Happy Birthday Blog!

My blog is one year old today. This was my first post, written on 10th January 2009. I've really enjoyed keeping a blog over the last year and hope to continue for many more years to come, as long as people still want to read. And I will post an update soon about my ESA medical assessment and the rest of my busy week.

2009 Meme

Thanks Posh Totty for this meme :)

1. What did you do in 2009 that you'd never done before? ... Managed for 6 months without artificial feeds. And I went away with school for 10 days without any artificial feeds and without my parents :D

2. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year? .... I don't think I made any this year. I'm not sure I'll make any resolutions for next year, but I do have hopes that you can see on this blog post.

3. How will you be spending New Year's Eve? ... I will be spending the afternoon at the orthodontist :( I was invited to a sixth form meet-up that night, but am not well enough to go so will probably spend the night at home watching TV.

4. Did anyone close to you die? ... No

5. What countries did you visit? ... Japan :D

6. What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009? ... More energy

7. What date from 2009 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? ... That's a hard question, I really don't know about a specific date, but my memories of Japan will stay with me.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? ... Completing my International Baccalaureate Certificates :)

9. What was your biggest failure? ... At the time dropping maths at school seemed like a failure, but looking back on it dropping a subject was the only way I could keep going at school while I was ill. And I'm really disappointed that I wasn't photographed for the Gifts of Life photography exhibition, but that was out of my control.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury? ... Yup, ME. But that was ongoing from 2008.

11. What was the best thing you bought? ... A sofa and bigger TV (with an inbuilt DVD player) for my bedroom. And my new laptop :D

12. Where did most of your money go? ... DVDs

13. What song will always remind you of 2009? ... I'm not sure about specific songs, but I've enjoyed discovering some fantastic albums this year including 'Funhouse' by Pink, 'It's Not Me It's You' by Lily Allen 'Hands' by Little Boots, 'Taylor Swift' and 'Fearless' by Taylor Swift, 'The Boy Who Knew Too Much' by Mika, 'Turn It Up' by Pixie Lott and 'Overcome' by Alexandra Burke.

14. What do you wish you'd done more of? ... I know I should have rested more to stop my ME getting worse, but I can't just do nothing.

15. What do you wish you'd done less of? .... I know I shouldn't have overdone it so much, which lead to my ME getting worse. But what would I have missed out on then?

16. What was your favourite TV program? ... I rediscovered Absolutely Fabulous on DVD. And Ashes to Ashes series 2 was great.

17. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year? ... Don't think so.

18. What was the best book you read? ... I've not been able to read novels this year because of my poor concentration and memory :(

19. What was your greatest musical discovery? ... Taylor Swift, Little Boots and Pixie Lott.

20. What was your favourite film of this year? ... At the cinema - The Proposal, My Sister's Keeper. The Hangover and Up 3D I think. And of course, how could I forget Coraline! :D I've watched loads of DVDs too, but can't remember specifics. Recently I've really enjoyed watching Memoirs of a Geisha and Girl Interrupted though.

21. What did you do on your birthday? ... Claire came round so I spent the day with her and my family watching DVDs, playing games and Dad cooked tea on a BBQ. I also took Claire to meet my nan for the first time.

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

23. Who did you miss? ... I often miss my best friend Lizzy because she lives 80 miles away so I'm not able to see her as often as I'd like to.

24. Who was the best new person you met? ... I can't just name one, but I've met some amazing people though the online ME communities I've joined.

25. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2009: ... ME is frustrating, but it's not the end of the world. It won't kill me and I will get better, I just don't know when, so need to try to be more patient til then.

Warning - long update!

I don't appear to have learnt from my past mistakes and yet again I've not updated my blog for a week, so this is going to be a long update! Whoops, I hope it's still ok for everyone to read.

On Wednesday evening I heard from Sarah, from the Gifts Of Life project. She couldn't make it on Thursday. So I'm hoping my photoshoot will be rescheduled before the project photoshoots finish at the end of October. I was disappointed as my photoshoot had already been rescheduled once, but I understood Sarah's reasons.

On Thursday I received a huge pile of post:

Thanks mum for the photo!

