Tuesday 31st May to Wednesday 1st June

Tuesday was spent at work and at home. Wednesday being the same, but with an extra busy morning in the shop!

Robyn had gone off to London for a couple of days away with Tom, so there were none of her silly antics going on 😦 I miss that.

When I was very ill, as well as being told I had to give up work I was also told that I had to give up alcohol. And not because I drank lots because I never really have. But as I had cirrhosis of the liver I needed to try and give it every extra chance of being able to work that I possibly could  

I was also suffering with terrible cramps in my legs and hands and someone mentioned that drinking tonic water might help because of the quinine in it (it didn’t help by the way, the cramps were so painful. My fingers would just lock up into like a fist at times and there was nothing I could do to straighten my fingers until it passed) and that is what I still drink today. But I sometimes push the boat out now and have it with elderflower!

I had a couple of glasses of rose wine with my family on Christmas Day and I haven’t had any other alcohol since. Apart from one mouthful when I was in the pub recently and I picked up my friends drink instead of my own, which I did not feel happy about. I feel I owe it to my donors as a mark of respect.

So I wonder if I will be tempted by any of these non-alcoholic drinks that I have found being recommended on the British @LiverTrust Twitter page.

Saturday 28th to Monday 30th May

I’m a bit in the wars again at the moment. I’ve recently had the mole removed from my shoulder which is still sometimes a bit sore, I’ve just been able to remove the tape from my lip but I’m still having to walk around with the small scab there which has yet to fall off, the male nurse that took my blood on Monday very kindly left me with a bruised arm this time, and to top it all I now have gained a black eye to go with it!

When we got back after our day out yesterday Leah had asked me what I had done to my eye as I had a black mark on it. When I woke up this morning it looked like this.

How on earth did that happen as I hadn’t knocked it or anything

I was feeling miserable, fed up and sorry for myself so I had a bit of a cry 😰 then I pulled myself together and started to get the final things ready for the car boot sale in the morning (yes I finally made my mind up!) I was going to be leaving straight from Gary’s house very early in the morning so I needed to be super organised and remember lots of things – something I’m not very good at doing 🤔

So the alarm went off at a stupid time for a Sunday morning, I picked Robyn up, met up with Julie and Hannah, and we all set off to the car boot sale. It was freezing but at least it was dry. Car boot sales are not one of my favourite things to be doing. You spend ages sorting the stuff ready to sell and pricing it all up, load it all into the car, have to get up early, get it all back out of the car and lay it out on your table, haggle with the customers because they never want to pay the full price for anything (even if it’s only 50p), pack it all back into the car when you have done, get home, unload it all from your car again and then have to decide what on earth you are going to do with the stuff you still have left!!! 

By the time I got back of course the sun had decided to come out and it was really quite warm. So I sat in the garden and sorted some of the things that we had brought back straight into bags ready to go to the local charity shops. 

Bank Holiday Monday and I was still feeling pretty fed up. We had a very quick trip in to Banbury, I think I went in two shops and came home. A bit later in the afternoon I called round to Julie’s and had a cup of tea with her, and that was about it.

Bank Holiday over and back to work in the morning. And nothing had really been achieved and no exciting places had been visited. How frustrating 🙃

I did find three interesting articles for you to have a read of though.

‘alive’ organs, 50th kidney-versary and low donations.

Happy reading 👓

Friday 27th May

Two years ago today my wonderful mum died. We all miss her dreadfully, so on this anniversary day we have decided that we will spend the day together doing something that she would also have enjoyed doing. And we’ve named it Nanny’s Day 😍

So this morning we had a trip to the grave first. We put some fresh water in the flowers and Robyn, Leah and Hannah left their new little trinkets which they had bought for her 👼

Then we set off to Bourton on the Water, which is probably only about half an hours drive away from us. Ideal!

It’s a lovely place to visit and again we were lucky with the weather, a warm and sunny day. Last year we went to Bibury Trout Farm and the weather was gorgeous then too. I think maybe Nanny is helping us out in this department 🤔

Our first visit was to the Dragonfly Maze (have a look on their Facebook page). It was really good, a bit different to a normal maze. You had to work out the rebus type clues that you came across on the path as you were trying to solve the maze, and this spelt out some instructions that you needed when you got to the middle of the maze, so that you could find the dragonfly! So if you miss some of the clues (like we did) you have no idea what to do. Luckily we ended up in the middle with two other families and between us, after quite a good few minutes, we pieced our answers together, so in the end we got the full instructions and we all at last found the dragonfly 🤗

Time for an ice cream, a bit of people watching and a relax on the grass after all that hard work.

After a bit of a wander around it was time for our afternoon tea. We went to Mary’s Rest Tearoom & Cafe, just off the main street. As it was so nice we were able to sit outside ☀️

Unusually, but a good idea I think, you got to choose your own filling for your sandwiches, although I would have liked to have been able to choose more than one filling so you got a bit of variety and you also got to choose which cakes you would like. So egg sandwiches for me. Carrot cake (recommended by the owner) and coffee cake. The scones were warm and came with jam and clotted cream. We also got a little salad and some crisps. And of course a lovely pot of tea. Just delicious 😋 I took my cake home with me in the end so I could enjoy them at a later date. I was full.

Then it was time for our day to end ☹️ Back to reality. I went back and did some washing up, Robyn went to meet her friends briefly and Leah went off to do the food shopping with Julie and Hannah!!! We’d had a good day though.

