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
Showing posts with label 101 in 1001. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 101 in 1001. Show all posts
Tuesday, 2 February 2010
Sunday, 24 January 2010
Bits and pieces
As I said in my last blog update, I tried to upload some photos, but was very puzzled as to why I couldn't. The next morning I discovered that Alf was downloading some huge game for his computer from the Internet. It finally finished downloading last night!
So I've taken some better photos in the daylight to share with you and now I can upload them :) This is my new watch:
And this is the bracelet I also bought on Wednesday:
I forgot to mention on my last blog update that Chris and Sophie will be able to rent the cottage that they liked. I think they're planning to move in at the start of March.
I think I must have had some kind of virus or something last week as I felt really rotten from Mon til Thur. My last blog update covered til Wed, but then on Thur I felt even worse. I had been planning to go out to visit my Nan with mum, but I felt awful, so while mum went out, I just lay on the sofa instead. I wasn't planning to sleep, just rest, but I did nod off. I was woken by the phone 10mins later though! It was my mum's boss, but she wouldn't leave me a message, she said she'd phone back later.
On Thur eve my mum's boss did phone back. Because of budgets and trying to save money, 3 village libraries in our county are going to be closed (I think there are thirty something libraries in total). My mum's boss who is relatively new to the library was very worried by this. But my mum has worked in the library for a while and has known this to happen twice before. Last time our library wasn't one of the ones they were considering closing, but when it was the previous time the whole village went up in arms so they decided against closing it! My mum doesn't think that our library is likely to be closed, but even if they suggest it she wont be worried because she knows the power of the villagers. Her boss is still worried though.
On Friday I felt loads better and have since then so I think I must be over whatever virus or bug I had. I'm still very tired though because I've been more nocturnal than usual this last week, getting to sleep between 2am and 3am most nights. And I try to get up at a reasonable time (before 11am) each day, so think I might be a bit short of sleep. If I get into bed earlier I fall asleep earlier, but if I do then I miss the period where I feel well which is usually between about 11pm and 2am. And I don't like to do that. And I'm still getting the tummy pains, but hopefully my dietician will have some suggestions when we're in contact on Tue as I gave her my diary last week, and more headaches than usual. And I'm constantly cold.
On Friday evening Claire came round :) We did lots of chatting, I showed her some music videos I'd recorded for her, Claire did some knitting with mum and we had great fun together on New Super Mario Bros Wii :D When I was putting my CV together this week I'd discovered that I don't have some GCSE certificates from my secondary school, so Claire is going to chase them up for me. She also had a look at my CV and suggested that as well as the one paid job I've had, I should also include all the voluntary stuff I've done. So I've added that in and am now ready for my Pathways to Work appointment about my CV tomorrow. Tomorrow as we're going into town anyway, we're going to call in at Hosp H on the way there or the way back because I need bloods doing. And we'll do my Tac blood at home in the morning via a fingerprick and post that off to Hosp B.
And me, mum and Claire decided that we're going to go to the cinema on Wed to see Meryl Streep's latest film - It's Complicated. We suspect that we might confuse the cinema staff though because Claire will have her Orange Wednesday's offer (buy one get one free) and I'll have my CEA cinema card (which allows someone to accompany me for free), so we're hoping we'll just have to pay for one ticket between the 3 of us (if Claire buys her ticket and gets mine free with Orange Wednesday, then I should be able to get mum a free ticket to accompany me), fingers crossed! And the following Wed mum and Claire want to see George Cluney's new film - Up In The Air, but I've not decided yet if I want to see it or not.
Over the last few days I've been writing a letter to my penpal (Lizzy's husband's niece) who is 17 and lives in Myanmar. I finished that this morning so am hoping to post that off tomorrow.
I received the identity documents (passport, birth certificate and national insurance card) that I posted off for my CRB check back in the post yesterday. I was a bit worried about posting them off, but am relieved they arrived back ok via recorded delivery. The reason I've no faith in the Royal Mail at the moment is that they've lost a parcel one of my sixth form friends posted me about 3 weeks ago (it was a late Christmas present). I've seen no sign of it yet :( So she's going to see if she can trace it because she's got a receipt to prove that she did post it. Fingers crossed.
I tend to stick with eating the foods that I like, especially for lunch - I always eat Marmite sandwiches. But when we ate out at the cafe on Wed I discovered that I quite like toasted teacakes :) So I had them for lunch yesterday instead of my usual Marmite sandwiches.
Yesterday I persuaded dad to play on my Wii with me and we had great fun on Wii Sports Resort. I beat him at archery and thrashed him at swordplay, but he beat me at golf (how boring!) and cycling, which is the most exhausting sport on there! And yesterday I also had a go on New Super Mario Bros Wii by myself but I'm stuck, it's too hard for me. I might have to see if I can persuade Alf to help me ;)
Sometimes the Radio Times have really good offers. I mentioned the offer for the exclusive Doctor Who book in my last update. In one of the recent issues they offered a free Lonely Planet magazine to readers or 3 Lonely Planet magazines for just £1. So I phoned up and requested the 3 magazines for just £1. I've never read the magazine before, but would love to travel more, so hopefully I'll find it interesting.
