Sunday 16th August

An early start as today I was finally going to get my Christmas present!! 

A day trip in a narrowboat on the Oxford Canal 😀

Me and Gary went to pick up my brother George, my friend Nina and Robyn. Leah followed us in her car with Jack. Julie and Hannah had already left! They were my chosen crew for the day 🙂 A few days before I had sent them a message jokingly telling them what their jobs on the boat were for today. Some were more pleased than others!

A bit of instruction when we first got there and we were off.

  
  
It was great fun. The boat gently chugging along but with lots of noise and messing about from all of us lot on board! Leah started driving, then that was taken over by Jack. Leah seemed to enjoy pulling the boat into the side and also along, by the thick ropes! Gary was on lock duty, doing a very professional job as always! Hannah was supposed to have been helping him but she seemed to have difficulty getting out of the boat! Julie kept herself busy making cups of tea and coffee. Nina kept taking photos of everybody when they were doing silly things! Robyn just swanned about occasionally doing something when she felt like it! And George just seemed to get himself settled at the end of the boat and soaked up the sunshine. That was supposed to be my job

But I was spoilt. When we had picked Nina up earlier her husband David had made me a lovely Victoria Sandwich cake.

                         
Then when I actually got on the boat Julie gave me the cake that she had made for me.

We also had a nice picnic lunch on board. We passed some lovely houses with gardens backing onto the canal, a lovely looking outdoor tea rooms right on the edge of the canal with little shelters and vintage looking table and chairs under them, definitely worth a visit on another day. We passed some much bigger and lovely looking boats and we all said ‘good morning’ to each other and waved as we went by. We got so far down the canal, then it was time to turn around and make our way back as we had to keep an eye on the time.

We then decided a trip to one of the pubs we pass on our way back was necessary. Then me, Gary, George and Nina went to Bitter & Twisted in the town for some dinner. A good end to a GREAT day.

Thank you everyone for coming. Im looking forward to another adventure real soon I hope.

Friday 14th to Saturday 15th August

I think Friday was a home day with not much happening 😦

On Saturday we had a bit of a lazy morning – then I really fancied a piece of cake! Before transplant I used to love eating cake, any kind, then I guess because of my appetite problems, I haven’t really been fancying it too much, but thankfully I’ve started to again now. Missed it 😏 So Gary took me out for a drive to see if we could find a nice shop selling homemade cakes somewhere. Had a bit of a wander about and I managed to find a lovely rock cake and a brownie! Yummy 🙂 Gary then decided he fancied a barbecue later so we bought some supplies for that as well!

A quiet couple of days really.

Thursday 13th August

I had an appointment to see Dr Ellis this morning at Chipping Norton hospital. He’s my original consultant, I’ve known him for a long time. He was the guilty party when I was in the Horton hospital in July having just about every test you could think of! Think he just wanted a catch up from that really as I’m still under the doctors in Birmingham at the minute. I guess I will get fully transferred back to him after a while. He asked what had happened once I got transferred to Birmingham and said he was glad they took it all as seriously as he had. 

Then we had a chat. He knows the doctor I saw two clinic visits ago, Professor Neuberger. He trained with him at Kings College hospital in London. He said he had a lot of respect for him and I said I did too, that you could tell he knew what he was talking about. After seeing so many different doctors over the years, you know which ones know their job well and which ones don’t come across very well. So of course he then wanted to know what I thought about him! 

When the nurse took my blood pressure it was a bit higher than normal for me. I have always had quite a low blood pressure. When I had it taken at clinic in Birmingham on Monday it was high too. Dr Ellis said it could be the Prograf (my anti rejection medication) causing it so he wanted to check the tacrolimus levels in my blood. But they had already taken my blood in clinic on Monday too so I’m guessing he is just waiting for the results of those to come through is he? Or I’m supposed to be doing something about this myself or I’m just waiting until when I go back to Birmingham in a few weeks? But the Birmingham doctor didn’t seem too worried about it!

The nurse was Rose. She lives in a village near to me. Her partner had a liver transplant too, in March this year. He went to Kings in London for his. He has had a few problems since. Rose told me that she wants to do something at the local hospital to promote organ donation and maybe I would help? Great idea.

I got the bus back into town and decided I would treat myself to a coffee and a seeded muffin as I hadn’t had any breakfast, so I sat in Cafe Nero for a while. It was nice to be away from my spring cleaning! I thought I would also have a bit of a wander round the shops before I went back home. But of course my tummy had other ideas. I thought I had better just go home. I wasn’t happy, I still couldn’t do what I wanted to do.

When I got home I got a bit upset. I think it was the high blood pressure, the upset tummy and the fact that I was back inside on my own earlier than I wanted. I also had noticed a bit of a pain in my side which was uncomfortable. All this reminded me that I was still not 100% yet. I was very fed up. I just sat and half watched silly daytime tv. Then after a while I decided I needed to pull myself together and do something to take my mind off things. A few more odd jobs got done.

I decided to make myself an omelette. Cheese, ham and tomato. The problem was when I tried to tip it out of the pan it fell in pieces onto my plate. I had to laugh to myself. It looked a bit of a mess but it tasted rather nice!

I then went out for a walk with some friends. When I’ve been before we just went around the town but this time we went across the fields. I used to take my dog Jake 🐶 but he’s got too old now and he can’t do it anymore 😦  It was lovely to go back but the problem was I had gone out in shorts, the corn was high and was scratching my legs and I had to dodge the stinging nettles and thistles. The others in front were also pointing them out and treading them down for me!! After an hour of trudging round the fields I was worn out. My feet were aching. I could tell I had done enough, especially after my emotional morning and jobs all afternoon as well.

I went to Gary’s in the evening and then got in trouble with him

Was glad when today was over 😦  What a day 😠

Oh by the way, I have added a new ‘quote’ to the sidebar and some new pictures, this time of Cornwall, to my Photos page.

Tuesday 11th to Wednesday 12th August

Back to reality. These two days were just spent at home. To try and stop myself going completely mad I decided I was going to have a bit of a spring clean in my kitchen. Exciting stuff I know. And then when Robyn got home from work she told me off for doing too much. But what else am I meant to do?!

Monday 10th August

Clinic day.

Robyn’s day off so she had the job of taking me. Poor thing! I kind of dread my clinic days now. I never used to mind going before but since my recent stay there I don’t like it at all, I think it’s because I’m worried they are going to tell me I need to stay in. And I’m also getting worse when they take my blood.  I know I need to stop all these worries now 😱

I saw another different doctor. I find it quite difficult when this happens as they don’t get to know you and they all work in different ways and have different opinions on what they need to do. And I miss my surgeons

Anyway I was doing reasonably well but still not 100% yet. I still get an unsettled tummy and need to get to the loo quickly. He said there is a whole list of things that could cause this but it may still be because of the very strong antibiotics they gave me during my recent hospital stay. He didn’t really want to do anything about it at the minute, just wanted to give it more of a chance to settle on its own. I hope it is that reason. Even though I am very fed up of being like this.

He is also going to arrange for me to have an ultrasound scan on my next visit to see if the fluid I had (also during my recent hospital stay) has now gone.

I thought I had an appointment to see the dietician too but they didn’t have a record of it on their computer, so I got away with it this time!!

We left for home and as it was nice, stopped on the way back for a cup of tea. We sat outside at a farm shop. Much nicer than a hospital visit.

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!