Monday 31st August to Tuesday 1st September

Thought I would have a bit of a Bank Holiday lie in this morning, but not sleeping, I was blogging and messing around on my iPad. Didn’t feel 100% either, so that was probably another reason why I was happy to just lie there.

Then me and Gary went down to Cafe Nero and waited to meet Hannah and my sister. Julie had decided she was going to become a blood donor, yay well done, so that’s where they had been this morning.

  
It was busy up there (good, lots of people donating blood) but this meant they were late getting to Cafe Nero. Robyn was also late. She had to do her nails and have a shower before she could leave the house! And she was hungover again. Her weekend had been spent at The Big Feastival.

So we sat with them for literally only about 10 minutes as we then had to go to Charlbury as Gary’s sister Ali and family were over visiting. Lily, the oldest daughter who’s 13, had made a big lasagne. I managed to have a bit and it was really nice. She had done a really good job. I don’t think I could make one anything like that. Well done Lily 🙂

Tuesday was Kate’s funeral. A day we had all been dreading. Robyn, Leah and me all went. She had asked for everyone to wear something yellow. We were also all given a yellow bracelet to wear. And most of the flowers were yellow too, she loved sunflowers. A VERY sad day.

Sunday 30th August

On Sunday me and Gary went car hunting. Sometimes I think its time for me to get a car again now. Mine was a bit of a wreck and the tax had run out while I was in hospital, so I sold it to Jack (Leah’s boyfriend), as he likes messing about with old cars. I haven’t driven for ages. I can’t make my mind up what to do though. I don’t use a car very much, I can walk to and from work when I go back, so does it justify all the costs of the MOT, tax, insurance, petrol, any repairs etc. There are also no parking spaces where we live so we just have to try and find a space on the side of the road near to the house, which sometimes is virtually impossible. That also puts me off. So sometimes I think I won’t bother!

The car I like at the minute is the Fiat 500. I think their quite funky. I saw a lovely bright red one, very smart, brand new though, but I don’t want to be spending that kind of money. Guess I’ll keep looking …

Then we carried on into Oxford and did a bit of shopping. I found another bag I thought I liked, so decided I would get it and see what the kids think of it when I get it home. I like to get their advice (sometimes!)

On the way home we called in to a nearby pub and had some dinner 😀

Back in time for X Factor! It made me cry tonight though (along with Simon Cowell!) A young man sang Jealous by Labrinth. This was my song in hospital. I used to listen to it lots, especially when I got scared, agitated, frustrated, lonely. It seemed to sort me out and calm me down, well sometimes maybe Or when the kids had to go and I was upset they would leave me listening to it. I got to know all the words and used to sing them out loud 🎶 Then when I first came out of hospital and was staying at my sisters I used to go back for a sleep in the morning and I used to play it and it helped me drop off to sleep. I can still so clearly remember everything and hearing that song again, the first time for a while, brought a whole lot of memories back and upset me 😰

But this will ALWAYS be one of my special songs. I love it.

Friday 28th to Saturday 29th August

Friday morning and Robyn and Tom went off to Jamie Oliver and Alex James’ The Big Feastival. A festival of music and food. It’s on Alex James’ farm which is in a village just a couple of miles from us. I wanted to go too but all the tickets were sold, organised Robyn had bought hers months ago!!

So I met my sister Lynda in Cafe Nero instead! She had come over from Hook Norton on her bike 🚲 She brought with her two pieces of cake that her husband John had made. Lemon Drizzle and Fruit. They were both delicious. Thank you. We sat for quite a while chatting and then I showed her how to get a jigsaw puzzle app on her iPad. Apparently she’s now addicted to it, a bit like me My nan and my mum both used to do jigsaw puzzles all the time (not on a computer obviously), seems like we’ve caught the bug from them.

