Tuesday 3rd to Wednesday 4th May

Tuesday was just a normal day spent at work and then at home. I knew I had a busy time ahead of me in the next few days!

Urm, I think I might have found out why I have a very sweet tooth. I am going to blame my ‘birth liver’ as it seems I might have been lacking a hormone FGF21 during all the years it wasn’t working properly which made me have sugar cravings!!! I don’t know what excuse I can use for eating too much chocolate now I have a great new liver which is working very well though But on a serious note, have a read of this interesting article Liver Hormone. This important finding from recent research may end up helping many people.

Wednesday. Mole removal day!

I had to be at the Churchill hospital in Oxford for 10.00am which meant an early start. The traffic around Oxford is always bad, and now there is a whole load of roadworks going on, which just adds to the chaos I had sorted my bus journeys out as I wasn’t going to be allowed to drive myself back after the operation. Then at the last minute Gary said that he was able to take me and bring me back, so we set off at around 8am.

The doctor injected the anaesthetic into the back of my shoulder. Ouch, that did hurt a bit but then gradually faded. She gave the area a good clean – and then cut out the mole! I did ask if they could take some pictures while they were doing it so I could share them with you here on my blog, but she said that it would be quite difficult. Sorry I could feel her spraying lots of something into the ‘hole’ I’m guessing and then she put the stitches in. She said she would then give it an extra clean.

    Before                                                                           After

She then asked me if I had got time off work as I wasn’t allowed to move my arm too much. Because of where it was, there would be a lot of movement in that area, and the stitches might come apart! I wasn’t expecting any of this, I thought I would be fine to use my arm, so no I hadn’t booked any time off She gave me a note to give to my boss. She also told me that my daughters had to make my meal this evening and wash up and that she was prepared to write them a letter 😂 I had to keep the wound dry for at least 48 hours, when I could also take the dressing off. I needed to keep an extra eye on the wound and be careful of infection (because my immune system is suppressed from my medication).

Then it was time for my next treatment! It seemed like my wart had decided to become very stubborn and nothing at all had happened to it since my last appointment when the doctor had used the liquid nitrogen on it. So I told this doctor and she agreed to give it another go, saying sometimes they can be hard little things to get rid of. This time the wart went white immediately so I am hopeful that it will come off very soon, fingers crossed 🤔

When I got back from the hospital I then went straight to the surgery where the Citizens Advice Bureau hold a drop in session on a Wednesday. Time for a bit of stress for my brain now! I wanted to just see if they had any advice for me or any different ideas about having to find somewhere else to live or if there was any financial help I could get. Basically I was told no. Mainly because my two daughters still live with me, but because they are over 18, both work full time and they are not dependent on me, it means we don’t really stand a chance. So it looks like we have to stay in privately rented accommodation, which in this area costs an absolute fortune, and ‘budget’ she told me to pay this and all the bills!!! She was talking to me as if I didn’t know how to do this. I’ve had a house to look after since I was 19. I think I know how to do things in this area by now! I was a very despondent Pinny when I came out of there 😧

I then had a doctor’s appointment in the afternoon. I just moved to a different area of the surgery and sat and waited. And waited. And waited. I ended up waiting for over an hour for my appointment  

A bit of a long walk back into town but that’s one thing I didn’t mind as the sun was shining and I got a bit of fresh air to help clear my head a little. A visit to the shop and I finally made it home.

You could say I was a bit fed up when I got in and rather tired. A lot had happened today, I had spent the whole day going from one thing to another. And to top it all my arm was beginning to come back to life and was quite sore.

I don’t think I moved very far from the sofa this evening 🤕

Saturday 30th April to Monday 2nd May

Bank Holiday weekend.

Gary took me shopping in Cowley on the Saturday as I still needed to get a few more bits, while I had the chance, ready for Leah’s birthday next weekend.

On the way back Gary must have been feeling a bit peckish as he asked if I wanted to get something to eat, so we had a bit of a detour home and called into a nice pub that we know. We both had a lovely piece of spit roasted chicken with chips. Simple but delicious!

