Thursday 3rd to Friday 4th December

Thursday was an inside day. I really wanted to take myself out for a coffee but I kept talking myself out of the idea because I needed to give my bedroom a bit of a tidy. (Clothes everywhere because I am messy! but extra clothes everywhere from where I’ve been trying to have a bit of a sort out every now and then!!) I also thought at this time that I would be going for my weekly walk later which would have been my contact with the outside world for today, but two of the others couldn’t make it this week, so it didn’t happen Frustrating that.

Friday was just a work day.

I did hear about this in the news this week though.

‘A baby who died 74 minutes after birth has become the UK’s youngest organ donor’

The parents knew from a scan that sadly she was not going to survive when she was born, so they were able to plan for her kidneys to be donated, which they say they found more helpful for them. The doctors also took some cells from her liver which were frozen and can now be used to treat patients who are waiting for a liver transplant. It’s amazing to think that her organs, which must have been so teeny tiny, have been able to go on and help others.

Monday 30th November to Wednesday 2nd December

An afternoon spent in Banbury with Robyn and Tom. Shopping and a visit to Pizza Express 😀

Work on Tuesday morning. Its now 1st December!

And this happened in Wales. The law changed. You would now automatically be on the Organ Donor list unless you choose to OPT OUT. A great thing to happen. Will England follow in this? We wait to see.      Click on bit.ly/1AxXumY

I served three ladies at separate times today while sat on my till that I know very well and who have all had severe problems with their health. It’s really sad to think about them suffering as they are all such nice, kind women and all used to do lots of different things to help other people. It’s not fair. I really hope they all stay strong, keep fighting and beat their horrible illnesses.

They all knew about what had happened to me and were glad to see me and pleased that I was back at work. One of the ladies had been back to work too but was now going to retire. She was saying about how hard she found it to try and go back to normal, that we’ve all been on some kind of journey that not many other people understand, and it can be very difficult to go back. It was so nice to talk to someone that understands. Everyone that sees me says ‘you’re amazing, you look SO well, are you better now’ and I obviously feel so much better than I did, but there are still things going on in my body and head that people can’t see, and I think that’s what makes it so difficult. I don’t like to keep going on about it because I think people get fed up of hearing it, and I know that there are many many people much worse off than me. But yes, I do agree, it’s hard.
On Wednesday I was very tired but I didn’t feel unwell. Maybe I’m getting used to this work business!! I had lots of jobs to catch up with today and lots of washing. My house is on 3 floors so I’m up and down the stairs constantly. I think I’m actually going to count how many times I do it one day. Even if I just want to get myself a drink I have to go down and then back up the stairs!

Jake obviously decided that he wanted to come up the stairs to our living room and see us a few times this week. So there we are eating our breakfast or whatever and suddenly in he comes round the door! The trouble is he can’t get back down them without falling (they are steep, twisty and narrow) as he is old now and his legs are not the best. So we have to hold on to his collar and guide him down, without tripping over him ourselves. Not the easiest of jobs 😏

Later in the afternoon I had to go and pick up a parcel that had been delivered to our old house, so I walked up the hill to get that. It was weird and quite horrible going back there. The kids grew up there, my friend lived just across the lane, lots of happy memories, we just didn’t want to leave there 😦

Anyway I got my parcel, then I walked back into town to pick up my prescription and then I met Robyn when she had finished work. I think I mentioned before that my old neighbour Tony had sadly died. So we went to meet some of our friends and had a drink with them at the wake.

Then it was time to go to Christmas bingo! We normally go to this every year. It’s a bit of fun. The prizes are boxes of chocolates, biscuits, Christmassy things etc. Robyn won the full house prize in one of the games, a tub of Heroes chocolates and a Christmas selection box (and she won’t even eat chocolate!) The rest of us were not lucky. Oh Hannah won some chair cushions in the raffle at the end, but she wasn’t too pleased about it 😝

When I was on my own later that night I was reading things other people say in a group I’m in for people with PBC and it was about the illness coming back after transplant. I’ve always known that it happens but when you hear people saying that it’s happened to them it makes it all a bit more real. Got me thinking. Do I really want to go through all that stuff again, years of feeling crap, endless medication and then possibly, if lucky enough, another transplant? Not sure I could do it …

Friday 27th to Sunday 29th November

When I got up this morning to get ready for work Robyn decided to have a nose bleed! She keeps having these too often at the moment and I hope she’s just going to get them checked out with the doctor real soon. This one was really very heavy and lasted for quite a long time. It stopped her from being able to get ready for work for a while, and it was starting to make me feel a bit sick! Eventually it stopped as suddenly as it started, thank goodness.