I received the Christmas cards I'd ordered from AYME (trying to get organised for Christmas before December, but don't worry I'm not writing the cards just yet!), 6 of the DVDs I'd bought with my vouchers on Tuesday, a postcard from my brother and his girlfriend from their holiday in Mallorca and 2 ESA letters. My ESA is now sorted after getting a doctor's letter from my GP and posting that off and making another phone call because some of the details I'd given for my claim over the phone had been recorded incorrectly! Then on Friday the final DVD of all of those that I'd had ordered arrived. And the funniest bit of post I got this week was a letter from Hospital G (the children's hospital I was under when I was on TPN before my transplant) asking me to attend an outpatient appointment there! I've not been under them for about 3 years now, so I'm not sure why we've had 2 or 3 letters like this recently, lol. I wonder if my name is being called out in clinics! Mum is going to phone up to try to sort it this week though.

This week I've started using MSN again as I got so fed up with Facebook chat not working. And MSN is working much better :D I've also been surfing the Internet a lot this week and chatting on two ME forums (AYME and Foggy Friends). I've made some fantastic friends on the forums and they're really good for getting advice and support too. There was an awful episode one night this week though when a member on one of the forums who I knew quite well pretended to have died so he could come back with a new identity. It really messed my head up and confused and upset lots of forum members. But he's been banned from the boards now and I just hope he get the help he needs. Most people on these forums are lovely though :) And one of my new friends also has a Wii and Mario Kart Wii, so we've been racing against each other online this week, which has been great fun :D

I've watched loads of DVD this week :D
~ Spy Kids 3 - was rubbish and when it was being made I think they forgot to give it a plot! Don't watch it, you'll regret wasting your time on it. I thought that was a shame because I love Spy Kids and Spy Kids 2 is quite good.
~ You, Me and Dupree - was very funny and much better than I expected.
~ Mary Poppins - was much better than I remembered and I loved all the songs. Didn't realise it was quite so long though (2hrs 15mins). I'm looking to buy a copy now becuase that one was rented.
~ Edward Scissorhands - was fantastic! I love Tim Burton :D I'd highly recommend it and if you've not got it there's no excuse because HMV, Amazon and Play.com are currently all selling it for just £3!
~Forces of Nature - was less predictable than I expected and very funny. I think Sandra Bullock is a great actress :)
~ Mika Live In Cartoon Motion and Mika Live Parc Des Princes, Paris - were fantastic of course! ;)

And I'm trying to get into Friends after Lizzy (who is a big fan) lent me the whole first series on DVD. I watched the first episode a while ago and watched the second episode this week. I don't really get the humour. I understand some of it, but some of it I don't find funny at all. I'm going to try to watch few more episodes though and see what I think.

I've also watched quite a lot of TV this week, so I wont bore you with details of everything I watched! I don't like the new X Factor auditions format and much preferred it last year without an audience. So I'm glad the auditions are over for this series and hopefully it'll improve from now. I saw a good interview with Pixie Lott on ITV 2's The Hot Desk and really want her album as I like what I've heard of her music. However, I'm currently trying to spend less money so am trying to wait til it comes down in price. I saw a bit of Bestival coverage on channel 4, but the style of the highlights programme (lots of rubbish and not that much music) really annoyed me. It was good to watch Little Boots (I'm so excited about seeing her next month!), Lily Allen and Mika (of course!) performing! :) And Emily did a fantastic job on GMTV yesterday morning talking about Jess, her fight for life and the need for more organ donors. I've put the link to the GMTV as a comment on the Jess blog post.

I've not done much reading this week, but I've enjoyed playing on my DSi a bit. I've preodered a new DS game which is a sequel to my favourite DS game, so I'm excited about getting that on Thursday or Friday this week :D And I've been listening to lots of music this week. I was looking through my iPod for something different to listen to one night before bed and ended up listening to S Club 7. That brought back some good memories, as I saw them in concert 10 years ago. Wow, that is a long time ago! And one evening I put my iPod onto random shuffle and that threw up some interesting tracks including some more memories (Spice Girls :D)

And yesterday Mika's new album, The Boy Who Knew Too Much, was released :D I'd only been waiting for it for 2 years, lol :p So I preordered it from HMV last time I was in the city and then went in yesterday to pick it up. While I was in HMV I spotted a huge pile of reduced copies of Life In Cartoon Motion (Mika's first album) and there must have been about 100! I couldn't go home immediately because I had an orthodontist appointment yesterday afternoon, so I borrowed my mum's old discman (I sold mine at our last carboot) and used that to listen to it while I was out yesterday. I've now listened to the whole album through 7 times and it doesn't disappoint. In fact it gets better with every listen. I'd highly recommend. There are only 2 out of 13 tracks I don't love, but I think they'll probably grow on me. The other 11 tracks are fantastic! :D And I bought the deluxe edition, which includes a second CD, Mika Live At Sadler's Wells, which is the concert I went to in June. So that's great, as I can listen to it and remember that I was there :D

