Not feeling well, bloods, cinema and shopping

Sorry for leaving it so long between updates, this might be a bit long! :P Despite making an effort to do less than usual this week, I felt really exhausted from last Mon evening til the weekend. I think that's partly because my nocturnalism has been quite extreme this week though. And I gave myself a Wiinjury from a Wii Sports Resort session late at night on Wed when I was feeling very nocturnal. I think that going from doing very little activity to doing an hour of swordplay and bowling wasn't sensible! My arm was so sore for the next 2 days. My tummy has also been worse than usual this week and I've had odd headaches too including a bad one on Sun. Because I've felt quite rough this week I had to cancel some plans which was frustrating. On Thur aft I was planning to go shopping in town, but didn't manage that as I was too tired. And an old friend (Sarah B) was supposed to pop round last Tue evening, but I wasn't feeling up to it. We rescheduled to Thur but I had to cancel that too. That evening I was just really fed up with everything and having to cancel yet more plans, but that didn't last for long and I was almost back to my normal cheerful and optimistic self the next day. Surprisingly after my most nocturnal night yet on Fri (got to sleep about 4am), I felt really good on Sat. I did crash with exhaustion that evening though. Sun and yesterday I didn't feel too tired at all :)

I often feel very cold, even when the heating is on and I'm sitting next to the radiator! Mum and dad always turn the heating off when they go to bed, which is sometimes 3 hours before I go to bed, so then the house gets quite chilly. They've said that they can't heat the house just for me, but I'm going to ask if I can have a heater in my bedroom.

My weight was up again to 51.4kg last Tue so I emailed my dietician to ask her what the plan was now as the previous week she'd said we'd review it then. I also asked if she'd managed to look at my food and symptom diary yet as I really want some help with my tummy pains. I also need to chase my Hosp B consultant up to ask more about the scope results because I know they found some inflammation that might explain the pains I'm getting. My dietician hasn't replied yet, but I found out from someone else that she was away at a conference last week, so hopefully she'll get in touch with me soon now she's back in the office. My weight this morn was 51.6kg :)

I'm struggling with lying down at the moment because it's really uncomfortable in my abdomen when I do. When I saw my consultant from Hosp A in July he told me that he thinks its something called an incisional hernia which has developed from one of my old operation scars, but I'm going to ask for a second opinion when I'm next at Hosp B. If it is an incisional hernia then I might need an operation to fix it, but I really don't want yet another operation. It's fine when I'm sitting or standing, but I often struggle to get comfortable when I lie down to sleep.

When I go out for a walk round to the local shop or surgery I think I must have started walking slightly faster (but not particularly fast) because I'm cold and want to get out of the cold. And annoyingly when I get to my destination I am often out of breath.

Last Sun I found out that Holly C has got a photography exhibition up in London at the moment. Last year she photographed kidney transplant recipients and their living donors, so it's those photos that are on display. If you're going to be in London in the next fortnight please pop in and have a look, you can find out more here. I'm hoping I'll be able to get there.

Last Mon morn me and mum attemped to take some blood via a fingerprick to post off to Hosp B so they could test my Tac level. But I just wouldn't bleed and we gave up after 3 fingerpricks because we hadn't even got a quarter of the amount of blood we needed! I phoned up Liver Direct then to request some more Tac kits for my next attempt as I thought we'd run out. Luckily though I found some we'd got, which is good as Hosp B haven't sent me the ones they said they would yet! Mum was out at work last Tue morn, but we attempted to take my Tac blood again on Wed morn and luckily that was successful and I posted it off that aft.

Last Mon I went to Hosp H to have the rest of my bloods taken. The phlebotomist there was the one who has passed me over to the more experienced phlebotomist before when she's seen me before, but she was there alone last Mon, so had to take my blood. I stopped bleeding part way through, but hopefully she got enough blood. I'll chase my Tac blood and my other blood results up this week.

That aft I went into town to meet with someone from Pathways to Work to help me produce a CV. I'd already drafted my CV so thought the appt wouldn't take long. But although the man I saw was very helpful and had loads of new ideas for my CV, he was also quite nattery, so the appt took 2.5 hours! Phew! I'm happy with my finished CV though, but I was very tired after that! When I came out of that appt and met up with mum she told me that Alf had got a lift home from college early rather than waiting for the bus, so was at home, but locked out! So we rushed home to let him.

And last Mon I also went round to the local post office to post off a letter to Mawite (Lizzy's husband's niece) who lives in Burma/Myanmar and started to write up my transplant story to be published on the Transplant Kids website. It's ended up quite long though, so I need to cut it down before it's ready to be published.

