Sunday 9th August

A slow start to the morning. Then Gary gave me a lift home with all my bags and suitcase. I found a very hungover Robyn. Leah had already gone out. What a welcome home!

I sat and did nothing and that got me thinking  

While I was on holiday last week I got two bits of terrible news from home. 

On Sunday morning I found out that Rosco, a friend from the town where I live, had died. He had a liver transplant 21 years ago I think it was and had recently become poorly again. He hadn’t really told anyone he was starting to feel unwell. He had been in the Queen Elizabeth and was back on the transplant list. I don’t know the exact details of his illness but very sadly he didn’t make it through 😥 I was gutted.

I first met Kate when she came to visit me when I was in critical care. Before I went in to hospital Robyn had found her blog on the Internet (she had already undergone 3 liver transplants), had been talking to her about my condition and  what we were about to go through and she helped Robyn quite a lot with her questions and worries, so they arranged that they would meet and that she would come and see me after I had my transplant. We then all kept in touch through Facebook, texts and our blogs. Kate became ill again and went back into the QE so when I had my clinic visits there, me and Robyn and Leah would pop up to the ward to visit her. Sadly Kate got worse. She had been ill at home for a while, then a blood clot had formed in her liver which went septic. She went on to the transplant list again and in and out of critical care. While I was walking around Port Isaac on Thursday, from the texts I was getting from Robyn, I knew things were not looking good. My mood changed.

On Friday morning I got the news that Kate had died. No 😥. Devastated. I was literally shaking.

It would have been absolutely awful whenever I heard this news at any time but when I was away on holiday? After hearing the news and having a cry I had to pull myself together and get on with the rest of the day with the others. Difficult times but I hope I did reasonably well I know my head wasn’t good though and I drifted off to other places some of the time 😦

I still feel so guilty. How come things have worked out okay for me so far and not for my friends? It just doesn’t seem fair. I think of their families ALL the time and about what they are going through right now. I told my original consultant from the Horton hospital in Banbury when I saw him and he said ‘well you haven’t had an easy time of it either’.

I’ve now been lucky enough to be able to go to Cornbury music festival and go on holiday to Cornwall. To think I was led in my hospital bed not long ago thinking ‘would I ever be able to walk around normally again like other people are here’. I never thought I would be able to go away to these places. I realise once again how much I owe and how thankful I am to my donors and their families.

It’s hard this liver transplant thing! It’s not just physically that takes a long time to recover. It’s hard mentally too and right now I’m finding that quite difficult …

Made it onto the front page of our local paper today!

If you want to read more the link is http://bit.ly/1MoiqVd
Robyn’s link to her challenge is http://bit.ly/DunbarsDonors

Saturday 8th August

Up we get. Time to pack. It never all goes back in as easily does it?!!

We all said our goodbyes.

We had already decided that we were going to stop at Tintagel first for a wander around and some last minute present shopping. We also were going to go down to the beach there pebble hunting, but the tide was in so we couldn’t actually go right down. A real shame because I love it there.

  
I had a nice ploughmans for lunch though and got some more fudge as there was another Granny Wobbly’s shop. Yay 🙂  After a look around the shops it was time to go 😦  We had a good journey home, there were hardly any hold ups with the traffic.

Robyn and Leah weren’t at home so I just went straight back to Garys after dropping Emma and Jamie off.

After a quick sit in the garden we then decided to go down to our local pub as a friend’s band was playing there. A nice end to our holiday.

Friday 7th August

I heard some terrible news this morning when I woke (more details in a future post), so I didn’t go up to the clubhouse with the others. They were going up to see if they could win a cuddly Minion from the machine in the games room. It was out of order though

Emma and Jamie got a lift to the beach with her grandad and grandma so me and Gary tried to find somewhere else to go for a while. There wasn’t really anywhere where we hadn’t been before unless we travelled a long way so we just went to meet the others at the beach too in the end. It was cloudy when we first got there with a few spots of rain but then that cleared and it came out quite hot and sunny 🙂

  
Jamie and Emma were having fun 🙂

On the last evening of the holiday we all go out somewhere nice for a meal together. This is what I had to eat.

  
Chargrilled chicken burger on a brioche roll. It was nice but cold! My dessert was Eton Mess. I didn’t eat all of either of them but I did quite well. We then went back to the clubhouse for our last Wifi session! and back for bed, as alarms were going to have to be set for the morning. The bad thing about staying in these static caravans is that when your holiday is over you have to be out at 10am 😵

Wednesday 5th and Thursday 6th August

It decided to rain on Wednesday. And rain. And rain. 

Emma has a friend that has just moved to Cornwall so we took her and Jamie to Newquay so they could meet. The traffic was awful trying to get in to the centre of Newquay so when we had dropped them off we carried on a bit further down the coast to Perranporth. Had something to eat and went in and out a few shops and then it was time to go back and pick up the others. Had a bit of a scenic drive back, along the coast road! We did pass some lovely little coves.

Then we had some food shopping to do. As we were going to be late back to the van the others decided they wanted Chinese takeaway to eat. So I decided I was going to have cheese and crackers. But what I actually ended up eating was a triple chocolate cookie and some Sahara nuts from the clubhouse later. Naughty me

Luckily for us holidaymakers there was an amazing change in the weather overnight. Thursday was hot and sunny. We went to Port Isaac first. Just wandered about in the sun and in and out whichever of the gift shops took our fancy. Had a little walk on the beach in the harbour where Jamie and Gary were enjoying themselves looking for some ‘treasure’!

