I got stuck talking to a lonely business man until mum rescued me. Then a man came up to us and asked if he could show us some magic tricks. He did 3 and one of them was brilliant, I can't work out how he did it. It was a bit more complicated than this but basically he asked me to think of any card in a pack of cards and then he wrote down on a piece of paper what card he thought I was thinking of. Then I told him and he turned over the piece of paper and his guess was correct. Wow! The next day we saw him walking through the city in a suit with a briefcase - he must be a businessman by day and a magician by night :)

When we got back to our room mum attempted to run herself a bath but couldn't work out how to do it as she could only get cold water. While she was trying to sort it she accidentally pressed something which made the water come out of the shower rather than the taps - while her head was over the bath! Hehe :P She got her bath sorted eventually. She also spotted a sign on the mirror saying - 'If you've forgotten your toothpaste just contact reception'!

I didn't sleep very well that night, I think I must have woken up about 10 times during the night! So I was quite tired on Thur but my feet were feeling a bit better :)

We had breakfast at the Premier Inn and we'd just ordered continental, so we could help ourself to as much of the food as we wanted - just not the cooked stuff. So I had 3 croissants :D We then checked out of the Premier Inn because otherwise we would have had to return by midday to check out. They said we could leave our bags there though and pick them up later, so we left our overnight bags there as the Premier Inn was just next to the station. One of the members of staff complemented mum on her purple hair so she got very chatty with them and even told them about her sticking pantyliners on her forehead when she dyes her hair, so she doesn't get the dye on her skin! What's she like?!

From there we walked to a shopping centre on the other side of the city. Mum loved the architecture of it but neither of us were very impressed with the shops as they were mostly fashion clothes shops. We had drinks in a cafe there though and then when we left we found 3 charity shops in a row. I walked out of one in disgust after I saw they were charging £5 for second hand DVDs - you can buy new DVDs from £3 online! Then we got a bus to a street we wanted to explore at the other side of the city.

I saw this at the bus station:


On that street I found a shop like Cash Converters where I bought myself a DS game :) We found a few charity shops on that street and mum found some fabric shops but the only knitting shop she found was closed! We stopped for drinks in a nice cafe there.

We did a bit more wandering about including in some nice quaint streets


Then we found ourselves back at the mall we'd visited the day before. We'd been looking out for some sandwiches for lunch but I didn't fancy any we'd seen, so we had jacket potatoes in a cafe in the mall instead and I tried chicken tikka for the first time. I managed to finish it all :) Mum spotted that someone left their wallet behind so she handed it in. We planned to sit on some grass outside the mall for a bit as I was quite tired but of course as soon as we sat down the sun went in and it became quite chilly and windy, so we moved on.

We found a few more nice shops including a fair trade one and a craft one. On our way back to the Premier Lodge mum bought a newspaper which she put on top of her shoulder bag as her bag was quite full. A bit later mum realised the paper was nowhere to be seen and must have fallen off her bag somewhere back along the route. She didn't go back to try to find it though because we'd come down a hill and she didn't fancy walking back up it. We were both surprised how hilly Norwich was!

We had drinks in the Costa attached to the Premier Inn before picking up our bags and heading to the station. The first part of our journey went quite smoothly (I listened to my iPod again) apart from stopping temporarily part way because there was a fire on the line somewhere. We soon got moving again though and I thought that would be the end of the problems - I was wrong! At the station where we needed to change for our second train we learnt that all trains on our route had been cancelled because of this fire on the line (I think it was caused by a landslide or something like that).

Mum phoned Chris who agreed to come and pick us up from the station if need be, but then it sounded like there might be a train running so mum said she'd let him know what was happening. We got drinks and I got a croissant from Starbucks on the platform and dashed off to find out what was happening. A train was coming so we'd be able to get to our local station :) We got on the train and let Chris know we just needed picking up locally. Then we had our drinks and I got such a shock when I looked at the receipt. They'd charged me £1.70 for a cup of milk as that was the size of their smallest coffee! I couldn't believe it! Usually we'd have checked earlier but we'd been in a bit of a rush. Never mind.

When we got into our local station Chris was 15mins late to pick us up, but we eventually got home. What a journey! :P

Films

In the last few months I have watched lots of films on DVD and on TV:

• 2012 - Not much of a plot but good special effects.
  
• The Box - Stupidly I ignored the bad reviews and watched it anyway. Terrible film and only half the mystery is every revealed to the viewer
• Breaking and Entering - Nothing special, but enjoyable enough
  
• The Golden Compass - Enjoyable enough for me as I'd not read the books, but apparently it's an awful film if you've read the books
  
• Duplicity - So confusing, I couldn't follow it
  
• Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant - Again I quite enjoyed this because I'd not read the book
  
• The Soloist - Very good film, I'm surprised it wasn't promoted more as being based on a true story
  
• My Best Friend's Girl - Average romcom
  
• The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas - Very well made and thought provoking
  
• Bolt - Average - enjoyable enough to watch but nothing special and nothing compared to Pixar films.
  
• Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland - I'd previously seen this at the cinema but enjoyed rewatching it on DVD, a great film
  
• Where the Wild Things are - I didn't enjoy this film, maybe I'm not the target audience
  
• Sweeney Todd - One of my favourite films so I enjoyed rewatching this
  
• St. Trinians 2 - Another great film I enjoyed rewatching
  
• Ponyo - Good Studio Ghibli film, don't feel it quite stood up to the likes of Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle though
  
• The Princess Diaries - Rewatched this as it always makes me smile
  
• The Brave One - Something just didn't quite work in this film, the main character and her motivations weren't at all believable.
  