On my way home I saw a family friend who hadn’t seen me since before transplant. We were chatting and he said I was looking well and stuff like that. He told me that when he saw me last he didn’t think I had that long left to live, he thought I looked that bad! Blimey I didn’t know I had looked that ill Made me think a bit when I got home and upset me a little.

On Saturday we went in to Banbury so Gary could pick up his new glasses. He was very excited, he would be able to see again!!! 👀

Did a bit of other shopping too. When I was away with Robyn I bought a bag as I had a gift card to use. I really wasn’t sure about it at the time and still wasn’t when I got it home, so I took it back. I want a bit of a ‘special’ looking bag and one which my precious iPad can fit into, as I take it everywhere with me. I have a bit of a thing about bags and I’m always teased by my family about this. I’ll keep on looking though 👜

Then we went over to the ‘little Feastival’ which a local hotel puts on in their grounds which are very close to The Big Feastival. It’s free, there’s just a few local bands playing and you can sit and have a drink in their garden. Luckily it wasn’t raining.

I was recognised there from the article and photo in the local newspaper. I knew the man years ago but we hadn’t really seen each other for a long while. He waved me over and said ‘I saw you in the paper. I thought I recognised the face’!! So we had a bit of a chat with him and his partner.

Back to Gary’s for pizza and X Factor 🙂

Thursday 27th August

So 6 MONTHS ago today, I was in a very different place. I know I’ve done well, the difference between me then and now are quite amazing when I think about it. But how well have I done, have I done enough? Should I be stronger than I am? Should my body still be aching and sore? Should I be back at work again? It does my head in not knowing the answers

None of my family remembered either. Naughty! But I guess their not going to as time moves on.

Anyway, back to our trip to Brighton, and I had a bacon sandwich for breakfast this morning. And still have an upset tummy 😦

We were going to Brighton Marina today as the weather was supposed to be dry. Really? It was still raining when we got there, but it did dry up later, and we even saw the sun for a while! ⛅️

There was a marina (obviously!), residential flats, a few little shops, lots of places to eat and drink, bowling, cinema, kids things etc. It was nice.

It was here that I read a text from Leah telling me I was on the NHS Organ Donation Campaign Facebook page. I got 3,531 likes and 170 comments. I would like to thank everyone for their good wishes 🙂 I hope this will help to get a few more people to sign the Organ Donor Register.

After that bit of exciting news me and Robyn got some food shopping, and then our little break was over, it was time for us to head for home. And that was another story …
  
We had a terrible journey back. The traffic was horrendous (and the rain too at times actually!!). We were stuck in queues for an hour and a half on the M25 coming up to Heathrow airport. We were watching the continuous planes taking off from there. Because we were there for so long and we were so close I was counting the gap in between planes for something to do! They were taking off every 30-45 seconds. It was quite amazing actually. The traffic eventually started to move but we saw a big warning sign overhead saying there was an accident. Robyn was refusing to drive any longer if we got stuck in that too! Luckily we turned off the motorway just in time. Only to get to Oxford, then be stuck in traffic there for half an hour. And this was at 8.30 in the evening! 

A journey lasting four and three quarter hours and we were home 😩

Frazzled. But what a lovely ‘summer’ break we had 😂
PS Don’t forget to look at more photos of our boat trip which I have now     loaded on my Photos page 😊

Wednesday 26th August

Breakfast was being cooked for us this morning. We both decided on scrambled egg on toast.

My tummy had decided it was going to play up today. Hate being controlled by that. It upsets me.

Anyway, what were we going to do today? It was still raining 😐

We found an undercover market, so thought we would pay that a visit. We were out in the car today as we didn’t fancy getting soaked to the skin again. We parked very easily in a multi storey car park, but soon found out why, we think. It was terrifying! There was a big automatic metal shutter gate on the entrance which immediately shut down behind you and one on the exit too, it felt like we were trapped in there. Then we couldn’t find the exit and had to drive round the car park a couple of times, it was starting to freak us out! Then when we got to the market it was supposed to have had over 50 stalls to browse but there were only a few open. Bit of a disappointment. Maybe it’s more of a weekend thing? So we went through this car park trauma for nothing!!  