I heard on Friday that Mika was doing a free, secret concert in London last night to celebrate the release of his new album. I was originally going to try to go, but then I found out that the 'secret concert' wasn't actually that secret having been advertised on Mika's website, his Facebook fan page, his Twitter and in the Sun newspaper!! So I knew that it was unlikely I'd get tickets, so I'm waiting for his tour in the new year. Hopefully I'll go to see that twice if I can get tickets :D Mika was on the Paul O'Grady show yesterday talking about his new album and I also found a very interesting article about him on the BBC news website, which you can read here.

I heard the Sugababes news yesterday and am susprised that they're changing their line-up yet again. And I thought Amelle would leave after the arguments last week, not Keisha. Now there are no original members left! I saw them in concert last year and used to be quite a big fan, but I think their current song, Get Sexy, is awful. It'll be interesting to see where their music goes with the new line up.

I'm still struggling with resting. Audio books don't keep my attention (even Harry Potter audio books!), so when I listen to them my mind wanders off and then I miss bits of the narration, which is frustrating. I've tried just doing nothing when I rest, but then I fall asleep! Another suggestion my occupational therapist made was to listen to but not watch the TV, but I know if I have the TV on I have to watch it. So I asked for suggestions on one of the ME forums I use and have ordered a relaxation CD to try. At the moment though I keep putting off resting as I can always think of better things to do. But I know that's not a good idea. So hopefully the relaxation CD wont take long to arrive and hopefully I'll find that useful.

Some nights I'm still feeling quite nocturnal despite taking Melatonin. No matter what time I get to sleep I always get up at 9.30am every morning. I think that's good because it stops me getting even more nocturnal, but it does mean if I have a rough night (like I did on Sunday when I kept waking up throughout the night), I can be very tired the next day. I'm wondering if actually I don't need as much sleep as I think I need, which could explain why I don't get to sleep til late, so am going to try getting up a bit earlier and seeing if that then helps me get to sleep a bit earlier. And if that doesn't work then I can double my Melatonin dose to see if that makes a difference. So I'm feeling optimistic that my nocturnalism will be improved :D

I weighed myself this morning and had put on 0.3kg. So I'm now 46.6kg. Last week I went back onto 7 nights of feed per week because I didn't gain any weight the previous week (I was stuck at 46.3kg). So I'm glad I'm now gaining weight again, but I'm frustrated that it's so slow. My dietician at hospital B, S, thinks my ideal weight is 50kg, but would like to me to get 52kg before we stop the overnight feeds because that way I'll have room to lose a little bit of weight. But I think my ideal weight is between 48 and 48.5kg, so 2kg less than what S thinks it is. I think this because when I came off my overnight feeds in February to go to Japan, my weight was 50kg. It dropped to 48.1 kg within a fornight and then stayed between 48.0 and 48.5kg for 6 months without any overnight feeds. It only dropped from that when I got a stomach bug at the start of August. And now I'm back on overnight feeds my weight stuck at 48.3kg again. So I think it might be tricky to get my weight up to 52kg. I need to speak to S, but she's off sick at the moment. Will speak to her when she's back though and see what she thinks.

On Sunday my appetite was great, so I ate a big lunch for me - 2 croissants, 3 shortbread biscuits and a glass of milk. Then that afternoon for the first time in around a month, I had awful tummy ache :( I'd eaten croissants and shortbread recently, so I think the tummy ache must have been related to the volume I ate, rather than what I ate. So that's put me off eating a bit! But I'm still eating lots of croissants :D

For the last week or so my hayfever seems to have been worse than usual, which puzzled me because I can't imagine that there is much pollen around at the moment. But then I worked it out. For my birthday my dad bought me some flowers and also bought my mum some too. So this week mum's were in a vase in the kitchen and mine were in a vase in the living room. I worked out that they were causing my hayfever last night when I was downstairs for longer than usual and my throat started to feel a bit swollen. Mum moved them out of the house and now I'm feeling much better :)

The inside of my mouth is now completely healed :D My lip caught on my braces while I was asleep one night this week and that was a bit sore, but healed quickly. I've been feeling quite good in myself again this week, but had an awful afternoon yesterday. I'd been fine in the city in the morning but then just felt completely exhausted from lunchtime. Think it was probably partly due to sleeping badly the previous night and maybe also because I'd had a busy morning. I felt awful waiting for my hygeinist appointment yesterday afternoon, but the appointment itself went ok. And I felt better once I got home.