• Pretty Woman - A great romcom I enjoyed rewatching
  
• Lorenzo's Oil - An unusual and thought provoking drama
  
• Shrek 1, 2 and 3 - I love the Shrek films, don't think I need to say any more. I don't think the 3rd is nearly as bad as people make out
  
• While You Were Sleeping - A great Sandra Bullock romcom that I enjoyed rewatching
  
• As Good as it Gets - I didn't really enjoy this romcom
  
• Toy Story 2 - A fantastic Pixar film that I rewatched in preparation for seeing Toy Story 3
  
• Mickey Blue Eyes - I can't believe this film isn't more well known, I thought it was one of Hugh Grant's best roles and it was hilarious in places
  
• The Net - I enjoy rewatching this film even though it seems to have lots of negative reviews
  
• Mrs Doubtfire - I'd not seen this for many years so I enjoyed rewatching it and it made me smile
  
• Juno - One of my favourite films, I've lost count of how many times I've seen it now. I'd highly recommend it
  
• Dan in Real Life - This didn't leave much of an impression on me but I don't think I minded it at the time
  
• Matilda - Lovely film
  
• Magicians - Great comedy
  
• James and the Giant Peach - The animation was good but the film didn't keep my attention
  
• Hard Candy - Wow, Ellen Page is amazing!
  
• The Ugly Truth - Predictable romcom
  
• The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood - I found this film quite tricky to follow with all the actresses in all the flashbacks and memories. Quite enjoyed it though but it wasn't anything special
  
• Casper - Lots of fun
  
• Liar Liar - Didn't keep my attention
  
• Kiki's Delivery Service - One of my favourite Studio Ghibli films
  
• Whip It! - Enjoyable comedy starring Ellen Page and directed by Drew Barrymore
  
• Flatliners - Much better than I expected and stayed with me afterwards. One of Julia Roberts' early roles
  
• Ghostbusters - I didn't enjoy it at all
  
• Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang - Funny lighthearted film but nothing special
  
• Signs - I didn't think I'd like this but I did. I think Abigail Breslin is great and it was nice to see one of her early films
  
• Groundhog Day - I got a bit bored rewatching this as it seemed to drag on
  
• Charlotte's Web - Nothing special but enjoyable enough
  
• The Nanny Diaries - I liked this comedy/drama
  
• Girl, Interrupted - An amazing film I enjoyed rewatching to share with my mum. I'd highly recommend it
  
• Cruel Intentions - Enjoyable enough but I don't think I'd rewatch it
  
• Keeping Mum - I was very surprised by this dark comedy, I really enjoyed watching it
  
• Big - Didn't keep my attention
  
• ET - Can't believe I'd never seen this before. I loved it
  

I've been to the cinema a few times too. There I have seen:

• Shrek Forever After in 3D - Really enjoyable but I'm not sure the 3D effect was necessary as it only seemed to add to one short section
  
• Toy Story 3 in 3D - Wow! I think this was even better than Toy Story 1 and 2. The 3D effect wasn't too in your face but wasn't too subtle to notice either
  
• The Rebound - Enjoyable enough romcom but nothing special
  
• Knight and Day - Great comedy
  
• Salt - Good action/thriller, kept me interested but the plot was simple enough to follow
  
• Inception - Very well made and I managed to follow the plot without too much effort
  
• The Switch - Funny romcom but nothing special
  
• Tamara Drew - Great comedy/drama
  
• Life As We Know It - Surprisingly good romcom with lots of funny bits although predictable
  
• Eat, Pray, Love - Enjoyable but a bit long
  

More concert tickets

This morning I bought tickets to see Taylor Swift at the O2 Arena in London next March which I'm really excited about :D I saw her last November at Wembley Arena and had a fantastic time (which I wrote about here), so I'm looking forward to seeing her again. I've got good seats too - if you look at this seating chart we're either in the first or second row of block 111 :) I do need to find someone to go with though. Mum isn't too keen and Claire doesn't know Taylor Swift's music. My plan is to introduce Claire to her music and hope she becomes a fan and if that fails hopefully mum will take me. I'm sure something will work out.

That makes 8 upcoming concerts - loads to look forward to but it's not so good for my bank balance! :P For more about my upcoming concerts please have a look at this post that I wrote last week. And I forgot to mention there that we've got good seats for all of them :) My first concert of this spell, Marina and the Diamonds, is only 2 days away now :D I'll blog after each concert to let you know how they go.

GFR and clinic at Hosp A

Today (18th Oct 2010) I spent most of the day at Hosp A. I'd asked for two appts to be on the same day so we could save ourselves a 60 mile round trip. It made it into quite a long day though. I am aware I've used some medical terminology in this post but I hope I've explained everything ok. If there's anything I need to explain but haven't, just let me know in a comment :)

We set off in plenty of time this morn (which meant me getting up at 7.45am, eek!) and left ourselves an hour and a quarter to travel the 30 miles to Hosp A as that usually works out fine. The hosp is in a city and we have to use a few major roads to get there which is why it takes so long to cover 30 miles. Unfortunately there was a traffic accident on our route this morn which delayed us and then the traffic just seemed very heavy at a couple of other places on our route. So I had to ring the department up and let them know we'd be a little bit late. Think I was about 15/20mins late in the end.