Last Tue I heard that someone I know (but not closely) from AYME has been quite ill in hospital recently. So I wrote her a card and posted it off. Hopefully it'll have cheered her up. I didn't do much else that day because I was very tired after the day before.

Last Wed I did some odd bits and pieces such as helping mum clear some shelves in the dining room. I also remembered that I have 3 spare standing tickets for the Mika concert at the end of the month that I need to sell, so I advertised them on Facebook and Twitter. No-one has shown any interest in them though, so I think I'm going to put them up on eBay sometime this week. If you are interested or know someone who might be interested then please let me know.

That evening me and mum went to the cinema with Claire. We got stuck in the rush hour traffic on the way there though so were late, but luckily we didn't miss any of the film, just some of the trailers. We tried to get all 3 of us in for the price of one (because of Claire's Orange Wed offer and my CEA cinema card) and managed it, but I don't think we'd get away with it again, lol. The film we saw was It's Complicated, Meryl Streep's latest film. Some of it was very funny, but some parts were a bit slow for me. I did enjoy it though. Afterwards Claire came back to our house for a little while, so I came home in her car rather than with mum. Claire decided to take a different route to beat mum home, but despite mum getting lost, we still failed spectacularly! Claire blamed the level crossing but even if that had been open, I'm sure mum would still have got home first, lol.

And it was that night I played on Wii Sports Resort after midnight! Hehe :P

On Thur morn I received a letter from my dieitician about the British Transplant Games 2010. I'm not going to go though. And I also received some Scoubidou strings from someone on AYME so I might have a play with them sometime if I can find some easy to follow instructions on the Internet. On the AYME forums there is a thread where people share photos of their bedrooms and I'd been meaning to contribute for ages so finally got round to taking some photos of my bedroom on Thur and sharing them on the forum. I hope to make a blog post with them soon :)

Mum went into town on Thur to meet up with someone for lunch, so I decided to make myself some sandwiches. That would have gone fine if the bread wasn't in the freezer. I'd seen mum microwave it before to defrost it so I attemped that but the first slice I tried ended up hot in the middle but still frozen round the edge, whoops! :P That evening I found out that there were some free downloadable Wiiware demos, so I downloaded a couple of those and really enjoyed playing Nyx Quest, so might pay to download the full version at some point.

On Fri morn in the post I received a card from Royal Mail saying that they couldn't deliver a letter for me because it was short of 8p postage! How ridiculous. I thought it was from my AYME buddy Kate because she told me that she'd posted me something in the middle of last week. So yesterday my mum went round to the post office for me and paid the missing 8p plus a £1 handling charge.

Fri eve Claire came round for tea and to attend mum's fortnightly knitting group - Knit Lit. A journalist visited them on Fri and they're going to be in a local magazine! While Claire was here we had great fun playing on New Super Mario Bros Wii together and we've now managed to get onto the 3rd world (there are 8 in total). And that night when I was feeling nocturnal I played on New Super Mario Bros Wii for a bit by myself (and got frustrated at the difficulty of it) and then played on an old Kirby game I'd downloaded for my Wii.

On Sat I tried to persude mum to take me out somewhere because I was feeling better, but she didn't feel like it. She said she'd take me out on Sun though. On Sat morn I received my CRB check in the post, that was processed quickly. Hopefully I'll soon be able to be the AYME regional contact for my area now the CRB check has been completed. The family DVD player died earlier in the week and dad couldn't fix it. It was old though, it'd been Chris' originally, then mine and then the family's. So dad picked us up another one which has been working well. When my dad came back from visiting my nan on Sat he had some late Christmas money for all of us from her. I got £40 :) On Sun night I wrote her a thank you note and that was posted yesterday morn.

On Sun I had quite a busy day. It didn't get off to a good start though when mum told me that she'd accidently put my Little Boots t-shirt in the tumble drier and it appeared to have shrunk! I need to try it on though to see if it's still wearable or not. It looks small, but mum tumbled one of my vests earlier in the week and that still fits.