The other day I was wondering about how the audiences for TV programmes (such as QI) are assembled, so I had a look on the Internet and found Applause Store. I've signed up and been placed on the reserve list for tickets for QI, Never Mind the Buzzcocks and The X Factor. So hopefully they'll notify me when the filming dates are released and if I'm quick I might be able to get tickets to be in the audience, fingers crossed.
I've just discovered a great website called DVD Spot which searches online retailers to find the best DVD prices for you :) What a good idea, it will prevent me searching lots of different websites. They don't check Tesco which is one of the websites I usually check, but they check all the other reasonably priced ones I know.
I was listening to my iPod this afternoon and didn't know what else to do with myself. I'm not very good at just listening to music. So I played Solitaire on my iPod as I often do and then rediscovered another game on it called Vortex which I'd not played recently. It's quite addictive :P Does anyone reading this remember the Superplexus, a puzzle toy that was released a few years ago now? I still have mine and so tried that again this morning. I thought I'd find it easier now I'm older, but I still can't complete it. Grrrr :P
I've not managed to finish my 101 in 1001 list yet, I'm still short on some goals. I've got about 90 at the moment, so hopefully it wont be too long til I complete my list. I'll post it up when it's finished.
I've said before that I currently really like a song called Fireflies by Owl City. Hopefully it'll be number one in the chart tonight, fingers crossed. This is Boyzone's new single, Gave It Away. I'm not really a Boyzone fan, but you might be surprised to know that this song was written by Mika. To me it sounds nothing like Mika's music, but that shows what a versatile songwriter he is.
Today I've been listening to lots of music - I'm currently listening to Alexandra Burke's Overcome album, but I've already listened to Pink's Funhouse album, Pixie Lott's Turn It Up album, and Mika's The Boy Who Knew Too Much album :D Today it is 5 weeks til I'm seeing Mika in concert again, yay! This afternoon me and H have been texting each other about it because we're both so excited. If we're this excited with 5 weeks to go I don't know what we'll be like nearer the time! H has seen him in concert once before and is also a huge fan, so it should be great seeing him together (and my mum will be coming too). I invited H to come to the first concert I saw him at with me, but she was away, so 2 years later we're doing it :) And in less than 5 weeks me and mum are seeing The Noisettes in concert. You can see their new single, Saturday Night, here.
I'm really pleased that Sandra Bullock has been winning a few awards recently. I think she's a great actress, but never really seems to get the recognition I think she deserves. But recently she's won a Critics Choice award and then yesterday she won a Golden Globe. Both of these awards were for her as an actress in a film called The Blind Side. It's only been released in the USA so far, but should come to cinemas here in March.
On TV since my last update I've watched the 2 latest episodes of QI, Thur's episode of The One Show (because it had a feature on dyscalculia in it which is what my mum has), The World's Biggest Family and Me on C4, Brits Hits 30 and Horizon: Pill Poppers. And I recorded the Hope For Haiti concert, but haven't watched it yet.
On Thur I found out that Ashes to Ashes series 3 will be televised this spring and some sources suggested it might start next month. I loved Life on Mars and I also really like Ashes to Ashes. But I can't really remember what had happened in Ashes to Ashes series 1 and 2, so I'm going to attempt to rewatch them before series 3 is televised. I'd already got series 1 on DVD and I bought series 2 from Tesco online on Thur, so hopefully that will come in the post soon. I watched the first episode of the first series yesterday and followed it better than I expected. It seemed like much longer than an hour in length though. I'm going to try to watch the second episode at some point today.
Since my last update I have also finished watching all the episodes of Gavin and Stacey. I think we've watched them all in about 3 weeks! :D We bought series 1, borrowed series 2 and 3 from the library and rented the Christmas special from Tesco DVD rental. So since my last update we watched the Christmas special and watched the extra features from that DVD and from the series 3 DVD. And I've joined all the groups on Facebook campaigning for another series! :P
I also watched Absolutely Fabulous The Last Shout (and the extra features) which I rented from Tesco DVD rental. So over the last few months I've also watched every single episode of Absolutely Fabulous which has been released on DVD (series 1 to 6, Gay and The Last Shout) without buying a single one - all rented from Tesco or borrowed from the library! I'm going to buy the complete collection (Absolutely Fabulous Absolutely Everything) though when that comes out in Oct. And hopefully that'll include the last ever episode, The White Box, too as that hasn't been released on DVD in the UK yet - but the USA have it despite it being an English programme!
And I've watched 2 more full Vicar of Dibley episodes, 2 short Comic Relief episodes and some extra features from my boxset. I've only got one episode left and then I'll have watched them all. I think I might watch that tonight when I'm nocturnal :P
So I've taken some better photos in the daylight to share with you and now I can upload them :) This is my new watch:
And this is the bracelet I also bought on Wednesday:
I forgot to mention on my last blog update that Chris and Sophie will be able to rent the cottage that they liked. I think they're planning to move in at the start of March.