When we got to the hosp we nipped into the main toilets in the concourse and weren't impressed to find that only 2 out of 5 cubicles had toilet roll. When I was there last Thur only 3 out of 5 had. When we returned to the toilets about an hour later we couldn't believe that only 1 of the 5 cubicles had toilet roll so we complained at the reception desk. The lady there said she's already phoned up about it but phoned again. When we called back later there were toilet rolls in all the cubicles :)

I then headed to the nuclear medicine department for my kidney function test, known as a GFR. The antirejection medication I take, Tacrolimus, can damage your kidneys so they have to keep a close eye on mine. I had this test once at Hosp B in the 4 years following my transplant but my consultant at Hosp A suggested I had it 3 monthly. I persuaded him to make it 6 monthly, but if my results from today's test come back fine I'm going to ask him if I can have it annually. The test consisted of an injection of radioactive material into one hand and then blood taken from the other hand (via a cannula) 2, 3 and 4 hours later. So lots of waiting around.

I was a bit nervous about the injection and the cannula because sometimes phlebotomists struggle with my veins. The doctor I had for the injection didn't seem very friendly but she listened to me when I told her which my best veins were and said she'd be fine using veins in my hands (as the ones in my elbows are rubbish, but sometimes phlebs won't accept my word from that and want to try them). So she inserted a butterfly needle into my right hand, flushed it and then gave me the radioactive injection. As she gave me the injection I felt the cold liquid and then felt a bit hot and slightly faint. I didn't think anything of it as I sometimes feel a little bit faint after blood tests, but I took my fleece off and told her how I felt.

Then things got a lot worse and I felt really really ill. I've felt a bit faint after blood tests before, but not like what happened today. I felt like I was boiling up, my heart was pounding, I felt really faint, my hearing went funny (everything went echoey), everything seemed really distant and it was really scary, I was terrified. I'm not entirely sure what happened next but I think I was helped onto a bed and was wheeled to a different part of the department. Mum said it was all over quickly but it felt like a while to me.

I gradually started to feel a bit better and could sit up. Most of the radioactive team were away on a training morning so there weren't many people around, just the doctor who'd given me the injection and two nurses. We spoke to them a bit and apparently there isn't anything in the injection that people can react to and no-one had ever had any problems with it before. They seemed to think that I'd just felt funny after having an injection, but I know it was more than that.

Mum thinks my body has problems with adrenaline because often I seem to get extreme reactions to relatively harmless things. Apparently the radioactive material is seen as a waste product by your body so I think mine reacted to that for some reason. Although I'd had the test at Hosp B once before I don't know if they used the same radioactive material. I felt back to normal within about 20/30mins I think, but I don't really know what length of time it was. I felt light headed and my hearing went funny on a couple of occasions over the next few hours but it wasn't too bad. I don't understand my body! :P

The waiting around between blood tests wasn't as bad as I expected. There is free wireless Internet in the concourse, so I surfed the Internet on my iPhone and listened to some new music I'd downloaded last night. I decided not to have a cannula inserted just after the injection but to have it when I returned for my first blood test after 2 hours. We hadn't been told we had to return to a different reception so were waiting in the wrong place for a little while! I told the doctor which was my best vein on my left hand and she said it wouldn't take a cannula. But it did! :) I thought their way of protecting the cannula was funny, they didn't bandage it like Hosp B used to do, they just put a tubigrip over my hand :P That was much more comfortable once a nurse suggested cutting a thumb hole in it :) The cannula was fine for my first and second blood tests and just lasted for the third one, phew!

As a result of being late for my GFR and then having some of my blood tests a little late we were a bit late to my transplant clinic which had been scheduled after that. But I'd already text S, the transplant co-ordinator, to let her know, so that was fine. Mum attended the clinic appt with me and also in the room were my consultant, Dr W, the transplant co-ordinator, S, and my dietician, C. While we were waiting for Dr W to arrive we chatted to S and C. I'm still not sure about S but I really like C :)

Dr W took my dizziness seriously which I was really pleased with. He took my sitting and standing blood pressure which were both exactly the same and within the normal range so that suggests it's not related to my blood pressure. He thought that lying down when I get dizzy might still help though. He said when I get dizzy he wants me to do a couple of things to get some more information about it. He wants me to monitor my pulse and see if it speeds up or is irregular at all. And he wants someone else to look at my eyes and see if they flicker at all. He's also going to contact my GP about me getting a 24 hour tape (where your heart rhythm is monitored for 24 hours at home) done at my local hospital.

Dr W thought my headaches might be tension headaches as they tend to occur in the evenings and are in my forehead. Apparently there's not really anything that can be done though. Amitriptyline sometimes helps but I'm on that already. So he said just to see how they go and be aware that they might be caused by tension, but apparently there's nothing I do to fix that so I'm not sure why being aware of it will be helpful! S thought some gel pads that you can buy from the supermarket for migraines might help. And Dr W suggested it might be a good idea for me to try drinking more, or at least to spread my drinks out more evenly throughout the day, rather than drinking most of them at night, in case the headaches are caused by dehydration.

