Long overdue update - part 2

Here is the second part of the the 'going out' section of my big blog update. You can read the first part here. Parts 3 and 4 will be coming soon (probably tomorrow eve and the following eve). For some reason when I copied and pasted this over from a draft blog, a few of the spaces between my words disappeared. I've put back in all the ones I spotted, but I apologise if I've missed any.

On Wed I received a letter from Hosp B with my last Tac result, a recommendation of what to do with my Tac dose and details of when my bloods next needed doing. My Tac level was quite high (my normal range is 5 to 8 and it was 13) but they didn't want me to change my dose and it said that my bloods needed repeating that week - thanks for the advance warning! :P So I rang the liver nurses to query it. I wasn't surprised that my Tac level was high because it had been slowly creeping up since they doubled my dose a little while ago in response to my Tac level being low, but I was surprised that they didn't want me to alter my dose. They said that they didn't want to change my Tac dose after just one high reading, so wanted my Tac bloods repeating. And for some reason they also wanted everything else repeating too (just a fortnight after I'd had bloods done). I also chased up theTac kits I'd asked them to send out a fortnight before and apparently they had definitely been sent, so I assume they'd been lost in the post (Royal Mail are not in my good books after losing 2 or possibly 3 items of my post in the last 4-6 weeks!). They sent some more out that day though and we received them the next day.

So on the morn of Thur 11th me and mum took my Tac blood at home via a fingerprick and posted the blood sample off to Hosp B. On the way to the post office I bumped into a man called Mr R who lives on our street. His wife is on TPN, like I used to be before my transplant. It was very odd when I was on TPN too and the delivery company used to have to make 2 deliveries in our street. Mr and Mrs R are very nice, but Mr R asked me all about how I was, whether I was at uni, what I'm doing at the moment... And I didn't really feel like explaining everything.

Then me and mum went to visit Nan, but a doctor from the local surgery arrived to see her at the same time as us so we decided to go and do some other things and go back to see my Nan later. So we headed to Hosp H for my bloods. The new phlebotomist was there on her own again and failed twice at getting any blood for me. The first time I didn't bleed and the second time she told me that my vein had moved out of the way at the last minute (which I think is phleb talk for she missed!). So she rang the more experienced phleb who came and got my blood first time from the hand with the worst veins. Think I might put in a special request for her next time :) And while all these attempts were happening mum was showing the phlebs her knitting (which she had in her bag to show my Nan)! The next day I received all my blood results in an email from my GP. Sometimes he sends me them in an email, sometimes he doesn't. I was relieved to see that my liver function tests were all within the normal range. Some of the results in my full blood count were slightly below normal though. I'm sure they're nothing to worry about because Hosp B haven't been in touch about them, but I suspect that they might want my bloods repeating in another fortnight.

Then we went into town where mum picked up her new glasses from the opticians. I browsed shops but didn't buy anything. Then we went into Sainsburys where I saw a Wii game I'd bought online a few days before for £13 on sale for £10, grrr! And in Sainsburys we got some shopping for Nan too. Then we returned to Nan's. For some reason she thinks that I don't like milk straight out of the fridge so had got some out to warm up for me. So I drank lukewarm milk, yuk! We chatted a lot and mum showed Nan all her knitting. We also gave her some battery operated push lamps that dad had bought for her because she'd had a power cut a few days before and wanted some lights in case there was another one. By this point I was quite tired after a busy day so we headed home.

On Fri 12th Claire came round for tea in the evening. We had great fun playing on New Super Mario Bros Wii together and made a lot of progress. And when Claire went to my mum's knitting group I played on it a bit more on my own and got even further :) I think I might have played on my Wii for a bit too long that day as I took a while to get to sleep because I was all buzzy from it :P

On Sat 13th me and mum decided to go out to a nearby town on the train, which was a 30min train journey away. It's not one of our nearest towns, but we wanted to go somewhere different and I'd never been to this town before. When we were on the train mum realised that she'd forgotten the map we'd printed off the Internet of the town centre, a list of the shops we'd found on the Internet that we wanted to look in and some cheques she needed to cash! Hehe :P This town was bigger than our local towns but was very run down and quite depressing. It was interesting to explore somewhere new though. We bought some new cups in a bargain shop (because dad isn't very careful with ours and keeps breaking them when he knocks them around so we were running short) and I bought 2 new DS games (Picross DS and Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney) from the preowned section in GAME for very reasonable prices. We also stopped in a cafe for drinks. While we were out I wore the supports I bought to help my feet for the first time. They had arch supports and heel cushions to help the pain I get in my heels from plantar fasciitis. They didn't seem to help though as my heels still got very sore from walking so much.