I think I must have had some kind of virus or something last week as I felt really rotten from Mon til Thur. My last blog update covered til Wed, but then on Thur I felt even worse. I had been planning to go out to visit my Nan with mum, but I felt awful, so while mum went out, I just lay on the sofa instead. I wasn't planning to sleep, just rest, but I did nod off. I was woken by the phone 10mins later though! It was my mum's boss, but she wouldn't leave me a message, she said she'd phone back later.
On Thur eve my mum's boss did phone back. Because of budgets and trying to save money, 3 village libraries in our county are going to be closed (I think there are thirty something libraries in total). My mum's boss who is relatively new to the library was very worried by this. But my mum has worked in the library for a while and has known this to happen twice before. Last time our library wasn't one of the ones they were considering closing, but when it was the previous time the whole village went up in arms so they decided against closing it! My mum doesn't think that our library is likely to be closed, but even if they suggest it she wont be worried because she knows the power of the villagers. Her boss is still worried though.
On Friday I felt loads better and have since then so I think I must be over whatever virus or bug I had. I'm still very tired though because I've been more nocturnal than usual this last week, getting to sleep between 2am and 3am most nights. And I try to get up at a reasonable time (before 11am) each day, so think I might be a bit short of sleep. If I get into bed earlier I fall asleep earlier, but if I do then I miss the period where I feel well which is usually between about 11pm and 2am. And I don't like to do that. And I'm still getting the tummy pains, but hopefully my dietician will have some suggestions when we're in contact on Tue as I gave her my diary last week, and more headaches than usual. And I'm constantly cold.
On Friday evening Claire came round :) We did lots of chatting, I showed her some music videos I'd recorded for her, Claire did some knitting with mum and we had great fun together on New Super Mario Bros Wii :D When I was putting my CV together this week I'd discovered that I don't have some GCSE certificates from my secondary school, so Claire is going to chase them up for me. She also had a look at my CV and suggested that as well as the one paid job I've had, I should also include all the voluntary stuff I've done. So I've added that in and am now ready for my Pathways to Work appointment about my CV tomorrow. Tomorrow as we're going into town anyway, we're going to call in at Hosp H on the way there or the way back because I need bloods doing. And we'll do my Tac blood at home in the morning via a fingerprick and post that off to Hosp B.
And me, mum and Claire decided that we're going to go to the cinema on Wed to see Meryl Streep's latest film - It's Complicated. We suspect that we might confuse the cinema staff though because Claire will have her Orange Wednesday's offer (buy one get one free) and I'll have my CEA cinema card (which allows someone to accompany me for free), so we're hoping we'll just have to pay for one ticket between the 3 of us (if Claire buys her ticket and gets mine free with Orange Wednesday, then I should be able to get mum a free ticket to accompany me), fingers crossed! And the following Wed mum and Claire want to see George Cluney's new film - Up In The Air, but I've not decided yet if I want to see it or not.
Over the last few days I've been writing a letter to my penpal (Lizzy's husband's niece) who is 17 and lives in Myanmar. I finished that this morning so am hoping to post that off tomorrow.
I received the identity documents (passport, birth certificate and national insurance card) that I posted off for my CRB check back in the post yesterday. I was a bit worried about posting them off, but am relieved they arrived back ok via recorded delivery. The reason I've no faith in the Royal Mail at the moment is that they've lost a parcel one of my sixth form friends posted me about 3 weeks ago (it was a late Christmas present). I've seen no sign of it yet :( So she's going to see if she can trace it because she's got a receipt to prove that she did post it. Fingers crossed.
I tend to stick with eating the foods that I like, especially for lunch - I always eat Marmite sandwiches. But when we ate out at the cafe on Wed I discovered that I quite like toasted teacakes :) So I had them for lunch yesterday instead of my usual Marmite sandwiches.
Yesterday I persuaded dad to play on my Wii with me and we had great fun on Wii Sports Resort. I beat him at archery and thrashed him at swordplay, but he beat me at golf (how boring!) and cycling, which is the most exhausting sport on there! And yesterday I also had a go on New Super Mario Bros Wii by myself but I'm stuck, it's too hard for me. I might have to see if I can persuade Alf to help me ;)
Sometimes the Radio Times have really good offers. I mentioned the offer for the exclusive Doctor Who book in my last update. In one of the recent issues they offered a free Lonely Planet magazine to readers or 3 Lonely Planet magazines for just £1. So I phoned up and requested the 3 magazines for just £1. I've never read the magazine before, but would love to travel more, so hopefully I'll find it interesting.
The other day I was wondering about how the audiences for TV programmes (such as QI) are assembled, so I had a look on the Internet and found Applause Store. I've signed up and been placed on the reserve list for tickets for QI, Never Mind the Buzzcocks and The X Factor. So hopefully they'll notify me when the filming dates are released and if I'm quick I might be able to get tickets to be in the audience, fingers crossed.
I've just discovered a great website called DVD Spot which searches online retailers to find the best DVD prices for you :) What a good idea, it will prevent me searching lots of different websites. They don't check Tesco which is one of the websites I usually check, but they check all the other reasonably priced ones I know.