I told Dr W how my gynaecology stuff is going and asked him what he thought about me trying the combined pill. I'm currently on a progesterone only pill (POP) as I'd been told because I had liver problems in the past I couldn't have a pill containing oestrogen. But my new liver is healthy and has never had any problems. And I'm having trouble with my periods at the moment, which the POP doesn't control but a combined pill would. He couldn't see any problems with me having a combined pill so suggested I talk to my gynaecologist about that when I see her next (on Dec 23rd). So I'm hoping she'll say yes and that'll sort my periods out, fingers crossed.

I mentioned that my abdominal pains are better at the moment, but I'm not sure if that's due to doubling the dose of my amitriptyline, starting some fibre supplements or varying my diet more. Or maybe a mixture of those things. Dr W was pleased with that but wasn't surprised that I'm still getting some pains because my body is still getting used to what's normal for me.

Everyone was very pleased that my weight is so stable, that I'm finding eating easier at the moment and that I'm being a bit more adventurous with trying new foods.

I told my consultant how I'd corrected my sleep pattern for about 6 weeks but hadn't found that my productive time (11pm onwards) came at any other time of the day, I'd just lost it completely. Then when it slipped I couldn't motivate myself to correct it again. He suggested I tried to correct it again but more gradually this time. I've not decided if I'm going to do that yet - it's so hard fighting my body.

Dr W couldn't offer any help for my frequent coldsores so I guess I'll just have to put up with them. He didn't have any ideas about my eye ache and was as puzzled as everyone else has been about the rash I get under my eyes from the sun, but thought sunglasses might be a good idea, so I'll look into them again next summer.

After I told Dr W about my reaction to the GFR he was very puzzled as he didn't think there was anything in it that I could react to either. I told him I was worried about my next one following my experience today so he said before that he'll arrange for me to have an injection of a small quantity of the radioactive material to see if I react to that.

I asked about the results of the DEXA scan I had about a month ago and I'm glad I did because I don't think Dr W would have told me otherwise. Apparently my bone density was -1.9 which is right at the bottom of the normal range. I asked if that could be due to my steroids but he thought it was more likely to be due to things in my body being a bit delayed due to me being so ill. He said they'd keep a close eye on it but wants to start me on a calcium supplement as a precaution. He gave me a prescription for that to take to the pharmacy there but when we tried that they said we'd have to wait 40mins! That would have meant we'd have had to drive home in the rush hour so we decided against that. We were supposed to go back and ask for a different prescription to take to my GP but I've just emailed my GP the details from that prescription and I'm sure he'll prescribe it for me.

Finally I mentioned to Dr W that I'd volunteered him to talk at the PINNT weekend next year that I'm going to speak at. He didn't seem to mind :)

It was nice to head home after a long day, I think we'd spent about 6 hours at the hosp. I've got a 2 and a half week break before my next hosp appt. I'll next be seeing Dr W when I have my annual scope at Hosp A sometime in Dec and I think I'll see him properly in clinic in Jan or Feb.

I'm just having a quiet evening. Alf had some friends round briefly earlier and mum was chatting to one about knitting because she'd started her off knitting last time she came round! Mum also got chatting to two fellow knitters at the hosp today, she must attract them in some way! :P

I've got a few nice plans for the next few days. Tomorrow aft a friend with ME is coming round and on Wed eve I'm going to the cinema with Claire to see Eat, Pray, Love. Then on Sat I've got my first concert of this spell of them - Marina and the Diamonds! I'm so excited :D And next Mon is my second concert - Eliza Doolittle :)

Upcoming concerts

There are still some things I want to update about from the last few months but I wanted an easy post tonight because I've had a busy day, so I thought I'd tell you about my exciting plans for the next few months. As you'll probably know from reading my past blog posts, I love going to concerts. Lots of artists I like seem to be touring this autumn/winter, so I've bought tickets to a lot of concerts over the next couple of months :)

The first artist I'm seeing live is Marina and the Diamonds. Her concert is a week on Sat :) I'm going to that concert with my mum and we'll be driving there. Marina and the Diamonds sounds like a group, but it's actually just a solo singer, Marina. The Diamonds she refers to in her name are her fans, not her band. She is my second favourite artist after Mika and her debut album, The Family Jewels, is my favourite album of the year. She's half Greek and half Welsh and has an amazing voice. The lyrics to her songs (which she always writes herself) are really clever and I like the way she doesn't always sing about love, like a lot of artists seem to do. Marina came second in the BBC's Sound of 2010 poll but unfortunately she hasn't received the recognition I believe she deserves, so you don't very often hear her songs on the radio or in the charts. You can listen to some of her songs on Youtube - Mowgli's Road, Hollywood, I Am Not A Robot, Oh No! and Shampain are the ones that she's released as singles, so they have music videos too. And you can visit her official website here. I've just heard that Marina will be on Radio 1's Live Lounge on Saturday afternoon somewhere between 1pm and 4pm, so I'll definitely be listening to that. You can listen live on the Radio 1 website here and the audio should be up here afterwards. Or you can listen to a performance and interview she did in April here.