While I was just sat on the sofa relaxing in the evening, watching some TV and on my iPad, I suddenly noticed there was a little spider🕷 crawling on my tummy. I jumped up very quickly and was brushing myself down hoping to get rid of it. Gary gave me a telling off asking why I had reacted like that!! scooped the spider off the floor and threw it into the garden. Sorry little spider 🕷 I didn’t want your company tonight  

Sunday morning was time for a coffee and a chat with Gary’s mum and dad.

Then we settled down to watch the football with my chip (curly frie!) butty 😃

Manchester United were playing against Leicester City. It was an important match. As we are coming to the end of the football season now, if Leicester won this game it meant they would be top of the Premier League, the team in second place wouldn’t be able to catch them, and they would win the title. This would be quite an achievement, in fact one of the greatest sporting upsets ever, as in the club’s history they are not known to have won any other top-level football competitions. I quite wanted Leicester to win but Gary is a Man Utd fan Luckily, for us two anyway, it ended as a draw 1-1.

After the game had ended we then went down to the Blue Boar pub in the town to watch a local band play, Chaser. We know the members of the band and have seen them many times before. We had a nice evening.

On Bank Holiday Monday we had all decided to go to the maze that is in Blenheim Palace gardens. Me and Gary, Robyn and Leah, Julie and Hannah. We discovered there was some jousting going on when we got there, so we went to have a quick look but the girls soon got bored of that! We walked back through some of the gardens then caught a little train to the maze. When we first started out today it was really quite warm and sunny, but then it turned to rain and drizzle 🌧 Typical Bank Holiday weather. It was good fun in the maze though. I didn’t have a clue where we were, but the girls seemed quite good at it.

On the way back to the car we came across lots of really old trees in the grounds, which fascinated me. Their trunks were hollow! I could actually stand up inside one of them.

When the others had all had enough, me and Gary continued into Oxford for a wander around and ended up having food, a bowl full of char sui pork noodles for me and some kind of Chinese curry for Gary, which just finished off the long weekend 😋

Thursday 28th to Friday 29th April

Today was a trip out – but to the Churchill Hospital in Oxford. It was for my appointment to get my mole checked. I arrived in plenty of time, so I went to the cafe there, got myself a coffee and a croissant, and I sat and people watched 👀 and did a bit of blogging too!

It was soon time for me to try and find the correct department I needed to go to. I found it easy enough but it was right over the other side of the hospital to where I was!

I saw a junior doctor who then went to get his senior doctor so they both had a look at my mole. They didn’t think it was too suspect looking but decided it would be best to have it taken out just in case. Better to be safe than sorry in this sort of case I guess. So I have to go back next week now to have the procedure 😏

The junior doctor commented on my liver transplants scar saying he liked it and thought it was very neat! 

I then told him about the little wart on my lip and that my own GP had said to ask if they could remove it. He agreed thank goodness. I told him that I was much more scared of having anything done at all now since my transplants so he explained what he was going to do. The treatment for warts is called Cryotherapy which is where they use a chemical called liquid nitrogen, which is extremely cold, to freeze and destroy the cells which in turn destroys the wart. So he put his tweezers into the liquid for a while, then took them out and squeezed them onto the wart. He did this three times. It did sting a bit but was bearable. He said the wart would turn white, then black and then eventually drop off. Great, I’m going to have to go to work tomorrow with a white patch on my face for everyone to stare at was my first thought, and also Robyn would be beside herself with laughter when I got back! 😦 

When he first opened this container all the dry ice came floating out over the sides, like some crazy experiment you see on the TV, but the photo didn’t catch it unfortunately.

By the way I did ask if I could take this photo for my blog and he asked me what it was all about. He said it was nice to meet me!!!

I eventually got back just in time for my evening walk 👣

Friday was a busy morning at work. Then someone reminded me that it was a Bank Holiday weekend coming up so that was probably why. I had completely forgotton about that!