I was listening to my iPod this afternoon and didn't know what else to do with myself. I'm not very good at just listening to music. So I played Solitaire on my iPod as I often do and then rediscovered another game on it called Vortex which I'd not played recently. It's quite addictive :P Does anyone reading this remember the Superplexus, a puzzle toy that was released a few years ago now? I still have mine and so tried that again this morning. I thought I'd find it easier now I'm older, but I still can't complete it. Grrrr :P
I've not managed to finish my 101 in 1001 list yet, I'm still short on some goals. I've got about 90 at the moment, so hopefully it wont be too long til I complete my list. I'll post it up when it's finished.
I've said before that I currently really like a song called Fireflies by Owl City. Hopefully it'll be number one in the chart tonight, fingers crossed. This is Boyzone's new single, Gave It Away. I'm not really a Boyzone fan, but you might be surprised to know that this song was written by Mika. To me it sounds nothing like Mika's music, but that shows what a versatile songwriter he is.
Today I've been listening to lots of music - I'm currently listening to Alexandra Burke's Overcome album, but I've already listened to Pink's Funhouse album, Pixie Lott's Turn It Up album, and Mika's The Boy Who Knew Too Much album :D Today it is 5 weeks til I'm seeing Mika in concert again, yay! This afternoon me and H have been texting each other about it because we're both so excited. If we're this excited with 5 weeks to go I don't know what we'll be like nearer the time! H has seen him in concert once before and is also a huge fan, so it should be great seeing him together (and my mum will be coming too). I invited H to come to the first concert I saw him at with me, but she was away, so 2 years later we're doing it :) And in less than 5 weeks me and mum are seeing The Noisettes in concert. You can see their new single, Saturday Night, here.
I'm really pleased that Sandra Bullock has been winning a few awards recently. I think she's a great actress, but never really seems to get the recognition I think she deserves. But recently she's won a Critics Choice award and then yesterday she won a Golden Globe. Both of these awards were for her as an actress in a film called The Blind Side. It's only been released in the USA so far, but should come to cinemas here in March.
On TV since my last update I've watched the 2 latest episodes of QI, Thur's episode of The One Show (because it had a feature on dyscalculia in it which is what my mum has), The World's Biggest Family and Me on C4, Brits Hits 30 and Horizon: Pill Poppers. And I recorded the Hope For Haiti concert, but haven't watched it yet.
On Thur I found out that Ashes to Ashes series 3 will be televised this spring and some sources suggested it might start next month. I loved Life on Mars and I also really like Ashes to Ashes. But I can't really remember what had happened in Ashes to Ashes series 1 and 2, so I'm going to attempt to rewatch them before series 3 is televised. I'd already got series 1 on DVD and I bought series 2 from Tesco online on Thur, so hopefully that will come in the post soon. I watched the first episode of the first series yesterday and followed it better than I expected. It seemed like much longer than an hour in length though. I'm going to try to watch the second episode at some point today.
Since my last update I have also finished watching all the episodes of Gavin and Stacey. I think we've watched them all in about 3 weeks! :D We bought series 1, borrowed series 2 and 3 from the library and rented the Christmas special from Tesco DVD rental. So since my last update we watched the Christmas special and watched the extra features from that DVD and from the series 3 DVD. And I've joined all the groups on Facebook campaigning for another series! :P
I also watched Absolutely Fabulous The Last Shout (and the extra features) which I rented from Tesco DVD rental. So over the last few months I've also watched every single episode of Absolutely Fabulous which has been released on DVD (series 1 to 6, Gay and The Last Shout) without buying a single one - all rented from Tesco or borrowed from the library! I'm going to buy the complete collection (Absolutely Fabulous Absolutely Everything) though when that comes out in Oct. And hopefully that'll include the last ever episode, The White Box, too as that hasn't been released on DVD in the UK yet - but the USA have it despite it being an English programme!
And I've watched 2 more full Vicar of Dibley episodes, 2 short Comic Relief episodes and some extra features from my boxset. I've only got one episode left and then I'll have watched them all. I think I might watch that tonight when I'm nocturnal :P
Wednesday, 20 January 2010
Busy busy busy
I have a feeling before I even start writing this that it might be a long update. So sorry in advance for that.
I had planned to have a quieter and more relaxing week this week, but that hasn't happened as I've continued to do too much :P On Mon afternoon I had a hygienist appt as Hosp A. That went smoothly, including the journey which only took 40mins, we usually leave an hour and 15mins for it! Each time I see the hygienist she gives me a score of what percentage of my mouth is dirty. The first time I saw her before I got braces my mouth was 35%, last Sept it was just 18% and on Mon it was just 12%, so she was happy with me :)
Then on Mon evening F called round (unexpectedly, she just phoned up 10mins before and asked if I was free) to exhange Christmas presents and for a chat. I gave her an incense gift box which she loved and she gave me this lovely glass dolphin ornament.