Late morn me and mum went to see nan. We timed it badly though as we got there just as my uncle Dan (dad's brother, my nan's son) and his wife Diane arrived. Diane is lovely, but Dan is very odd, like all dad's siblings! :P He was such a know it all and kept talking over the rest of us. I hardly got a word in. They also kept turning the conversation to food, which isn't my preferred topic of conversation! And when you've got 4 people in a room who are all over 50 they can get quite nostalgic, which was quite boring for me as lots of the things they talked about were before I was born! Dan did ask me about my trip to Japan, but then before I'd said much he was telling us what he knew about Japan, despite him not having been there. And then when the topic of my ME came up Dan was so clueless. I couldn't tell him what ME stands for (I would recognise it, but can't say it) so told him that it's also known as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. So he told me that he must have that because he's always tired! Then later on he told me that my ME will go away if I get motivated to do something!! Me and mum soon made our excuses and left but I left nan a copy of my CV to look at later and hopefully we'll be able to visit her on our own later in the week.

Someone from one of the flats when nan lives had died recently, so some of her books, DVDs and CDs were for sale for donations. I got 3 DVDs (The Graduate, Titanic and Runaway Bride) and Pretty Woman CD soundtrack. My nan has enquired about moving flats because the one that is now empty (that the woman who died lived in) is bigger than my nan's and has more windows.

Me and mum didn't feel like going straight home after that so went to a shopping centre in a nearby city instead. We missed the turn off on the way there so got a bit lost, but we got there eventually after an adventure! :P We had fun dodging round the huge Tesco there to avoid some people we had seen (my best friend from primary school and her mum) but didn't want to see us, lol. I tried on some jeans, but decided against buying them, and looked at some coats because my current one is at least 6 years old so I fancy a change. I didn't find one I liked though, so will keep looking. I bought a Wii game called Klonoa in GAME. I'd had my eye on it for a while, but because this copy was preowned it should have cost £15, but GAME had marked it down to £10 in their sale and then I had £.2.50 credit on my GAME reward card, so I got it for just £7.50. I've only played on it for a little while so far, but I like it :) I also got a DVD of a film that I like called Definitely Maybe for £3 in Tesco. Me and mum had some drinks in the cafe before heading home.

That evening I discovered that there is an ME support group in the city which meets every 2 months, so I'd like to give that a try. Their meetings are in the evenings though and my mum isn't keen on driving at night, so she might need some persuading. It would be too much for me to attempt to get there on the buses. The next meeting is in March, but it's a day that my mum is out in the aft and my dad is off work on annual leave, so I might be better to try for the meeting after that. I'll let you know.

On Sun night I was on Facebook when I spotted that Sophie (Chris' girlfriend) had posted that she was excited in her status. A friend had asked her why and she'd replied because they were moving tomorrow! I knew that they would be able to rent the cottage they wanted (it's still only local), but last we knew they were going to move in in March. I asked Sophie why Chris hadn't let us know and she said that he'd been too busy with work. Surely it wouldn't have been too hard to ring or even text mum to let her know though. Boys! Hopefully they'll be in their new cottage now.

When I had my transplant I developed some blisters/pressure sores on my heels from being in one position for a long time. They were very painful at the time, but healed ok. About 6 months ago my heels became quite sore after I did more walking than usual and recently they've been sore sometimes when I put pressure on them, even if I've not been doing much walking. When I went to the pharmacy yesterday aft (Mon) to pick some tablets up I also asked for an appt to see my GP, Dr I. Surprisingly he had a free appt that evening, so I took it. He said that my sore heels probably aren't related to the blisters/pressure sores at all. But instead he thinks I've got something called Plantar Fasciitis. It will go on it's own but could take a while, so until then I need to get some heel cushions to put in my shoes. He also pointed out that I had very flat arches on my feet, but I don't think that's anything to worry about. And Dr I also reviewed all my medications while I was there.

When I went to the pharmacy yesterday aft I was really surprised that the pharmacist that was there asked me who I was. I was sure that all 4 pharmacists know me as I'm in there often enough! Last time I went to the pharmacy they'd ordered me too many high calorie puddings, so I just took a few with me and they said to call back in to collect the rest when I needed them. But today the pharmacist I saw told me that they didn't have any high calorie puddings in so I had to order some more. I have a feeling that next time I go in they might have loads of high calorie puddings for me!

Yesterday aft mum gave blood at the village hall like she does regularly. All went well so she came home and cooked tea. I was upstairs when she shouted up to me, so I went down and found her lying on the floor because she'd felt very faint. She was ok but I ordered her to sit down and knit and stop doing jobs!