(Just to keep you informed, nothing has happened yet on the wart front – it hasnt changed colour at all )

So I’m sharing it with you! Pulls on your heart strings 💗

Monday 25th to Wednesday 27th April

Someone has a birthday coming up (don’t they Leah!) so I was thinking I could maybe get a bit prepared in advance for once and see if I could do a bit of birthday present shopping while I had the chance, as me and Robyn were off to Banbury this afternoon.

Reasonable success, I managed to get a few little bits and pieces And we managed to fit a little trip to Costa in too. I like going out with Robyn as she nearly always lets me do that! 😆

I was having a look through my emails and I saw one from the British Liver Trust asking if I would be interested in a possible chance to be in the audience of the BBC TV programme the One Show on Wednesday regarding people who had transplants and promoting organ donation. How exciting! So I replied that yes I would be interested (if I was allowed the time off from work!) and the lady said she would get back to me with further details …

Robyn decided she was going to cook us all something to eat as she didn’t have anywhere to rush back out to this evening. So she was googling all kinds of recipes while I was driving home. She settled on some kind of rice dish with chicken, peppers, peas etc in the end. Can’t wait to taste 😉 and for the stress in the kitchen tonight!! Then we came across a car accident that was blocking the road, it looked like it had only just happened as there were no emergency services yet but people were on the phone so we had to turn around and find a different way home. This of course took longer so we were a bit late for Robyn’s pre-arranged doctor’s appointment and she then had to be squeezed in!! We had a trip around the Co-op to make to get Robyn’s important cooking ingredients and eventually made it back home.

Da-dah …

Throughout all of today I have been suffering with yet another new outbreak of my Shingles type virus. I am not liking this one bit 😩 They are getting more and more frequent. It seems that as soon as one heals another one breaks out somewhere else. This one is being particularly painful. My clothes constantly touching and rubbing against it doesn’t help at all either.

I had a sleepover with Robyn tonight. No wonder she always just falls asleep really early though, her new bed is the warmest and comfiest bed I have ever been in. It’s a real luxury.

Tuesday was NOT a good day 😥 As if it wasn’t bad enough that my latest Shingles type outbreak was still hurting me A LOT, the day started off with Robyn finding out that one of her best friends Kayleigh was leaving the salon where they both work together and have done for quite a few years now. Robyn was very upset on hearing this news which made me upset too The next disappointment was that the people from the One Show didn’t get back in touch with the British Liver Trust, so the trip to London tomorrow isn’t going to be happening. But never mind about that, would just have been another different experience to go through and more importantly something NICE!! And then the next thing was the letter waiting for me on the doormat when I got back from work. From my landlady giving me notice to move out of the house! I had heard rumours at the end of last week that this might be happening but when you actually see it in writing it all hits home a bit harder. I really could do without this. What on earth are we going to do now? 😏

We used to have a nice house. Then I separated from Robyn and Leah’s dad. Me and the kids stayed in the house while they were in full time education but always knew that one day it would have to be sold. I did actually sell it once when they were still quite young, everything was packed ready to move – and then the buyer pulled out, right at the last minute. Pretty soul destroying. I don’t think I have ever really felt settled since and that’s certainly a horrible feeling I can tell you. Many years later it was finally sold. Heartbreaking as we really didn’t want to move. We had lived there for 20 years. Financially I couldn’t afford to buy anywhere else on my own so we had to find somewhere to rent and in a reasonably short space of time. We ended up in the house we’re in now which is about half the size. And this move was all going on as I was starting to be more affected by my illness, pre transplants.

Just a bit of background information for you there to try and help to explain just how much of a big deal having to move yet again is to me 😰

Here’s a bit of information that I have recently found so click on Why it’s important for every woman to know about PBC if you fancy having a little read.