The second artist I'm seeing live is Eliza Doolittle. I'm seeing her just 2 days after I'm seeing Marina and me and Claire will be going to that concert on the train. It's a standing only concert but I should be able to arrange to be seated on the night. Eliza Doolittle is a relative newcomer to the music scene but I love her cheerful music. You can listen to and see the music videos for Skinny Genes, Pack Up and Rollerblades on Youtube. Her debut album is Eliza Doolittle and you can visit her official website here. And she'll be on Radio 1's Live Lounge tomorrow (Fri) somewhere between 10am and 12.45pm. You can listen live on the Radio 1 website here and the audio should be up here afterwards.

In November I've got 3 concerts lined up. The first of those is Paloma Faith. I'll be going to that concert with mum on the train. Mum was a fan of her before I was and I agreed to accompany her to the concert because Eliza Doolittle was the support act and this was before Eliza Doolittle announced her own headline tour. Since then however I have listened to Paloma Faith's debut album, Do You Want The Truth Or Something Beautiful?, a lot and I think I really like it, but I'm not quite sure, hehe. Sometimes when I listen to the album I love it, whereas other times her voice really grates on me. She's such a funny character too, I'd suggest watching an interview with her if you spot one. I hope I enjoy her music on the night, I'm sure she'll put on a spectacular performance. Stone Cold Sober was her first single but New York is probably her best known. Upside Down and Stargazer (which there isn't a video for because it's not been released as a single) are my favourite songs from her album. She was on Radio 1's Live Lounge twice back in 2009, which you can listen to here and here.

Later that week I'm seeing Diana Vickers with my mum and we'll be going on the train to that concert. Again it's standing only but I've emailed the venue and they've arranged for me and mum to sit in the accessibility area. I loved her on the X Factor in 2008 and really enjoyed seeing her on stage in the play Little Voice in the West End last year. In that play she did a brilliant job of mimicking lots of famous female singers. Diana's debut album is called Songs from the Tainted Cherry Tree. She's just released 2 songs from that album - Once and The Boy Who Murdered Love (which I love the video for). Her next single is called My Wicked Heart and she'll soon be re-releasing her song to include that track as well as some more extra tracks. You can hear her Live Lounge session from earlier in the year here.

Later in November me, mum and Claire are seeing Ellie Goulding in concert. We discovered her when she was one of the support acts for Little Boots, who we saw in concert about a year ago. At that point no-one had heard of Ellie Goulding but since then she's come first in the BBC's Sound of 2010 poll and won the Critics' Choice Award at the Brit Awards. Her debut album is called Lights and now we are familiar with her music we're looking forward to seeing her live again. She's released 4 singles so far - Under The Sheets, Starry Eyed, Guns and Horses and The Writer. Her next single will be Lights, which there isn't a video for yet and is only currently available on the iTunes edition of her album. You can hear her Live Lounge session from earlier in the year here.

Then in December me and mum will be seeing Pixie Lott in concert. We'll be going to that on the train. Pixie Lott is just 19 but has had huge amounts of success over the last year or so. Her debut album is called Turn It Up but in a few days she'll be re-releasing it as Turn It Up Louder with lots of extra tracks. Mama Do was her debut single, but since then she has released more singles from her album including Cry Me Out and Turn It Up. I think my favourite song from the album might be Here We Go Again or Band Aid, neither of which have been released as singles. Her new single, Broken Arrow, is out this week. She was on Radio 1's Live Lounge recently which you can listen to here.

And the final concert I've got booked is Alexandra Burke in February. I couldn't stand her when she was on the X Factor in 2008 and didn't like her cover of Hallelujah, but I like the singles she's released since then and enjoy listening to her album, Overcome. She's released Bad Boys, Broken Heels and All Night Long from the album. I also like The Silence (which you can see her performing live if you click on the link) but that hasn't been released as a single. And her latest single is Start Without You.

Post Pals

I'm not feeling very well at the moment so again I've not managed to write a proper update post. I'm struggling with dizziness again, but I'm seeing my consultant at Hosp A on Mon so I'll tell him about it then and hopefully he'll have some ideas.

I wanted to post something tonight though so I thought I'd let you all know about a fantastic charity called Post Pals. The website was set up to provide seriously ill children with post to cheer them up. It's such a simple but effective idea. Viks, who set up and runs Post Pals, has severe ME but doesn't let that stop her bringing smiles to children's faces. I've always said what a good idea Post Pals is but I've never actually sent post to any of the children as I've not really known what to write about. But I've decided that I'm just going to go for it so I'm currently choosing which pal to write to first.

Please take the time to send some post to one of the children featured on the website. I remember how receiving post made my day when I was very ill or in hospital. Writing to a pal will only cost you the price of one stamp and it'll make such a difference to a seriously ill child. You can write to one of the pals who is having a difficult time at the moment from this list or you could just pick a pal from the main list here. You can read the 5 easy steps to brighten a sick child's day on the homepage here and you can find answers to FAQs including advice on what to write here. Thank you.

New Trollbead

I want to try to continue updating my blog daily until I've got on top of it again, but I don't feel up to writing a post tonight. So instead I'll just leave you with a photo of my Trollbead bracelet featuring my new Silver Sparrow bead (which I bought online on Fri and arrived in the post this morn). I'm very happy with it :)

Other health stuff

Yesterday I received an appt to see my gynaecologist through the post for a Tue in Dec. Unfortunately it's a date my mum is going to give a knitting talk at another library so to attend that appt I'd either have to get a lift there and back from dad when he went to work, so spend all day at the hosp/in the city, or come home on the buses which isn't simple. Due to having no idea how I'll feel on that day I decided to try to rearrange it to a time when mum will be able to take me. I was worried I'd have to wait a lot longer because my gynaecologist is often very busy, but I've got an appt for less than a fortnight later on a date my mum isn't working. It is the day before Christmas Eve though.