It was nice to catch up with all her news, but I can't believe how busy she is - she attends college where she does a music course 3 days a week, works at a secondary school teaching music 2 days a week and works in a music shop on Saturday! Phew! So I guess I can understand a bit better now why she had to cancel on me twice previously. It's always tricky to get friends to go when I'm exhausted, I need to learn to be more assertive there I think, so she stayed for about an hour and I was tired to start with! But it was nice to see her :)
Yesterday I had no plans, but wrote myself a huge to-do list in the morning and spent most of the day working through that. I phoned up a special phone number in the Radio Times to order 2 Doctor Who souvenier books of the David Tennant and Russel T Davis years (one for me and one for Claire for her birthday in April), phoned the dentist to make myself an appt (because I wasn't able to make my last one), filled out a sociology questionnaire to help a friend with her coursework, filled out my CRB check form so I can become a regional contact for AYME, went to the shop to buy a Radio Times, started to write a letter to my penpal in Myanmar (Lizzy's husband's niece), replied to various emails, phoned the GP surgery pharmacy to chase up the high calorie puddings I'd ordered, emailed my dietician to let her know that the surgery couldn't get the puddings in for me, send her my food and symptom diary and let her know my weight...
My weight yesterday was 51.2kg. So I emailed my dietician to let her know that in the morning because we'd previously agreed that once I reached 51kg I could try without overnight feeds and see how my weight went with just normal eating and high calorie supplements. But in response to my email my dietician suggested seeing if my weight was still above 51kg in a week's time and then dropping my feed down to 2 nights a week! I was sure that wasn't what we'd previously said so emailed her back. She then replied and said that she was emailing me from home, so because she didn't have my notes she'd forgotten what we had agreed. But she said that I could drop feeds completely if I was confident that my tummy pains wouldn't stop me eating enough to maintain my weight. So now I'm having doubts. Yesterday the local pharmacy told me that they couldn't get the high calorie puddings in for me. So yesterday I had a Fortisip drink that really didn't agree with me (even drinking it diluted with cow's milk and very slowly), so I'm not having one of those again. My dietician couldn't understand why the pharmacy couldn't get the puddings for me, so said she'd chase them up. She also suggested staying on the same feed plan this week and then reviewing it next week as hopefully the high calorie puddings would be sorted by then. So I'm still on feeds for now. I know it might not be for much longer, but I'm not feeling as optimistic now about getting off them as I had been previously. However this morning the pharmacy rang and they've sorted the puddings so we picked the first batch up today :)
Yesterday evening I felt awful. I was completely exhausted and had a headache. And on top of that I felt really fed up and depressed. It wasn't anything in particular, just a mixture of things (with the discussion with my dietician about my feeds being the last straw) all made worse by complete exhaustion.
Recently I've heard some more news on Imy. She's now about 3 weeks post transplant. She is well enough to stay in a hospital flat (which is 10mins away from the hospital) every night, only returning to the ward to see the doctors and have bloods taken each day. And the rest of the time is her own. And she's now been off TPN and enteral feeds (so is just sustaining her weight via normal eating) for over a week. I'm really pleased for her, but as awful as I feel saying this, I'm jealous. I feel like she's made more progress in 3 weeks than I have in over 3 years. 3 weeks after my transplant I was really ill, returning to theatre every other day, completely out of it with the huge amounts of Morphine I was on... Yet 3 weeks after her transplant Imy seems fine and doesn't even need to stay in hospital any more. And I'm still on artificial feeds because my eating isn't at normal levels yet, but Imy doesn't need artificial feeds any more. I hate myself for feeling like this, but I do. And that is partly what contributed to me feeling so down last night. I just want to be normal and being normal isn't being on overnight feeds or having ME. My health relating to my ME is declining, but I know it's because I do too much. I need to learn to pace, but it's so hard. Smaller things are now leaving me more exhausted than they have before.
The news on M is also good. She's had a brilliant week, her mum said it couldn't have gone any better. She's been back on the ward for over a week now, her remaining bowel has stopped bleeding and is working a little, she's in less pain so her major pain relief is being reduced and she is much brighter - sitting up in bed, playing and colouring :)
Because I was feeling so rough yesterday evening I got into bed at 10am and was asleep shortly afterwards. I didn't get up til 10.30am this morning, so had loads of sleep last night. It was a bit disturbed from 7am though when the rest of my family got up. I've felt in much better spirits today and have been more cheerful. I've not felt refreshed by the sleep though and have still been very tired (although probably not quite as exhausted as yesterday) and have had a headache again. And my teeth have been sore today, but I'm not quite sure why. I suppose it's probably just because my braces have been moving my teeth.
I went to the post office this morning to post off my completed CRB check form and some identity documents via recorded delivery. I know that my CRB check could take a while to be processed, but I'm getting closer to becoming an AYME regional contact :) And I went to the surgery to pick up my high calorie puddings and on the book stall there was a big book about films (RadioTimes Guide To Films - 2004 edition) for just 50p!
Today me and mum went to a local craft shop. It's connected to a place which has loads of birds of prey that they look after and fly in flying displays, but we didn't visit that today. In the craft shop mum bought 2 balls of wool to knit dad some wristwarmers. I bought a watch from there last year but when it came to changing the clocks last Oct I discovered that I couldn't change the time on it. So I took my old watch back today and although I didn't have a receipt I was allowed to swap it for a new one :) My old watch was black, but there weren't any more black ones, so I had to buy one which is a bit brighter. I also bought a pretty bracelet for my cousin Tam's birthday in Feb and a beautiful bracelet for me :) I wanted to post up some photos of my new watch and bracelet, but I can't get them to upload at the moment, so they'll hopefully come with my next blog post.