That was a nice morning. We walked back to the car park along the coast path. Quite a walk and all uphill but I made it 🙂 Then we set off for the beach nearby where the others already were. After a while I decided I wanted to go and clamber over the rocks and see if there were any creatures in the rock pools. Just saw a few very very tiny fish. I paddled my feet as me and Gary walked along the edge of the sea.
  
Sorry I know the photo’s not too great

Another good long walk.

We were having another barbecue tonight. Jamie and Gary had bought some squid and some tiger king prawns when we were at Port Isaac, so they barbecued them as well. No thanks, not for me, I stuck to the sweet chilli chicken, sausage and a salad!

Sunday 2nd to Tuesday 4th August

Off to the beach today. So first we had to go into Wadebridge as Emma and Jamie wanted to buy a wetsuit. All the kids like to go bodyboarding while on holiday. As it was Sunday most of the shops were shut, the one that was open was too expensive so that idea was given up. We did get to go to Granny Wobbly’s fudge shop though, that was a nice bonus.

It was lovely at the beach, sunny but windy. Had a walk down to the sea when the rest of them were ready in their wetsuits 🏄 Normally I would have got changed and gone in the sea too but i knew it was going to be ‘rather cold’ and I wasn’t sure if it would be a good idea or not to be battered about by the waves.

Gary’s dad cooked a barbecue in the evening and everyone came over to our caravan to eat. Then my tummy decided it was going to be unsettled! so I stayed in the van 😦 while everyone else went up to play rounders and had a drink in the clubhouse.

On Monday we drove to a village called Rock and waited for the passenger ferry which was going to take us over to Padstow. We wandered around the shops and the harbour there. It’s nice in Padstow but it was incredibly busy. Very long queues for pasties and ice creams! And so many dogs on holiday too!!!

  
But I did get to have a cup of tea with a seagull while in Padstow!

Tuesday we thought was going to be another nice beach day. It was sunny at times and when that happened it was actually nice and warm but it was also very windy.

Hot dog and chips to eat when we got back 🙂 this time at Ali’s caravan. Then up to the clubhouse. There is hardly any mobile phone signal in our caravans and no internet service so we all descend upon the clubhouse in the evening to try and get on the free Wifi. Even that’s a bit temperamental though and if you are lucky enough to connect it can be very slow at times.

Worth going up there though for the warm Sahara nuts with some kind of curry flavour coating on them that you can get from there – nice!!!

Saturday 1st August

At 4.45am the alarm went off, although I had been awake for about two hours already Few swigs of tea, get ready quick and off we went to pick up Gary’s daughter Emma and her boyfriend Jamie. The plan was to meet the rest of the holiday party at Gordano services at 7.00am. For once we arrived early!! Hello Gary’s mum and dad, his sister Ali and Tim her husband and their children Lily, Molly and Katy. Had a coffee, was this really mine?! …

Then on to our next meet up point for bacon sandwiches. And then our next one for another drink!! Last stop St Minver Holiday Park, Cornwall. We were staying in 3 separate caravans but all quite close to each other.

We encountered some rain on the way but by the time we had got into our caravan and got sorted the sun was out, so some of us sat out on our patio for a while. That was nice.  

Not a good start for my eating this holiday though. We went to the clubhouse on the site. I ordered a vegetable lasagne which was still cold when it arrived so we sent it back. When it came back again I didn’t really like it too much so I only ate half of it anyway Fussy old me 😏 Back to the caravan for bed, it had been a long day. But sleeping wasn’t too successful either!

Monday 27th to Friday 31st July

Monday morning I went with Robyn to pick up her new car from Kidlington. Trouble was, how were we going to get there? We decided we would get on the  Oxford bus. But when we got on, the driver told us he wasn’t going through Kidlington. So we had to go right into Oxford, get off and find a bus back to Kidlington!! Oh well, a bit of an adventure for a Monday morning.

Into the garage we went and poor Robyn had to part with her money, then off she drove in it. It’s a nice car, a lovely blue Volkswagen Polo. I used to have one too but Robyn’s is a much newer model. We got some lunch, got some shopping then had to get home so Robyn could go for her massage. What a life she has 😜

Tuesday and Wednesday I just spent at home. Very boring really and much too quiet for my liking.

Thursday was photo shoot day 📷 Robyn had been in touch with the Oxford Mail to get some publicity for her donor challenge and a lady had contacted her to arrange for a photographer to come out! So at the crazy time of 9.00am in the morning we were posing 😃 in our organ donor t-shirts and with Robyn’s dad, who has also had a kidney transplant can you believe! I wonder how many children have had to go through that, both parents having transplants? I’d love to actually know.

It was funny. Me and Robyn had to look at each other and we couldn’t do that without laughing. We had loads of pictures taken. Don’t know what on earth they will look like. We are supposed to be in the paper either on Saturday or Monday apparently. So we wait to see …

My next challenge was to get to my local doctors’ surgery. I had an appointment at 10.20am. I was going to have to catch a bus from the town to the surgery that’s just out of town. I got there just in time. Had a good old chat with Dr Fisher. I used to see him all the time before transplant so he wants me to keep in touch now! He said I was looking so much better, he told me I always looked quite ill when he saw me before so he had got used to seeing me like that! He’s still saying I can’t go back to work yet though I was then too early to get the bus back so I went into the hospital which is next door to the surgery and had a chat to my friend Wendy who I used to work with a few years ago. It was nice to see her although we are Facebook friends so we do keep in touch that way.

A bit of an eventful day for me!

Friday I did a bit of packing. I’m going on holiday to Cornwall tomorrow 🔆🍦