At my last clinic appt I mentioned to my consultant that I had an uncomfortable bulge in the side of my abdomen when I lay down. It's not a hernia but it is a weakening of the muscles in my abdomen as a result of all my operations. I can't do anything about it though. Luckily it's not causing me any problems at the moment but sometimes it's quite uncomfortable.

I was struggling with dizzy spells when I wrote my last update. They got a lot better but I've had a few spells of them since then. I thought things had settled down til yesterday when they returned again.

Since I've put on the last couple of kilograms of weight I've developed stretch marks on my legs. When I mentioned this to my consultant he said that I'm more prone to them because I'm on steroids.

I've been having lots of coldsores recently. I wondered if they were being triggered by the sun but they don't seem to be because they come up even when I've not been out in the sun. I hate them, grrr.

I've had my ears pierced since I was about 10 and have always been very lucky in that I've been able to wear any earrings. But recently I seem to have developed an allergy to cheap earrings. It's nothing major in the grand scheme of things but it is frustrating because I have lots of earrings that aren't gold or silver.

I found that my skin was very itchy last month ago and I couldn't work out why. It turned out that mum had changed the soap and I must have reacted to it. So swapping back to our normal soap solved the problem :)

In May I received the dreaded DLA renewal forms in the post, eek! They were last filled out quite soon after my transplant so quite a lot had changed since then - I'd recovered from the transplant but had developed ME. Dad used to fill my DLA forms in for me, but this time I did it myself, with some assistance from dad. I did it online in June and didn't find it too stressful. I heard the result in July - my care rate had dropped from higher rate to lower rate. I think that was a fair outcome, but that now means I'm adjusting to quite a drop in income. And I was very relieved I didn't have to have a medical assessment.

We were able to have our loft properly insulated last month for free because I receive DLA, so that should enable us to save some money on our heating.

I've recently set myself up a second bank account which will be better for saving money as it's got a higher interest rate than my original account.

I also renewed my CEA card earlier in the year.

I think I'd stopped volunteering at Barnardo's last time I updated, but I can't remember. Anyway I quit that because none of the other volunteers spoke to me so I found it very lonely work. I intended to find another volunteering job (like my Pathways to Work advisor encouraged me to) but haven't done that yet. Although I do do some voluntary work for AYME - I write (although not as regularly as I should) to a girl who is severely affected by ME, I provide feedback on each issue of AYME's bi-monthly magazine and I am the local contact for my county (so I put young people within my county in touch with each other and hope to organise a local meet-up soon). I did apply for a postion as a moderator on the AYME forums in the summer, but I didn't get the job. I suspect it may have been because I've not been on the forums very long - it's just over a year now but it was less than a year when I applied for this position a few months ago. My Pathway to Work advisor was made redundant so I won't be seeing her any more.

As I just mentioned, I've been a member of AYME for just over a year now. They are a fantastic charity which provides lots of support for young people aged under 26 who suffer from ME. I've found their forums invaluable as through them I've met lots of people who understand what I'm going through and I've made some great friends :)

My focus and concentration (which are affected by my ME) haven't changed significantly but I did manage to read some short stories and even a whole novel in the summer :D I'm still struggling to read though and I've not read any novels since that one as it just takes too much effort to make it enjoyable. Although having said that, a novel by an author I like came into the library recently so I think I'll give that a try. I can still manage to watch films and TV when I'm not too exhausted, but I think I'll talk about that more in another update.

I've recently made a new friend with ME. I've got lots of online friends, but Rebecca lives in the same village as me. She met mum through using the library a lot and then mum introduced her to me. We've only met up a couple of times so far but we got on really well (despite her being quite a bit older than me) and I'm looking forward to seeing her more :)

In July it was my 2 year ME anniversary. And back in May it was my 3 and a half year transplant anniversary, next month it'll be 4 years. I've not been in touch with my donor's sisters for a while so I need to get back in touch with them soon.

I recently heard from the chair of a fantastic charity called PINNT which supports people on enteral and IV feeding. I used to be quite involved with this support group when I was younger but obviously since my transplant I've become a bit more distant from them because I'm no longer on TPN. I did go to the meet-up in my county earlier in the year though. I know C, the chair, very well, so it was lovely to get an email from her. She asked about how I was and then asked if I'd like to give a presentation about being on TPN and then the decision to have a transplant and the PINNT weekend next year. So of course I said yes :) Mum or dad will talk too and maybe my consultant from Hosp A. I've got a further email since then with a few more details. C has asked me to talk for about 20mins which is a very long time, but hopefully if I can include a question and answer session then that should be fine. C thinks it'll be a very thought provoking session and I'm hoping that as well as getting people thinking (and hopefully signing up to the organ donor register), it will also reassure people who may need a small bowel transplant in the future.

On May 19th I gave a talk about organ donation to a group of teenagers. I was very nervous beforehand because although I'd spoken to hundreds of adults before I'd never given a talk to teenagers. However it went really well and I got them all talking about organ donation and a couple even filled out the forms there and then. One girl misunderstood what I was asking of her and thought that I wanted her to donate her organs while she was still alive. Despite that she still filled out the form.