Yesterday afternoon when me and mum were shopping in the city, mum dragged me off to a wool shop - boring! So mum browsed round for wool and I just sat down because at this point I was feeling exhausted. Then Liz Barker came into the shop. I don't know if any of you will have watched Blue Peter between 2000 and 2006, but she was one of the Blue Peter presenters I grew up watching and I used to think she was great. I was feeling rubbish and a bit shy at this point, but my mum immediately got chatting to her (think mum was more excited than me!) and involved me too. Liz was lovely :D And mum had her camera with her, so took 2 lovely photos. I've posted both photos because I can't decide which is the best. The little girl on the photos is Liz's daughter, Poppy.

Lots of things have happened in the transplant community this week. On Thursday a little girl, B, from hospital B died. She recieved a small bowel transplant just before Christmas, but had had a really rough time since then. So that news shocked everyone. Then on Fri I heard an update on K, who I'm sure I've mentioned previously. K is 4 years old, has been in and out of hospital recently and she now needs a 2nd transplant. She's had an awful time over the last few weeks and has been in hospital and on Morphine for her pain :( She's at hospital B for her transplant assessment at the moment, so I really hope she doesn't have to wait long for her call. I heard from little E's mum this week too. E is feeling much better in himself, but is still in hospital and still requires a second transplant. And E's little sister B is doing really well and I've seen some photos of her :D And then there's been the news of Jess which I blogged about earlier in the week. Holly is planning a sponsored abseil in November to raise money and awareness for Live Life Then Give Life. I wanted to participate as I'd love to abseil, but I'm not well enough :( I'll definitely be sponsoring the participants though and as soon as I find out how to do that, I'll let you know :)

Earlier this week I wrote and sent a letter to my new penpal. Mawite is 16 years old and lives in Burma. She is the neice of my friend Lizzy's husband. So that was exciting and I'm looking forward to hearing back from her :)

On Friday my friend Claire came round and we had a lovely time chatting, playing Ligretto (which I won with 10 games to Claire's 2!) and racing on Mario Kart Wii (which I also won ;)) :D

My mum's car had its MOT last week. We weren't anticipating any problems so it was a bit of a shock to us all when we were told that it couldn't be driven on the road in its current condition! And it'll cost about £500 to repair it so it'll pass an MOT, which we can't afford. Currently our family just have one working car, but dad doesn't think that's a practical long-term solution. So we're going to see if dad's car passes it's MOT next month and then decide whether to get mum a new car or whether to repair her current car (both of which will probably involve borrowing some money). We're finding it quite tricky with just one car at the moment as dad uses the car to commute to work every morning, so me and mum then don't have use of a car during the day. The public transport round here is rubbish, but we might have to get used to using it for a while if we want to go out. Luckily Alf's bus pass has no arrived, so that's saving my parents a bit of money on his bus fairs.

Sleep, braces, benefits and DVDs

I've had a few disturbed nights recently. Sunday night I was woken by my braces cutting my mouth and my dad yelling as he fell out of bed (lol!) and then Monday morning by Alf making a lot of noise getting ready for school. Then on Tuesday morning I was woken earlier than I would have liked because the hedge at the back of our back garden was being cut from the garden behind and the hedge trimmer was very noisy. And this morning my dad was slamming doors! Grrrr. The melatonin hasn't really made me feel less nocturnal and I can still read into the night because I don't feel tired, but once I make myself get into bed it isn't taking me long to fall asleep. So I'm going to keep using it and see what happens.

On Monday I phoned up the orthodontist about my sore mouth and asked for an emergency appointment. I was very surprised that they fitted me in that afternoon. My normal grumpy dentist wasn't working on Monday, so I saw a different orthodontist instead. And she was lovely, why can't I have a nice orthodontist normally?! She was very helpful and quickly worked out what the problem was. I knew the inside of my mouth was being cut, but I couldn't work out what by because I was covering all the brackets up with orthodontic wax. The orthodontist I saw noticed that the cuts in my cheek were actually wire shaped, so when I was sleeping (on my side), the wire that went across the gaps where my teeth used to be (before the extractions) was pressing into and cutting my cheek. So she took the wire out and put some protective casing (like a plastic sleeve) over the wire in those places and then replaced the wire. And my mouth seems to be slowly healing. She also tried an idea to stop the wire from coming loose when I eat, but it hasn't really worked. Never mind. I'm hoping that now my mouth is feeling a bit better my appetite might start to increase, as the only thing I can fancy eating at the moment is croissants. When I weighed myself yesterday my weight was exactly the same as last week and that was with 6 nights of feed. So it looks like I need to eat more to put on weight. I'm waiting to hear from my dietician, as I emailed her my weight yesterday.