And then we had some yummy toasted teacakes in the cafe, it was the first time I'd tried them :) On the way home we spotted some funny sights. It's really flat around where we live, so both me and mum couldn't understand it when we saw a proper signpost for a local village mountain rescue! We also saw what looked like a bird of prey sitting in a field, which we assume must have escaped and then we saw a pet cat sitting at the edge of another field. Not sights you see everyday! :P
My dad is away tonight with work, but it feels really odd because he's always here. However I did speak to him on the phone this evening :) He can be very annoying at times, he attempted to sign up to Facebook this week just to annoy me. He quickly gave up though as it was too technological for him, hehe.
If I feel up to it tomorrow I might go and visit my Nan and then on Fri eve Claire is coming round :) I'll try not to overdo it as much on the Wii this week though :P
As you may know from past blog entries I love Pixar films. I've just recently discovered that they have produced art books about the art of their films, which are titled 'The Art Of...' So I enjoyed looking at those on Amazon the other night. They are all quite expensive though.
A little while ago the Daily Mail put up a poll on their website asking people to vote on whether ME is a genuine illness or not. I wasn't happy and it really upset some of my friends with ME. The Daily Mail wouldn't have done that with any other illness. So lots of people complained and the Daily Mail apologised :) That doesn't make it right though, they shouldn't have published the poll in the first place. If you're interested you can see a copy of the email that people who complained received here on a blog I follow from an ME sufferer.
Scotland have just produced and launched an organ donation teaching resource pack which will be distrubuted across schools in Scotland so that pupils can learn about organ donation. I think it is a fantastic project and can't understand why we haven't got the same in England. You can view the actual video that is in the pack here, you can read the press release here and you can read a BBC news article on it here. I know Aaron and his family well and I have spoken to Rachel's family on online transplant forums.
Thanks to everyone who read and commented on my last blog update about my new challenge, 101 in 1001. If you've not read that post yet, you can see it here. And hello Kate :) I'm still working on my list and currently have just over 80 possibilities for it, so I need to try to come up with some more. Any ideas would be appreciated. When I've finished I'll post my list up here as well as on the official Day Zero website.
I know it's not important in the grand scheme of things, but I am intrigued as to whether one of my regular blog readers left the anonymous comment on this blog post, or whether it was from someone who doesn't usually comment. So if it was you who left the comment and you feel like letting me know, then please do :)
On Sun evening I sat down with my parents and we watched the whole series 3 of Gavin and Stacey in one sitting. Probably not sensible, but very enjoyable :P And since my last update we also watched the special features on that DVD and I've watched another Vicar of Dibley episode.
On TV I've watched the Brits Launch Party (which featured some great performances from Ellie Goulding and Pixie Lott), Nurse Jackie, a Victoria Wood programme with mum which went behind the scenes of her 2009 Christmas special, 2 Film 2010s (from which I've decided I don't want to see anything in the cinema at the moment, but might want to see some films towards the end of this month and next month) and some of the music channels, where I saw this music video from Erik Hassle (he's not too bad, but I don't get his appeal) and a programme about the Saturdays (I like most of their music, but every single time I've seen them perform on TV they've mimed!). And tonight I watched some of the National Television Awards. I got bored part way through though because they were doing too much about soaps, so I didn't finish watching it. But I was pleased that Gavin and Stacey won their award and Doctor Who won its award. I liked Joe McElderry's performance, but turned it off before Jedward's performance so didn't have to watch that, phew!
I was disappointed that Fireflies by Owl City didn't top the chart on Sun, it only reached number 2 in the Official UK Top 40. I bought it yesterday though because I forgot to before Sun. I was disappointed to read in an interview that Alexandra Burke wont be touring this year :( I love her album and have listened to it through while writing this update. It's taken me so long that I'm Pixie Lott's album now though because that finished :P Anyway, hopefully Alexandra Burke will tour in 2011, but that seems a long time to wait. A website called Popjustice reviewed Diana Vicker's upcoming debut album which I thought was interesting because I loved her on the X Factor and have been looking forward to the release of her album. If you're interested, you can read the review here.
I had planned to have a quieter and more relaxing week this week, but that hasn't happened as I've continued to do too much :P On Mon afternoon I had a hygienist appt as Hosp A. That went smoothly, including the journey which only took 40mins, we usually leave an hour and 15mins for it! Each time I see the hygienist she gives me a score of what percentage of my mouth is dirty. The first time I saw her before I got braces my mouth was 35%, last Sept it was just 18% and on Mon it was just 12%, so she was happy with me :)
Then on Mon evening F called round (unexpectedly, she just phoned up 10mins before and asked if I was free) to exhange Christmas presents and for a chat. I gave her an incense gift box which she loved and she gave me this lovely glass dolphin ornament.