This morn I got a DVD (Bride Wars) from Tesco rental in the post, so I'm looking forward to watching that soon. And after mum paid the missing postage for the letter, it came in the post this morn. It was from my buddy Kate and contained a really pretty card she'd made herself, a lovely letter, a bracelet she'd made in my favourite colours and a phone sock :)

Tomorrow aft I've got my 2nd Pathways to Work interview and then that evening I'm going to go to the cinema with Claire to see a new film called Precious. Despite it being nominated for lots of awards it's not being released very widely, so our local cinema isn't showing it. We're going into the city instead because a cinema there is showing it. You can read an interview with the main actress here. And it was reviewed on Film 2010 last week. The film sounds very sad and powerful, but hopefully it'll be uplifting too. And on Fri eve I've been talked into attending the first meeting of a new discussion group for teenagers in the village. I mentioned it about half way through this blog update. V has said she's going, so I'll give it a try with her if I'm feeling up to it.

My 101 in 1001 list still isn't finished. I really do hope to finish it soon, I just need to check through the goals I've already got and find a few more. I want to get the list finished soon so I can make a start on working on my goals! :D

On DVD since my last update I finished rewatching the first series of Ashes to Ashes (I watched episodes 2 to 8) and watched all the special features. The second series boxset that I bought from Tesco online arrived in the post so I'm looking forward to watching that through sometime soon, I'm going to have a little break first though. I also finished my Vicar of Dibley boxset by watching the last episode and a behind the scenes documentary that was also on the DVD. And I watched the 2 Vicar of Dibley episodes which were missing from my boxset on Youtube. And I've rewatched the entire first series of After You've Gone which I rented. I also rented and watched Johnny English on DVD.

On TV since my last update I've watched 2 episodes of Nurse Jackie, the first episode of Glee to see what all the fuss is about - I wasn't very impressed, a BBC documentary called Too Old To Be A Mum?, 2 episodes of Tracy Beaker Returns, Film 2010, a Never Mind The Buzzcocks special, a Horizon documentary called Why Do Viruses Kill?, QI XL, The Gadget Show, a channel 4 bodyshock documentary called The Girl With Eight Limbs Grows Up and a very interesting Panorama programme called I Helped My Daughter Die which debates assisted suicide with a specific look at the story of a severe ME sufferer.

And since my last update I've also enjoyed a lot of music, music videos and TV music performances :) I've been listening to lots of music on my iPod including Lily Allen, Alexandra Burke, Taylor Swift and Little Boots. Taylor Swift has just won 4 Grammy Awards including best album for Fearless :) And I found this interesting link about Little Boots. And I managed to download some more album artwork on iTunes, but some still seems to be missing.

I recorded the Hope For Haiti concert on the hard disc recorder, so watched through that this week. I loved Shakira and Taylor Swift's performances so have bought them both from iTunes.

I've watched the music channels quite a lot and have been enjoying the frequency that Owl City's Fireflies has been played, and on the radio too. I'm happy it's now been at number 1 in the Official UK Top 40 for 2 weeks now :D Another music video that's on TV a lot is Bad Romance by Lady Gaga. It's a really odd video, definitely worth watching if you haven't already just for the spectacle! I'm not usually keen on Lady Gaga, but I do like Bad Romance now. And I've now seen the new videos for Ellie Goulding's Starry Eyed and Cheryl Cole's Parachute.

On a BBC 1 radio programme on Sun night I listened specifically to a programme called Switch because I'd heard that Diana Vickers would be interviewed on it and they would do the first play of her new single Once. I loved Diana on the X Factor in 2008, but am not sure about her new single. I might need to hear it more.

Also on Switch on Sun was an interview with Marina and the Diamonds. I'd not even heard of Marina and the Diamonds a fortnight ago, but love her now :) She came second to Ellie Goulding in the BBC's Sound of 2010. She's got an amazing voice and I love her original sound. Her new single is called Hollywood and was released yesterday. I've already bought it. You can see it on Youtube here. If you like it please buy it because Marina is up against Owl City, Jedward and more in the charts this week. I really hope it charts well, fingers crossed. Her debut album, The Family Jewels, will be released later in the month. I love 2 more of her songs - Mowgli's Road and I Am Not A Robot. And she's done an cover of Gwen Stefani's What You Waiting For, which you can lisen to here. I saw an interesting programme about her on Channel 4 where she was interviewed and performed some of her songs and you can see it here. There is also an interview with her here. Her tour tickets are going on sale on Fri and I'd love to see her, but I suspect that the venues she's performing at will be standing only and if so I wont be able to go :(

I saw Mika performing his next single, Blame It On The Girls on the results show of So You Think You Can Dance on Sat. And Mika was also interviewed and performed on Radio 2 that aft, which you can listen to here. It's very funny, especially his cover song at the end. And he talked about his tour too (which I'm seeing at the end of the month) and it sounds like it'll be amazing! I can't wait :D