Wednesday was just a morning at work. Still feeling very sore, my head feeling very messed up, I was glad to get back home and just try and do something a bit ‘normal’ and to have a bit of quiet time just to gather my thoughts🙃

Saturday 23rd to Sunday 24th April

At lunchtime we set off with Emma to McDonalds in Headington to meet up with the rest of Gary’s family. It was a get together for his niece Molly’s birthday the following day. It’s not a place I visit very often (the last time probably being when we all met there for Lily’s birthday) but I did quite enjoy my sweet chilli chicken wrap! With fries 🍟 and a strawberry milkshake of course!

When we got back I watched the Everton versus Manchester United football match on Gary’s tv. It was the FA Cup semi-final so it was quite an important match as Gary is a Man Utd fan. Thank goodness that they did win in the end 2-1. I can look forward to the final in a few weeks time now.

Here is a story which caused a bit of outrage in Brazil. One of the richest and most powerful men in the country announced plans to bury his million dollar Bentley car so he could drive around his afterlife in style. People were furious. Watch this video of the Bentley burial to find out why peoples’ opinions of him changed and he became a national hero. (If only we were rich enough to do something like that Robyn, to help with our own promotion of organ donation!)

(I would just like to take this opportunity to say hello to my regular reader in Brazil. I am amazed and thrilled 😀 I always have a sneaky look to see if the little Brazilian flag symbol appears in the views from various countries when I am reading my WordPress stats! Are you looking forward to the Olympics in August? More importantly, are you going?! I will unfortunately just be watching from the comfort of my armchair).

On Sunday for some strange reason Gary decided he was going to clean my car 🚗 for me so I left him to it and went home to do a few of my own exciting jobs! Later me and Robyn paid a visit to Julie and Hannah to see what they were up to.

When I got back to Garys he had obviously worked up a bit of an appetite and was trying to think of something he could cook for himself to eat. All I wanted was a cheese sandwich (one of my favourite things, nice tasty cheddar in some fresh seeded bread) but I wasn’t allowed He had decided to cook a curry, but one that took a lot less time to make than his usual creations.

Thai red curry tonight. And it was just as delicious 😋 

While I was surfing on the Internet earlier I had come across something about melanomas. A bit of a coincidence I thought as I am waiting to have my own mole checked out very soon. So I thought I would put this picture up on my blog so that we all can be a bit more aware of what to look out for. The main thing to be aware of is if there are any changes in the appearance of your moles. Please make sure you all keep a check on things, it’s so important. Early detection can make a big difference in the treatment you may need.

I have to say my own mole does actually look more like the pictures in the top row, so I’m hoping it’s all okay when I go on Thursday.

On a much lighter note, if you have a few minutes to spare have a look at these Pom Pom cupcakes – I think their really cute. I can remember making pom poms with my mum when I was younger. I think the most adventurous we got was to stick shapes made from felt on them to make funny faces!

Thursday 21st to Friday 22nd April

My day off. All my volunteering checks still have not come through yet so I am still waiting to start at the hospital. It’s taking too long 😏 

So I walked along the town this afternoon to meet my sister Lynda in Caffe Nero. Hannah had the day off work so she came along too. And then Robyn came along for a little while in her lunch break. 

My usual evening walk was extended this week. When Kate met up with us she said that the town mayor was going to light a beacon as part of the Queen’s 90th birthday celebrations. The Queen lit the first of a chain of a 1,000 beacons being lit across the country and worldwide and there was one in little old Chipping Norton! We got there too early, Kate had got the time wrong! so we had a bit of an extra walk around and then went back to watch. Amazingly in my picture it seems to be in a perfect heart shape!!!

So anyway, this longer walk meant that I did 14,958 steps today, 6.26 miles. And while I was at home doing some jobs throughout the rest of the day and evening I had climbed 58 floors!!! No wonder I was tired 😲

When you have read about Rodger Webster you will see he is a very inspiring man. And in the article it says he’s now encouraging others to challenge his donation record. Robyn, are you up for it? You still have many more pints to give 💉  I also hope some of you out there are up for the challenge too? If you’ve never given blood before why not start today and go along to your local donation centres.