It was nice to catch up with all her news, but I can't believe how busy she is - she attends college where she does a music course 3 days a week, works at a secondary school teaching music 2 days a week and works in a music shop on Saturday! Phew! So I guess I can understand a bit better now why she had to cancel on me twice previously. It's always tricky to get friends to go when I'm exhausted, I need to learn to be more assertive there I think, so she stayed for about an hour and I was tired to start with! But it was nice to see her :)
Yesterday I had no plans, but wrote myself a huge to-do list in the morning and spent most of the day working through that. I phoned up a special phone number in the Radio Times to order 2 Doctor Who souvenier books of the David Tennant and Russel T Davis years (one for me and one for Claire for her birthday in April), phoned the dentist to make myself an appt (because I wasn't able to make my last one), filled out a sociology questionnaire to help a friend with her coursework, filled out my CRB check form so I can become a regional contact for AYME, went to the shop to buy a Radio Times, started to write a letter to my penpal in Myanmar (Lizzy's husband's niece), replied to various emails, phoned the GP surgery pharmacy to chase up the high calorie puddings I'd ordered, emailed my dietician to let her know that the surgery couldn't get the puddings in for me, send her my food and symptom diary and let her know my weight...
My weight yesterday was 51.2kg. So I emailed my dietician to let her know that in the morning because we'd previously agreed that once I reached 51kg I could try without overnight feeds and see how my weight went with just normal eating and high calorie supplements. But in response to my email my dietician suggested seeing if my weight was still above 51kg in a week's time and then dropping my feed down to 2 nights a week! I was sure that wasn't what we'd previously said so emailed her back. She then replied and said that she was emailing me from home, so because she didn't have my notes she'd forgotten what we had agreed. But she said that I could drop feeds completely if I was confident that my tummy pains wouldn't stop me eating enough to maintain my weight. So now I'm having doubts. Yesterday the local pharmacy told me that they couldn't get the high calorie puddings in for me. So yesterday I had a Fortisip drink that really didn't agree with me (even drinking it diluted with cow's milk and very slowly), so I'm not having one of those again. My dietician couldn't understand why the pharmacy couldn't get the puddings for me, so said she'd chase them up. She also suggested staying on the same feed plan this week and then reviewing it next week as hopefully the high calorie puddings would be sorted by then. So I'm still on feeds for now. I know it might not be for much longer, but I'm not feeling as optimistic now about getting off them as I had been previously. However this morning the pharmacy rang and they've sorted the puddings so we picked the first batch up today :)
Yesterday evening I felt awful. I was completely exhausted and had a headache. And on top of that I felt really fed up and depressed. It wasn't anything in particular, just a mixture of things (with the discussion with my dietician about my feeds being the last straw) all made worse by complete exhaustion.
Recently I've heard some more news on Imy. She's now about 3 weeks post transplant. She is well enough to stay in a hospital flat (which is 10mins away from the hospital) every night, only returning to the ward to see the doctors and have bloods taken each day. And the rest of the time is her own. And she's now been off TPN and enteral feeds (so is just sustaining her weight via normal eating) for over a week. I'm really pleased for her, but as awful as I feel saying this, I'm jealous. I feel like she's made more progress in 3 weeks than I have in over 3 years. 3 weeks after my transplant I was really ill, returning to theatre every other day, completely out of it with the huge amounts of Morphine I was on... Yet 3 weeks after her transplant Imy seems fine and doesn't even need to stay in hospital any more. And I'm still on artificial feeds because my eating isn't at normal levels yet, but Imy doesn't need artificial feeds any more. I hate myself for feeling like this, but I do. And that is partly what contributed to me feeling so down last night. I just want to be normal and being normal isn't being on overnight feeds or having ME. My health relating to my ME is declining, but I know it's because I do too much. I need to learn to pace, but it's so hard. Smaller things are now leaving me more exhausted than they have before.
The news on M is also good. She's had a brilliant week, her mum said it couldn't have gone any better. She's been back on the ward for over a week now, her remaining bowel has stopped bleeding and is working a little, she's in less pain so her major pain relief is being reduced and she is much brighter - sitting up in bed, playing and colouring :)
Because I was feeling so rough yesterday evening I got into bed at 10am and was asleep shortly afterwards. I didn't get up til 10.30am this morning, so had loads of sleep last night. It was a bit disturbed from 7am though when the rest of my family got up. I've felt in much better spirits today and have been more cheerful. I've not felt refreshed by the sleep though and have still been very tired (although probably not quite as exhausted as yesterday) and have had a headache again. And my teeth have been sore today, but I'm not quite sure why. I suppose it's probably just because my braces have been moving my teeth.
I went to the post office this morning to post off my completed CRB check form and some identity documents via recorded delivery. I know that my CRB check could take a while to be processed, but I'm getting closer to becoming an AYME regional contact :) And I went to the surgery to pick up my high calorie puddings and on the book stall there was a big book about films (RadioTimes Guide To Films - 2004 edition) for just 50p!
Today me and mum went to a local craft shop. It's connected to a place which has loads of birds of prey that they look after and fly in flying displays, but we didn't visit that today. In the craft shop mum bought 2 balls of wool to knit dad some wristwarmers. I bought a watch from there last year but when it came to changing the clocks last Oct I discovered that I couldn't change the time on it. So I took my old watch back today and although I didn't have a receipt I was allowed to swap it for a new one :) My old watch was black, but there weren't any more black ones, so I had to buy one which is a bit brighter. I also bought a pretty bracelet for my cousin Tam's birthday in Feb and a beautiful bracelet for me :) I wanted to post up some photos of my new watch and bracelet, but I can't get them to upload at the moment, so they'll hopefully come with my next blog post.