We decided to just go back into town. But we drove round and round looking for a car park that wasn’t incredibly expensive for just 1 hour and then getting nowhere in the one way system. Robyn was getting more and more stressed. So we eventually decided to drive back and park outside our B&B and walk back in  to town again. Luckily the rain had eased a bit so we didn’t get quite so wet this time.

We went to Pizza Express for our dinner and then to the cinema to watch Bad Education, Jack Whitehall’s new film. I like him and it was good!!

When we eventually got back to our room Robyn seemed to have a bit of a problem with her hair 😯

  
hahaha 😆😂

Tuesday 25th August

Up and out of the house by 8.15am! I was going to Brighton with Robyn 😃

We had booked a boutique style B&B.

  
We dumped our stuff in our room and went off to explore. We headed to The Lanes, an old area of Brighton with narrow streets and little independent shops. It was absolutely pouring down ☔️ We walked around them for a bit then went for something to eat to get out of the awful rain. We wandered about the more up to date shopping centre then decided to make our way back to the B&B. We were getting more and more soaked. My canvas shoes, Robyn’s suede boots were completely wet through. I then thought I should buy some shoes really as I hadn’t bought another pair with me that were suitable for the weather and there was no way mine were going to dry for a while. So we ended up walking back up the hill to the shops yet again! This time we WERE going back to the B&B. It was still pouring down but as we were already soaked we decided to walk back a different way along the seafront.

It was incredibly windy too down there. It was a battle to walk against the wind. Our umbrellas were no good now We passed a few other people that were mad like us, but mainly it was deserted. The ice cream shacks and little shops were all shut up. It was like being at the seaside in the middle of November, not August!

The sea was SO rough.

  
My whole body was now starting to hurt. We had been walking all day, been carrying quite heavy shopping bags and battling the wind and rain. We  worked out we had walked over 3 miles. It was a mile from our B&B to the town, then another mile back again. Around the shops, up the long hill to the shopping centre, back down, then the same again because of my need to buy shoes! Crazy 😠

Me and Robyn both had our showers and put our pyjamas on!! And that was it. We had planned to go out for a drink in the evening but I could hardly walk, my feet, legs and my whole body was hurting. I had definitely done too much. And Robyn just couldn’t face going back out in the awful rain again.

So we just chilled, had a picnic in our room, watched some tv, did some blogging. Were we boring? Or just relaxing on our holiday? We couldn’t decide!!

Saturday 22nd to Monday 24th August

Saturday = eye test day 👀

Me and Gary went in to Specsavers in Banbury. Neither of us had been for an eye test for a LOT of years! Real bad that. So Gary ended up needing some glasses which he was quite chuffed about! It was fun choosing some and watching him trying them all on 👓

As for me, as always not straight forward. I have one eye that can see things close up perfectly and one eye that can see things far away perfectly. So I only EVER have one eye working at a time and have been like it for years. My eyes and my brain have obviously got used to this I guess. So I got to choose! I could have glasses but I would need to have two pairs and keep swapping them, or have bifocals which can take a lot of getting used to, or stay as I am. They will deteriorate as I get older (or grow up as the man put it!) but just the same as anyone else’s does. I decided to stay as I am, for now.

In the evening I had a bean burger! Not a very interesting bit of information I know, but I just wanted to give it a mention as I haven’t had one for such a long while and I really enjoyed it 😀

Sunday teatime we just went to watch a local band that I like in the Blue Boar. Met some friends in there too and had a bit of a chat.