I've been feeling quite good for the last week or two with regards to my tiredness and energy. I don't have loads of energy, but I seem to have more than usual and seem to be less tired too. I'm also feeling unusually cheerful and optimistic :D My rests aren't going very well though as I'm still finding resting boring (despite now having Harry Potter audio books to listen to), so am not resting as much as I should be. It's difficult because I don't feel like I need to rest at the moment because I don't feel too bad, but know I ought to to help myself in the future, if not today.

Alf is still happy at sixth form, though isn't impressed with the amount of homework he's getting already and he's not even started coursework yet! He's enquired about changing to chemistry, but one set of chemistry lessons is at the same time as his English Lit lessons and he knows that he doesn't want to give up English Lit. So he's going to look into what the other set of chemistry lessons clash with. A few days ago we heard that his application for a bus pass has been successful, so when that comes through my parents will just pay a discounted rate for him to use the bus to and from school, but it'll still be quite a bit of money. But it wont be as much as it's costing my parents for him to use the bus at the moment. Because he's not a child any more (he's 16), he has to pay adult prices. A return ticket for a journey that is about 7 miles cost £4.70! I think that's outrageous! So currently it's costing my parents almost £5 a day to get him to and from school.

I've not mentioned E for a little while. E will definitely need a second transplant. However, his parents are staying very positive about his future. And very excitingly, E's little sister, B, was born on Monday. Both mum and baby are doing well. So I made a new baby card for them and got it in the post on Tuesday. I'm looking forward to seeing some photos :)

On Monday I phoned up Job Centre Plus with the aim of getting an appointment at my local branch to find out what benefits I'm entitled to. But the person I spoke to on the phone said it could all be done over the phone. I'm not sure if I've mentioned before that I hate using the phone. I'm ok speaking to friends or family on the phone (but would still prefer to communicate via text or email instead where possible), but really struggle with speaking to strangers or people I don't know well. It'd taken me a lot of courage to prepare to phone up Job Centre Plus to arrange an appointent, so I was a bit worried about the idea of doing more over the phone. But I did and I'm so proud of myself :D The phone call took about 30mins and I found out that I was eligible for ESA and so put in a claim for that. I'm waiting to receive a letter through the post including all the details I gave on the phone which I'll have to check through to make sure everything is correct. And that letter will also provide details of a letter I need to get from my GP. I'm also going to look at getting my DLA reviewed as I feel that things have changed since that was last reviewed just after my transplant. That'll be a complicated process though with lots of forms to fill in.

Last night I finished an interesting novel called 'While My Sister Sleeps' by Barbara Delinsky. It was quite a sad book but it was well written and similar to Jodi Picoult's style. It was also about organ donation and I was very pleased to read a mention of intestinal transplants at one point! My concentration isn't very good at the moment, so I struggle to read, but I'm pleased that I managed to finish a novel, as I've not done that for a few weeks.

My Vicar of Dibley ultimate collection DVD set arrived this morning, that was a birthday present from my parents. I'm looking forward to watching some of it as I love watching episodes when they're on TV. And my HMV DVDs (Sister Act, Edward Scissorhands and The Corpse Bride) arrived in the post on Monday morning. And yesterday I had an online shopping spree thanks to some gift vouchers (£10 Borders, £10 Amazon and £15 Amazon) that I received for my birthday. With that I managed to buy 7 DVDs and it only cost me £3 because most of it was paid for with my vouchers. So all the fun of shopping but without the guilt of spending too much money :D All but one of the DVDs were dispatched yesterday, so should be with me soon. The DVDs I bought were: Cars, Ratatouille, Wall-E (can you tell I like Pixar?!), Shrek the Halls (to complete my Shrek DVD collection), Wild Child, While You Were Sleeping and Raising Helen. All but Ratatouille are DVDs I've seen before, but really enjoyed and would like to be able to watch again when I want to. And I know Ratatouille will be good because it's made by Pixar :D