On the journey home we met a family who I think will stay with me for a long time. We happened to sit across from them on the train. There was a mum with her 3 children - a girl of 2 or 3, a boy of 5 and a girl of 5 or 6. The youngest child kept screaming, crying and running down the train away from her mum. The mum could only look after one child at a time, not all 3. So the 2 older children took an interest in me and my mum and her knitting. I was tired after a long day so put my iPod in. Mum is great with children though, so chatted to them as she knitted. They didn't sit in their seats and talk to mum though, they came onto the seats opposite us and even climbed under the table at points meaning my leg room suddenly disappeared. Their mum had no idea what they were up to because she was trying to keep an eye on the youngest one. I heard bits of mum's conversation with them and she filled me in on more later. They were going to stay with a friend and they told mum that they were never ever going home again. Obviously we don't know the circumstances but we thought that maybe they were running away from the mum's violent partner or something like that. We felt very sorry for them. They got off at the same stop as us, so we helped them off the train. The mum had a big buggy for the youngest and loads of bags - one even still had the tag on like they'd just bought it. The older girl had a suitcase on wheels and the boy had a gigantic backpack on his back that was about the size of him. And the mum had 2 big bags with the buggy. They had to get up the steps to get off the platform with all that, so we gave them a hand. I also stopped the youngest girl running down the wrong steps onto another platform and mum stopped the boy dangling over the edge of the bridge over the railway line! The mum really struggled to get the buggy down the steps, so mum told a member of staff who replied that she couldn't help because then if anything was to happen she'd be liable! What nonsense. They eventually got down and we pointed the mum to the nearest phone box because she had no phone. I've kept thinking about them though.

Yesterday morning we went out to the local carboot sale as it was the first one after they stopped for winter. It was quite small and the weather was very cold (I was cold even with 6 layers of clothing on!), but we enjoyed looking round. I was good with my money and only bought 1 DVD - The Lake House - for £2. After lunch Claire came round and we had a lovely aft and eve together and made more progress on New Super Mario Bros Wii :) Dad had decided to cook a Valentine's Day meal for mum. The previous night he'd asked mum what her best Valentine's Day Meal would be and she said cheese on toast. So she got cheese on toast for tea. The rest of us had duck as last night when dad had asked me what I'd like, that was what I'd said. I didn't expect it quite that overdone and burnt though! :P

Claire went on a first date a couple of weekends ago and my dad, being who he is, is already planning her wedding and his role as main bridesmaid! Hehe :P He actually started before she even had the first date! On the weekend of Claire's first date, Dad sent her an email with a photo of his ideal wedding dress that he'd found on the Internet. So this is providing us all with much amusement. Anway, at the carboot sale yesterday morning mum found a book called How To Be A Bridesmaid, so of course she couldn't resist it. Me, mum and Claire were in fits of giggles looking at it together and then they gave it to dad. Haha, it was hilarious :P

Today I've not been out of the house, but my mum's friend G came round again this morning for a little while.

Tomorrow I am going to go to the cinema with mum to see Valentine's Day. Jonathan Ross didn't give it a very good review on Film 2010, but me and mum want to give it a try anyway. And even if it's not a great film we'll enjoy spotting all the famous actors in it. Last week the opticians rang up and and asked if I would mind changing my eye test from last Thur because I was my optician's only appt that day, so if I rescheduled then she could have the day off. I said that would be fine, so my eye test is coming up on Thur of this week. And on Fri Claire is coming round again. Next Sun we are going out for a meal with the extended family to celebrate my uncle and his wife's wedding anniversary (but I'm not sure how many years). I'm quite nervous about it. I'm not comfortable eating in public (due to lack of cutlery skills, not being very confident with new foods and wearing braces) and although some of my extended family is lovely, some of them are odd. Hopefully it will go ok. My initial reaction on hearing about it was that I wasn't going to go, but I've been talked into it by mum and dad. My Nan will be there, but I'm not sure who else. The uncle who's wedding anniversary this is for is the one who wasn't very understanding about my ME when we met him at my Nan's the other week.