On a completely different note, imagine going into work one day and ending up doing what Dr Um has done. I think you should have a little read. Some of the comments people have made at the end are I think ‘interesting’. I don’t think some of them know what it’s like to constantly be feeling unwell and have been desperately waiting for something to come along that would make them feel better. I can understand their concerns but I think they might change their minds if they found themselves in that situation don’t you?

Wednesday 25th to Thursday 26th May

No work for me this morning. I was having a trip out to the Churchill Hospital in Oxford for a follow up appointment from my mole being removed.

Good news. Everything was fine and the result is that it wasn’t cancerous. Just a ‘build up of cells’ I think was the way they explained it to me 😀

The problem I did have though was still with the wart on my lip. Yes it was still there, no it still hasn’t dropped off! It was starting to annoy me now. So I asked yet again if something could be done about it and yet another doctor came and had a look. He said that they would cut it off for me as the cryotherapy had already been done twice and hadn’t worked. I couldn’t bear the thought of having to come back yet again as there’s always a big issue for me of trying to get the time off from work, so I asked if they would be able to do it today. Always worth a try! The doctor said if I was prepared to wait, they would fit me in as he would like to get it removed for me today if they could. 

So I decided to go off and get something to eat as obviously that might be a bit more difficult after I had the procedure. I went to the League of Friends cafe and had a freshly made cheese salad roll and a mug of tea. It was really good actually! I sat and did a bit of blogging and then I got the call to go back. Much earlier than I had expected, not too long a wait at all.

I was a bit scared. As it was on my face I was wondering what I was going to come out looking like 😏 I ended up having the same doctor who had removed my mole so she remembered me! She was very good. I find her voice very gentle and soothing, and even tiny things like that help I think. Well it helps me anyway! It hurt a lot when she put the anaesthetic in but then obviously I felt nothing.

The nurse put some tape over it which I have to keep on for 48 hours. I’m not allowed to get it wet for that length of time either. I also wasn’t allowed to drink anything hot for a while as my mouth was numb.

I then waited around for a bit longer as Gary was on his way up to the hospital. He was bringing his mum, so they could visit his dad, who was in another part of the hospital following an operation, so we met up and I went with them too.

So a whole day spent in the Churchill Hospital for me!

My day off, Thursday, was a day of jobs. I needed to resist the temptation of taking myself out for a coffee and a blogging session. I had a lot to be getting on with. Loads of washing and a bathroom that needed a good clean as well as a sort out of all the hundreds of almost empty shampoo, conditioner, shower gel and goodness knows what other bottles that are left all around the bath 😱

I had almost decided that I was going to do the car boot sale on Sunday so I thought I had better start to get it all ready properly in case my final answer to myself was ‘yes’!!! So the lovely Hannah called in on her way back from work to help me load it into my car and then I drove along with it all, so that Julie and Hannah could give me their advice as to what price to put on things 🙂

I finished all this just in time to get back home and then go straight out again for my evening walk 👣 (3 miles it was this week). We were lucky to have another warm sunny evening. We walked all across the fields and could look down on our lovely town.

After we had made our way back into the town and were coming up a lane round the back of the church, we came across a young girl trying to push her dad in a wheelchair, but they were completely stuck in the mud. They also had 3 little dogs with them getting all tangled. We offered to give the girl a push to help them out and ended up pushing the wheelchair all the way back to her house! Well two of the group did, the other two (which included me!) looked after the dogs. It was very hard work for them – apparently he weighed 18 stone, they were very friendly and chatty!!  They were both very grateful, I really don’t know what the girl would have done if we hadn’t come along 🙃 This photo doesn’t look too bad, it is on the flat and nearly back to the house, but we had just come up two steep hills!!!

Well that was a good deed done for the day wasn’t it. Something different to add to our walk this evening. I don’t know, the things we seem to get up to 😂

Here’s a bit of reading for you, click on Liver donors. I find it very interesting that you can be affected in different ways for many years to come, when you were being extremely kind to donate in the first place. Thank goodness more than 90% said they would make the same decision again.

Monday 23rd to Tuesday 24th May

My clinic appointment in Birmingham today. I haven’t been for two months, I think it is.

A bit of extra excitement for today though. My story has been put in the news@QEHB newspaper and I was hoping to get my own hard copy of it from the hospital.

So me and Robyn visited our ‘picnic bench’ as always before my appointment time. Then we made our way to the waiting room. Two ladies who were sat on the chairs right beside us had a copy of the hospital newspaper, were reading my story and we could hear them chatting about it! It has quite a big picture featured in it of me with Robyn and Leah (Robyn is surely quite distinctive with her bright orange hair!). But they didn’t seem to realise that they were sitting right next to us! It was VERY funny. I guess we should have maybe said ‘hello, look that’s us in that picture’ – I don’t know 😏 But then what made it even funnier was that a lady came and sat down opposite us, took out the paper and we could see that she was reading it too 😱 Bit of entertainment for us anyway.

I got weighed and had my blood pressure taken. I went in to see the doctor and had a chat. That took about 5 minutes. Then I had my blood taken. And that’s it (You only hear from them afterwards if your blood results come back not as good as they should be). I am normally waiting longer to be seen than to do those three things put together! I am wondering if they will soon transfer my care to my consultant at Banbury now as everything is going so well. When that happens, I know it will feel so very strange, I will miss my trips there and I will probably get upset about it (that place has played such a major important part of my life). But I will also realise that it’s happening for a very good reason – I am better 🤗

After the trip out yesterday, Tuesday was just a day at work and at home.