Yesterday afternoon me and mum were originally planning to go to the cinema to see Julie & Julia, but we decided against it because I was tired and mum had a headache. So we stayed at home and watched a DVD called Muriel's Wedding instead. The film was ok, but I don't think I'd watch it again. My mum really enjoyed watching it though. She chose that DVD so when we decided to watch one today it was my choice. I chose Monsters Inc, which is very funny and is my second favourite Pixar film. We both really enjoyed watching it :D

I've watched a few things on TV this week including the second part of a fantastic BBC series called Lost Land of the Volcano. I'd highly recommend watching it on iPlayer if you're at all interested in nature and wildlife. I also watched the first episode of Design for Life earlier in the week. It's an odd new reality TV show that follows a French designer putting 12 contestants who want to be designers through various tasks and eliminating a couple each week. I didn't think it was particularly good, but will probably watch next week's episode to see if it gets going a bit more.

I've also been doing a bit of sorting out in my bedroom over the last couple of days. I have 2 storage units for my CDs and DVDs, but my growing DVD collection was running out of room, so my CDs have been moved to a box under my bed (I don't need to access them much because all my music is on my iPod and my laptop) to make room for more DVDs. And today I'm tidying my bedroom because I'm having a photoshoot tomorrow and there's a chance my room might be in some of the photos, so I don't want it to look too cluttered! My photoshoot tomorrow is with Sarah, mum to Wills, a little boy who had a small bowel transplant just less than a year ago, so met her through the transplant community. She is very artistic and is currently creating a photography project about organ donation called Gifts of Life. Sarah also blogs about her Gifts of Life project here. And I've offered to be involved, so my photoshoot is tomorrow :D Just hoping I'll feel ok for the photoshoot, fingers crossed. Will blog about it afterwards.

Sunday

I felt quite tired this morning after such a busy day yesterday and woke up with a very sore mouth again. I thought it had healed, but my brace or a sharp tooth cut my mouth again in the night :( So I'm going to try to get an emergency orthodontist appointment this week. Even though I wasn't feeling great this morning I still decided to go out to browse round our local weekly carboot sale. It was very windy and I was freezing!! But I began to warm up as I went round. I spent £16 at the carboot sale this morning, but got loads for it! I got a copy of the book My Sister's Keeper (as I've lent my copy to my nan), a gamecube game to play on my Wii, 2 audio books (only £2.50 each - bargain!) and the Ashes to Ashes soundtrack CD. I also bought 4 DVDs for myself (Love Actually, There's Something About Mary, Drowning Mona and The Pursuit of Happyness), a music DVD and a comedy DVD for my mum for Christmas and a comedy DVD for my dad for Christmas or his birthday.

I felt very tired when we got home, so had a quick lunch and then a 30min rest. After listening to my Harry Potter audio book for 20mins I began struggling to concentrate and so kept missing bits of the narration. So I turned it off and planned to just lay there for 10 more mins, but I nodded off. Whoops!

This afternoon I caught up on some emails, spoke to some friends on Facebook and set my new digital photo frame up. Then my older brother Chris and his girlfriend Sophie came round. On Friday they returned from a holiday to Mallorca. It was nice to hear all about their holiday, though I think 250 photos might have been a bit excessive! And they brought me back a couple of things for birthday presents. I received a Mallorca fan:

A lovely shell box:

And a pretty pair of earrings:
While Chris and Sophie were round, I helped Alf to set up a Facebook account :D

After tea I spoke to dad about my money because my last 2 bank statements have made me realise that I'm spending a ridiculous amount of money each month. I'm not buying anything very expensive, but I'm just buying lots of little things (DVDs, DS and Wii games, clothes, concert/theatre tickets...) each month. So I'm going to set up a budget sheet in Microsoft Excel this month by adapting one my dad designed and then from October 1st I'm going to use that to keep an eye on my spending. And then hopefully I will be able to come up with a plan to stop me spending so much, as I'd really like to save some money too. I currently get Disability Living Allowance, but am going to contact my local job centre this week to see if I'm entitled to any more benefits because my ME means that I'm not really well enough to work at the moment. I'll let you know how I get on with that. And mum and dad also want me to start paying them rent now that I'm out of full time education.

I watched a bit of TV this evening and am now going to finish off on the computer and then read for a little bit before trying to get an early-ish night.