Please don't forget to spread the word about organ donation by sharing the video I posted here to help to prevent unnecessary deaths like Kennedy's.

Appts, physio and eyes

I had a routine bone density scan at Hosp A on Sept 13th. I haven't heard the results of that yet but I'm not expecting there to be any problems with them. I just have to have these scans regularly because I take steroids which can thin your bones.

My next post transplant clinic appt at Hosp A is on Oct 18th. That day I'll also be having a kidney function test to check my kidneys as sometimes the immunosuppressants can harm them. And then I'll be having my annual scope there in Dec. My consultant at Hosp A has also arranged for me to see a psychiatrist who is linked to the small bowel transplant team, so my first appt with them will be 15th Nov. It was originally an earlier date but they gave me a 9am appt so I changed that because it takes me an hour and a quarter to get there. That's not quite what I asked for as I actually wanted to see a psychologist for some CBT for my ME. But I'll see the psychiatrist next month and see if they might be able to refer me on to someone better suited to me.

I had my annual flu jab yesterday morn. Dad and Alf have both had bad colds this week but lucklily they cleared up. Alf had his flu jab with me but mum and dad will have to have theirs later this week because both of them went out for the day. I've managed to stay free of the cold despite them both being full of it. Think my immune system must be quite hardy despite me being immunosuppressed - I've not had a cold for 20 months!

Back in June my dad had shingles. He wasn't in pain with it though. I contacted Hosp B to ask their advice and I had to take a 3 week course of antivirals as a precaution to stop me catching shingles. That went fine and I didn't get it.

Mum has had a few health problems recently. When she went to give blood on the 5th July she was turned away because she was anaemic. This doesn't seem to have affected her but she was disappointed that she couldn't give blood. In July mum had problems with the vision in one of her eyes and was diagnosed with Posterior Vitreous Detachment. This has left her with lots of black floaters in her vision in that eye, but luckily she hasn't had any of the complications that some people get. Then last month mum suffered with severe migraines, but luckily she hasn't had any for a few weeks now. And she has also hurt her back.

I started doing my physio exercises regularly just after my last update but when I returned to my physio she wasn't very happy because I'd only been doing them for a fortnight rather than a month. So I told to continue with them and was given an appt to see her again a couple of months later. I had a few lapses from doing my physio exercises daily but did manage to do them regularly most of the time and built up the duration of time I was doing them for. When I returned to see my physio she was very pleased I'd been doing them and that I'd noticed a bit of an improvement in my ME which may or may not have been related. She was moving on to another job so discharged me but said I could return to the physio department there at Hosp H within 6 months if I needed to. She just said to continue with my exercises.

I've recently struggled to motivate myself to do my physio exercises. I thought I'd try using my Wii Fit Plus for the Wii instead but haven't been doing that either so am not doing daily exercises at the moment. I know I ought to be though :P

When I originally saw my physio, as well as her giving me the exercises to do each evening for my general fitness she also gave me some calf stretches to do as she thought that stretching my calf muscles would make them less tight and as a result should ease the pain I was getting in my heels (plantar fasciitis). I think the stretches worked a little bit, but didn't make the difference I'd been hoping for as I still find that when I go out for the day I'll have to stop walking before I get tired because my feet are so painful. When I returned to see my physio she gave me some slightly different stretches to do but they didn't seem to help. I also asked my GP about my heel pain and although he confirmed that is is plantar fasciitis, he said that nothing can be done about it.

I saw my GP about the rash I was getting under my eyes (and sometimes on the backs of my hands) after I went out in the sun wearing suncream. He said because it was always in the same place it must be caused by the sun, but he was puzzled as to how the sun was getting through to my skin as I was wearing factor 50 suncream. He gave me some cream to put on the rash when it came up to settle it down more quickly and said he'd see if there was a different factor 50 suncream I could get on prescription. I used the new cream once so far and was amazed at how quickly my rash went away. I've got a new suncream now but I used it this morn and still came out in a rash. Mum suspects the rash might be due to the sun's rays being magnified through my glasses lenses so I think I'm going to try her big sunglasses (that fit over her glasses so ought to fit over mine) and see if that helps next time it's sunny.

I'm happy the hot weather is over because that made me feel very lethargic, but now the weather is a bit chillier I'm often uncomfortably cold as I can't control my body temperature very well. I've got an electric blanket and a convection heater though :)

Recently I've had a few periods of a couple of days where I've struggled with eye ache. I spoke to my GP about this who said that he couldn't see any problems with my eyes, so I ought to get my eyes tested to make sure my prescription hadn't changed. I usually have my eyes tested annually and last had them checked in Feb, but I booked myself an eyetest for 29th Sept. In the run up to the eye test I started to suffer from more frequent headaches so was pleased I was getting my eyes checked out.

The eye test went well and I was reassured that my eyes were fine and my prescription hadn't changed. They did adjust my glasses to make them sit further up my nose, but now they've slipped back down again :P The optician confirmed my thoughts as she said that she thought my eye ache might be due to ME or it might just be one of those things. At least it's nothing to worry about. I've not had any problems with it over the last few weeks.

I'm still struggling with headaches and it seems like they might be related to eye strain as they usually come on in the evenings, but I'm not sure. I think I need to try drinking more in case it is related to dehydration. I've also been continuing to feel quite ill with the artificial lighting in some shops.