On Monday I thought I had better have a bit of a tidy up because my landlady was coming round!! We have been waiting to have a new path laid in the back garden for rather a long time, the slabs have been left all the way up the garden on the edge of the grass making it hard to cut around and in between them, so now we have a bit of a vicious circle. The grass is too long making it difficult for anyone to want to start the job and if no one starts the job and the slabs don’t get moved its hard to cut the grass! It’s hard because I still have to wait for other people to help me with things like this at the minute. Hopefully a gardener is coming round next Monday. Stressful times 😦

Friday 21st August

I had a lump and a bruise appear on my leg the other day and it was slightly swollen and a bit sore. I couldn’t remember knocking it anywhere. Of course, as soon as Robyn found this out I had to make a doctors appointment for later in the day to check there was no blood clot. All this ‘discussion’ happened before I had even got out of bed!

Then, before I had got my breakfast, I got a telephone call from the Chief Executive of the British Liver Trust! Would I like to do a radio interview this morning? Bit unexpected but yes that will be fine. He told me someone from the radio would ring me shortly to explain.

So I was going to be on Radio 5 Live and it was to talk about a study that has been done where they asked the public how much they think the NHS spends on a wide range of procedures and what the actual costs are, because most people are way out when they are asked. They then just picked two procedures to talk about on the radio. So they had asked me for the liver transplant operation and another lady who had a Caesarian, to justify how important it is to spend this kind of money on people to keep them healthy and alive.

I text all my family and even though they were at work they all seemed to manage to re-tune their radios and listen in! It was a bit scary but I think I did ok. I just had to talk about my illness, how long I have had it, and then what treatment I had before and after my transplants like scans and x-rays, clinic appointments, hospital stays, fluid drains and medication, which showed just what is involved and maybe why it costs so much. 

Members of the public said about £500 for a Caesarian, it’s actually £2,ooo. And they said £12,000 for a liver transplant, it’s actually £70,000. This did get me thinking. Blimey I’ve certainly cost the NHS a whole load of money. £140,000 straight away for just the two transplants, then everything else on top. Think of all those (must be) thousands of tablets that I have had over the years and all that delicious hospital food!! 🍲   Am I really worth all that money?

I had decided in my mind yesterday certain jobs I needed/wanted to do today and it was starting to look like I wasn’t going to be able to get them done because of the phone calls I was receiving, waiting for my radio appearance!! and I knew I was still having to get to my doctor’s appointment yet. This was annoying me as sometimes I find it hard dealing with things that change my plans.

One of the jobs I needed to do was to ring the Department of Work & Pensions. This is always difficult at the best of times, you have to press numbers, listen to music while on hold and normally still never get through! This time the number was unobtainable when I rang, so I had to find another number to ring. She told me that apparently they had now changed their number. When I rang the number that she told me I didn’t even get through to anyone, it was just continually engaged, so I found another freephone number this time and thought I would ring that to try and save some phone charges. He couldn’t help me. I was VERY fed up by this time, I gave the engaged number one more try with no success, so I had to leave it and went to catch my bus to the doctors’ surgery.

I didn’t have a blood clot anyway, at least that was good news.

I had to face making my phone call again though when I got back as my deadline to contact them by was today!  Thankfully this time I eventually got through. Now just the forms left to fill in 😦

One job done and I made myself do a couple more.

I was very stressed and very tired by the end of the day.

Monday 17th to Thursday 20th August

I can’t even remember what I did on Monday! Probably not much as I think I was quite tired from yesterday’s trip. Just pottered about I expect as I don’t very often just sit down and do nothing.

Tuesday was a sad day though. I went to Rosco’s funeral.

Wednesday and Thursday were home days again. I seem to be doing a lot of these at the minute. I decided to have a walk to the town and get a coffee on Thursday just to get me out of the house for a while then got a bit of shopping before walking home. Then in the evening it was walk time 👣 with some friends again!! We walked for an hour and a half this week and had a good old chat, catching up with the latest gossip! I could tell I had done this though when I got home. My feet, legs and back were really aching I suppose we did walk quite a long way but it did frustrate me that night that I still struggle with some things.