Friday was just a morning at work with nothing else exciting happening to me – unfortunately!

Monday 18th to Wednesday 20th April

I did some odd bits and pieces in the town this afternoon before I went to meet my friend Jackie for a cuppa and a catch up.

Then off to my doctor’s appointment to get a couple of things checked out. She told me that I have a wart growing on the top of my lip (Robyn finds this absolutely hilarious by the way, such a lovely daughter isn’t she!) which apparently is as a result of my anti rejection medication. Because my immune system is so low it hasn’t fought off the wart virus in this case. I also have a mole that needs to be checked out for skin cancer. So she has referred me and I should get a phone call with an appointment to see a dermatologist within 2 weeks. She also said that as I will be going to the hospital then I can ask if they will freeze the wart for me at the same time, but if they won’t I will just have to buy an over the counter treatment, as it is seen as ‘cosmetic’ which is not funded by the NHS!

It’s great that my tacrolimus is looking after my liver but it’s now causing me all these other problems 😏

On Tuesday I just worked extra again until 4pm.

I didn’t feel very well at all on Wednesday morning while I was at work. I was extremely weary, my whole body felt very heavy and was aching and at times I felt very sick. I had also found another outbreak of my Shingles type virus too, in yet another place, which is not nice and also can make me feel a bit unwell for the first couple of days. I seem to be getting these more and more frequently now. More of the joys of a very weak immune system I guess 😔

At least I had something to look forward to, well kind of! I was going along to the salon later for Robyn to do my hair. She had told me she thought I should have my hair darker with a few blonde highlights now as my hair seems to have changed again and is growing back much darker (with less grey in it can you believe!) so my roots are always going to show much more. I had been warned earlier in the day by Robyn that I needed to try and think what I wanted to have done myself as it really annoys her that I can never make up my mind. I still couldn’t really think so I had decided to go with what Robyn had suggested but I told her that I DID NOT want symmetrical stripes of blonde down each side of my head. Robyn got cross with me then and said that was it, she was just doing my normal colour again, she knew I wouldn’t be happy with it being darker and she couldn’t cope with the stress of it all!!! I think she soon forgave me though as I still got a nice hair wash with a head massage.

Sorry Robyn, I know I’m a real pain 😖

Friday 15th to Sunday 17th April

This I think is a fantastic idea. I think it would definitely help to encourage more people to give blood if they were reminded of their good deed when the blood actually gets used.

Friday wasn’t very exciting I’m afraid, I went to work and then just gave the kitchen a bit of a tidy, among other things, in the afternoon.

Saturday and we woke up to snow this morning!

As you can see it didn’t hang around for long. Weird weather 🌨⛅️

The morning started off well for me as I sat and did a bit of online shopping. I managed to find a bomber jacket that I have been looking for that is made of suitable material so that I can iron some letters on the back of it to promote my website. (If it is successful I will show you a picture!) Also there was a promotion on the delivery charge today which made it so much cheaper. That made my mind up for me, I like a bargain!!! Order sent.

While I was doing this Gary had made me a bacon and mushroom sarnie which was just delicious 😋

Then we went into Banbury and looked round a few shops. When we came out of Tesco’s I was stood at the wrong car waiting for Gary to open it 😑 He had just carried on to his car waiting for me to realise! It was a completely different make of car but in my defence I have to say it was the same colour. Thank goodness there was no one sat in it, that would have been even more embarrassing. Shows just where my head is at the moment doesn’t it!!!

For dinner in the evening we had fish fingers, curly fries and peas! Kids food 🙃

I really enjoyed it. I don’t think Gary was too excited about it though!