Saturday - my 19th birthday :D

I had a lovely birthday :D :D :D

I had a lie-in until about 9am in the morning and then got up and pottered about before sitting down with my parents to open my cards and presents.

These are the cards I received:
Note the card in the middle that looks hand made. My friend Claire drew that for me and it's a picture of what she imagined would be on my bookshelves :D I also received lots of birthday texts, emails, forum messages, Facebook messages and phone calls. My nan and auntie phoned in the morning to wish me happy birthday and I rang my uncle as he has the same birthday as me. Later in the day I recieved a phone call from my friend Lizzy and her daughter M and that was lovely as they both sang happy birthday down the phone to me :)

I received some lovely presents from my family and friends :D My parents bought me 4 DVDs (Toy Story, Toy Story 2, The Feeling: Come Home and Mika live at Parc des Princes Paris) as well as giving me an IOU for the Vicar of Dibley Ultimate Collection on DVD which is on its way from Amazon. I can't wait to watch all my new DVDs :D Mum and dad also got me a little gadget called Hide ID, which stamps a random lot of letters, numbers and symbols over personal details on documents, which means you don't need to shred them. Very clever. And dad bought me a lovely bunch of flowers and mum knitted me a very cute hedgehog:
From other family members I received £15 from my nan (which I'll use to buy Mika's second album) and a fantastic pair of earrings from Alf, which I've worn constantly since I unwrapped them:
I received some more jewellery too, including this beautiful pendant from my cousin:
And this bracelet from my friend and neighbour, S, who I saw for the first time in ages last Tuesday:
I received a £10 Amazon voucher from E (a friend from sixth form) and a £10 Borders voucher from H (the friend who I saw on Thursday). I don't know what I'm going to spend them on yet - probably more DVDs - but I'm looking forward to browsing. My closest friend from sixth form, Catherine, bought me this lovely photo frame with a photo of us together in Japan in it, which I know I'll always treasure:

After opening all my presents I sent lots of thank you texts and waited for Claire. She got a bit held up though attempting to make me a cheesecake as I don't like 'normal' birthday cakes, lol. So I watched some TV (a programme on C4 about Pixie Lott's debut album), checked my emails and pottered around until Claire arrived.

When Claire arrived I opened my presents from her. She bought me some yummy shortbread, a nail file, 4 nail varnishes in colours I love and a fantastic digital photo frame. I've been fiddling with the digital photo frame this afternoon and I love it! It's currently set to a slideshow of some of my Florida photos :D Then we played my favourite cardgame (Ligretto) for a bit and had some lunch before going to visit my nan. We spent about an hour at my nan's house and it was lovely to see her and for her and Claire to meet each other for the first time.

When we got back home we watched a very funny DVD called Along Came Polly and then dad did a very yummy BBQ :D And for pudding we had Claire's cheese cake which was delicious!

Me with my birthday cake:

Me and Alf:

Me and Claire:
After tea we watched another very funny film called Over the Hedge and played some more Ligretto :) I didn't manage fit any rests in yesterday though, so felt quite unwell towards the end of the day - I was exhausted, had a headache and tummyache and felt nauseus :( My Melatonin (the tablet to help me sleep) had arrived in the post yesterday morning, so I tried that out last night. I fell asleep quite quickly but woke a few times during the night, so I'll keep trying with that and see how my sleep goes. I also had my weekly night off feeds last night :)

Just before I went to bed last night I emailed my donor's sister. I email her every so often to keep her and her parents updated with my progress, as she says knowing how well I'm doing really helps them. I also email every Christmas and transplant anniversary to let them know that they're in my thoughts. I felt it was important to email last night because I'd had a fantastic birthday, but am very aware that if I hadn't recieved my transplant almost 3 years ago, then I wouldn't have been celebrating turning 19 yesterday. Yesterday I also took the opportunity to post a message on Facebook urging people to sign up to the organ donor register to enable other people to have a second chance, just like I have. My friend Claire is a teacher and she teaches 11 to 16 year olds who can't attend school for behavoural or medical reasons. She was my tutor before my transplant when I couldn't attend school, but now we're just great friends. Yesterday when we were chatting she asked me if I'd be able to speak to a group of 12 GCSE students about organ donation in one of their PSHE sessions this year. I'm hoping to do it to help raise awareness of organ donations, but although I've been confident giving talks to health professionals and adults in the past, the idea of speaking to teenagers is a bit scary!