And then we had some yummy toasted teacakes in the cafe, it was the first time I'd tried them :) On the way home we spotted some funny sights. It's really flat around where we live, so both me and mum couldn't understand it when we saw a proper signpost for a local village mountain rescue! We also saw what looked like a bird of prey sitting in a field, which we assume must have escaped and then we saw a pet cat sitting at the edge of another field. Not sights you see everyday! :P
My dad is away tonight with work, but it feels really odd because he's always here. However I did speak to him on the phone this evening :) He can be very annoying at times, he attempted to sign up to Facebook this week just to annoy me. He quickly gave up though as it was too technological for him, hehe.
If I feel up to it tomorrow I might go and visit my Nan and then on Fri eve Claire is coming round :) I'll try not to overdo it as much on the Wii this week though :P
As you may know from past blog entries I love Pixar films. I've just recently discovered that they have produced art books about the art of their films, which are titled 'The Art Of...' So I enjoyed looking at those on Amazon the other night. They are all quite expensive though.
A little while ago the Daily Mail put up a poll on their website asking people to vote on whether ME is a genuine illness or not. I wasn't happy and it really upset some of my friends with ME. The Daily Mail wouldn't have done that with any other illness. So lots of people complained and the Daily Mail apologised :) That doesn't make it right though, they shouldn't have published the poll in the first place. If you're interested you can see a copy of the email that people who complained received here on a blog I follow from an ME sufferer.
Scotland have just produced and launched an organ donation teaching resource pack which will be distrubuted across schools in Scotland so that pupils can learn about organ donation. I think it is a fantastic project and can't understand why we haven't got the same in England. You can view the actual video that is in the pack here, you can read the press release here and you can read a BBC news article on it here. I know Aaron and his family well and I have spoken to Rachel's family on online transplant forums.
Thanks to everyone who read and commented on my last blog update about my new challenge, 101 in 1001. If you've not read that post yet, you can see it here. And hello Kate :) I'm still working on my list and currently have just over 80 possibilities for it, so I need to try to come up with some more. Any ideas would be appreciated. When I've finished I'll post my list up here as well as on the official Day Zero website.
I know it's not important in the grand scheme of things, but I am intrigued as to whether one of my regular blog readers left the anonymous comment on this blog post, or whether it was from someone who doesn't usually comment. So if it was you who left the comment and you feel like letting me know, then please do :)
On Sun evening I sat down with my parents and we watched the whole series 3 of Gavin and Stacey in one sitting. Probably not sensible, but very enjoyable :P And since my last update we also watched the special features on that DVD and I've watched another Vicar of Dibley episode.
On TV I've watched the Brits Launch Party (which featured some great performances from Ellie Goulding and Pixie Lott), Nurse Jackie, a Victoria Wood programme with mum which went behind the scenes of her 2009 Christmas special, 2 Film 2010s (from which I've decided I don't want to see anything in the cinema at the moment, but might want to see some films towards the end of this month and next month) and some of the music channels, where I saw this music video from Erik Hassle (he's not too bad, but I don't get his appeal) and a programme about the Saturdays (I like most of their music, but every single time I've seen them perform on TV they've mimed!). And tonight I watched some of the National Television Awards. I got bored part way through though because they were doing too much about soaps, so I didn't finish watching it. But I was pleased that Gavin and Stacey won their award and Doctor Who won its award. I liked Joe McElderry's performance, but turned it off before Jedward's performance so didn't have to watch that, phew!
I was disappointed that Fireflies by Owl City didn't top the chart on Sun, it only reached number 2 in the Official UK Top 40. I bought it yesterday though because I forgot to before Sun. I was disappointed to read in an interview that Alexandra Burke wont be touring this year :( I love her album and have listened to it through while writing this update. It's taken me so long that I'm Pixie Lott's album now though because that finished :P Anyway, hopefully Alexandra Burke will tour in 2011, but that seems a long time to wait. A website called Popjustice reviewed Diana Vicker's upcoming debut album which I thought was interesting because I loved her on the X Factor and have been looking forward to the release of her album. If you're interested, you can read the review here.
Tuesday, 19 January 2010
A new challenge
I've heard Emma talk about something called 101 in 1001 on her blog before, so I asked her a bit more about what it is and she's explained it in her latest blog post here. You create a list of 101 goals and have 1001 days (which is about 2.75 years) to complete them. It intrigued me, so I visited the website for it - Day Zero. After reading Emma's lists and some other people's lists I found on the Internet I decided that I'm going to give it a go to try to make my life a bit more productive. I started making my list tonight, but am struggling a bit with it because I'm worried about making some goals (such as ones that involve travelling abroad), because I don't know how my health is going to be over the next 2 and a bit years (1001 days). I'm leaving my list for the night now and it currently has 62 goals in it. From reading my blog do you have any suggestions for goals I could set myself? Thanks. Once I've completed my list I'll post it here and then I also hope to blog about each goal that I complete.
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