On Sunday I went back and did a few jobs at home. Gary popped down to put some more grass seeds on the lawn as there was no growth at all from the other ones he had put down Then we went along to Julie’s with Robyn to see what was going on there! She was out in the garden painting her new shed. Gary soon decided he needed to help!! Hannah made us all a cup of tea and gave me the thinnest slice of cake I have ever seen 😀

In the evening I signed my new consent form for The UK-PBC Genetics Study. I always take part in any research I can. If I can help all these very clever people to find a cure in the future for PBC then I will be happy. It’s a bloody horrible thing to live with. They now want to make this particular study bigger and better so they need a new consent form signed for the extra information they will be collecting. I am looking forward to doing my bit on this next stage for them.

My dad died 22 years ago today. Just a few weeks before Leah was born. That’s a long time to be without your dad for 😦 I can still remember that evening so clearly. I wish I had a chance to be able to share all those missing years with him 😢

Wednesday 13th to Thursday 14th April

As soon as I got up this morning I didn’t talk to Robyn! It was either a shake or a nod of the head or a thumbs up or whatever. The trouble is she soon realised what I was doing and she started to ask me complicated questions that were too hard to answer that way. I even wrote one down on a piece of paper! A big wave as she went out the door to work. It was a good bit of fun 😂

Then off I went to work too. I just stayed on and worked one hour longer today. That was a bit more manageable.

5 myths about organ donation I do hope that all of you that read my blog have decided to become organ donors and, most importantly, have told your families about your wishes. And of course have got all of them to sign up too, along with your friends and anyone else you may know. If any of them have any doubts, then maybe if you talk to them about these myths in more detail, it might help to put their minds at ease a little bit more. Please do all that you can to help to get more people signed on to the organ donor register. You never know, one day you might need a donated organ yourself 😏

On Thursday I was feeling very stressed. Despite my mood I made myself stay at home for the whole day, no Caffe Nero coffee break for me today, and I made sure that I got on with the various jobs I had set myself to do. I even fitted our new loo seat 🚽 !!!

Robyn bought me a Fitbit for my birthday this year 🙂 I soon discovered there was a fault with it as I had to keep charging it up all the time, when the charge is supposed to last for about a week. So I got in touch with the Fitbit people and they agreed to send me a replacement. I can make much better use of it now I don’t have to keep taking it off all the time to charge it.

Anyway, the point of me telling you all about that is because while I was just in my house going about my jobs I took 3,964 steps, climbed 27 floors (that’s from going up and down my stairs all the time, there are two flights of stairs in my house) and walked in total 1.66 miles.

After my usual Thursday evening walk I looked at my Fitbit again and I had done 10,306 steps and 4.31 miles! Just a bit of useless information there for you!!!

Monday 11th to Tuesday 12th April

When Robyn got back from her gym and yoga sessions we couldnt really decide on what we wanted to do for the afternoon. We had no appointments to go to and no particular shopping that we needed. So in the end we just drove into Banbury and went and sat on a lovely comfy sofa in Costa for a while, so I could do a bit of blogging and Robyn did a bit of her writing. I like spending my afternoons that way! Then we just wandered around a few shops there and came back home.

Here’s another successful Valerie story for you to read. But this Valerie has had her transplanted kidney for 38 years! Big congratulations to her. Let’s hope my liver lasts for that long. But that would make me 86 years old. Imagine that! Not sure I’m going to make that, I don’t think my poor old body will be up to it, it finds it hard to cope with things now!!!

Tuesday was another day when I stayed on at work and did overtime. Why does it make me feel so much more tired? Because when I finish at my normal time it’s not like I go home and do nothing. I do normally get myself a cup of tea and have a bit of a sit down but I soon get back up again and start doing things! Is it the constant concentration do you think?

I did make myself finish at 4.00pm instead of 5.00pm though this time so that I wasn’t dead on my feet and could still go out for a meal with some ladies from work for one of their birthdays. I had a lovely pasta dish, similar to a carbonara. Tasty.

I came across this short video for you to watch, what 200 calories looks like in different foods (my pasta would have been way over this amount with the lovely sauce it had but was definitely worth it). I found the video quite interesting and is a good way of showing the comparisons. All that celery!!  I think I would still prefer to have that smaller chunk of a Snickers bar though 😉