I did look into getting some sunglasses as I thought that they might be a worthwhile investment now my prescription has finally stopped changing and I thought they might help in artificial lights and possibly with the rash I get under my eyes too. But because of my complicated prescription I was quoted between £170 and £200 for a pair of prescription sunglasses. So I decided against it for this summer and thought I'd think about it again next year.

A special day in the city

Yesterday afternoon me and mum headed into our local city. We usually use Park & Ride but this day we parked in the city centre. Mum was quite nervous about that but I gave her directions from a map and we made it uneventfully. First we found a little cafe where we sat outside with drinks. When I'd finished mine I left mum there while I popped down the street to a jewellers.

Just under a week ago my friend Michelle had mentioned that she'd bought some new beads for her Trollbead bracelet and I was intrigued, so Googled Trollbeads to find out more. And I fell in love with the bracelets and beads. After talking to more people about them I decided to get myself one and looked into all the locks (clasps) and beads on the Internet.

I found that my nearest Trollbead retailer was in the city, so yesterday afternoon I popped in to buy myself a bracelet. I've never been in a posh jewellery shop before so really enjoyed that experience. I was sat down at a little table and served one-to-one by a jeweller who showed me all the Trollbead locks, glass beads and metal beads and didn't rush me at all. I finally made my decision and here are 2 photos of the bracelet I chose:


The bracelet contains the 17cm silver bracelet, the purple flower, the white flower, 2 silver stoppers and the swan lock.

I was happy with my decision and so went to pay with my debit card, but the machine kept rejecting my PIN, eek! So I nipped back to the cafe and borrowed my mum's debit card to make my purchase. Later we went to my bank where we sorted the problem and I repaid mum the money she'd lent me. That meant however that I had to let her know how expensive the bracelet had been! Mum hadn't been very happy with me when I said I was going to buy it because she thinks I spend too much money on things I don't need and she refused to accompany me to the jewellers. But afterwards when she saw how happy it made me, she accepted it a bit better.

When I'd finished in the jewellers and went to meet mum back at the cafe where I'd left her, I found that she in conversation with a man I'd never seen before. Apparently he'd sat down next to mum at the cafe and she'd picked cards so he could tell her all about her personality. My mum isn't usually one for fortune telling and that kind of thing, so that was quite surreal!

We spent a couple more hours wandering round the city, browsing in shops and having drinks in cafes :) Then just before half past six we headed to the venue, a students' union, for our plans for the eve. We ordered drinks in the bar and then headed through to the debating lobby where we got good seats because we were some of the first to arrive. We sat there and ate our sandwiches while the big debating lobby filled up.

Our seats were next to some seats with reserved signs on them but our seats hadn't had signs on, so we weren't very happy when we were told we had to move because the seats we were sitting in should have been marked as reserved! So me and mum refused to just accept this because by this point the lobby was quite full and we would have had to sit right at the back. We asked for chairs to be put at the end of this row of seating for us but luckily someone then said that they didn't need all the reserved seats so we could sit back down. Phew! The lobby then got completely full and so the balcony above started to fill up. There must have been around 500 people in the room.

Then just after 7.30pm Jo Brand walked in! As she entered the room everyone started clapping and she looked round and looked straight at my mum. Then she took a seat in the centre (we had a really good view) and someone from the union sat down next to her and started interviewing her. She was really down to earth and very funny :)

After the interview finished, the man asked for questions from the audience and she answered about 5. Then he said there was time for just one more and I had my hand up as did another man who'd had his hand up longer than me (I was a bit shy about putting mine up). But I was picked and so could ask her a question :D I asked if she'd filmed the second series of Getting On yet and when it would be televised. She told us a bit about the filming of the series, how it'd been filmed in a hospital with no heating and no toilets and how the rest of the crew had been wrapped up warm while her and the rest of the cast had been in nurses' uniforms, and then said it'd air at the end of the month.

Then Jo Brand left the lobby to get ready for the book signing and me and mum dashed out as quickly as we could and made our way to the cafe/lounge where we knew the book signing was taking place. I'd already bought a copy of Can't Stand Up For Sitting Down when we'd got our drinks earlier in the eve. Me and mum were first in the queue for the book signing because we'd moved so quickly! As we waited for Jo Brand the queue grew longer and longer behind us. Then she came in with her team and took a seat at the table. Me and mum chatted a nice woman who was somehow involved with Jo Brand while she got herself together and signed a book for the man who'd interviewed her earlier. Then it was my turn! As I went up and said hello to Jo Brand, mum asked us to pose for a photo. Here is the result:


I asked her to sign the book 'To Molly' and then improvise something, so she did. Here is my autograph! :P


Most people who don't know me assume I'm about 15 or 16 because I look young for my age, but from that comment I guess Jo must have thought I was older, which makes me very happy :) I didn't have long to talk to her but I said that we'd really enjoyed hearing her talk and were looking forward to seeing the second series of Getting On as we'd loved the first.

Me and mum then headed home, both very happy after a lovely day. And while we were driving home we saw a fox run across the road ahead of us :)

Also that eve I ordered myself a silver Sparrow Trollbead over the Internet. I'd already decided I wanted this particular bead before I bought my bracelet but it wasn't in stock in the shop so I bought it online instead. I'll post up a photo of my bracelet with that addition when it arrives :)