Work was busy. A constant steady stream of customers to serve.

I made myself some pasta for dinner. I don’t know about you but whenever I make cheese sauce I always seem to get lumps in it 😦 so out comes the sieve! 

Saturday morning’s breakfast.

How spoilt was I? It tasted amazing. Mr Warburton’s Giant Crumpets are so nice. Crispy on the outside and so soft inside. And the holes just let all the flavours from whatever’s on the top, soak through. I really advise you  all to give them a try. They are my new favourite thing 🙂 Seems like I haven’t had a curry Saturday for a while, but if I get this instead I really don’t mind 😉

Then there was another ‘attempt at Christmas shopping’ trip. You will find there will be an awful lot of these now. I managed to get a couple of little things again. Then, amazingly, I got Gary to agree to get a Costa coffee ☕️ We had to go and sit in though, I wasn’t allowed a drive through, which of course I didn’t mind either! I had another one of their mince pies too as I find them very very tasty. So then I got out my iPad and did a bit of online shopping. Another 3 little presents bought. A much nicer and relaxing way to shop. I was quite pleased with myself 😆

We were due to go and watch Tom’s band this evening but for some reason when I got home I just couldn’t face it. After a lot of debating with myself I decided not to go. This made me incredibly upset as I felt I was letting Robyn down and after all she does for me, she definitely doesn’t deserve that. So in the end I spent the evening at Gary’s. I had a shower and then just sat on the sofa doing nothing. I was upset for the whole evening 😰

A little mention for my dad today. It would have been his birthday. How I would love to see him again and for him to meet Robyn and Leah. And of course to tell him all about what I have been through …

On Sunday we decided to go shopping at the last minute. Gary needed some paint and I was going to look in a specific shop for a Christmas present (can’t say anymore than that because the person concerned reads my blog!) Annoyingly it turned out I wasn’t very successful in that department anyway as the shop didn’t have much choice! 

We took so long in the shops in the end that we were really pushed for time. We were going to see a band play in our local pub (and this time I was determined that I would go ) We rushed back and got ready to go out quickly. We were late. Then when we got there they hadn’t even started. They were waiting for the football match that was being shown in the pub to finish first! My friend Jackie came to watch too. I hope she enjoyed it 🎤

On the way back I got some chips. In the end they were too salty (the man in the shop had put it on) and I couldn’t eat them 😦

What a weekend.

Wednesday 25th to Thursday 26th November

I really didn’t want to get out of bed this morning. I was very sleepy. When I did get up my eyes were very puffy and I had a terrible headache. It must have been bad because I actually took some paracetamol! I very slowly, did some things around the house. Earlier in the week I had already promised myself I would have a trip to Caffe Nero today because I was getting fed up of just being inside all day in the middle of the week. As I was feeling unwell I really didn’t fancy a walk into town but I made myself go because I knew that in the end it would make me feel better.

So I had my normal mug of tea and treated myself to another one of their gingerbread muffins and I just sat quietly and did a bit of blogging. Quite enjoyable. Broke the day up a bit and also gave me a little rest from all the different jobs I keep finding myself to do.

I opened the door to the smell of chicken casserole 🍲 simmering away in the slow cooker. It did smell good. I hoped it was going to be as tasty! Makes me feel like I’m a good mother when I have made a nice hot healthy meal ready for when everyone is home (well Robyn went off to the gym first and had hers later). Both the kids told me that they loved it anyway 😀 Leah even had seconds!

I felt a little better on Thursday. I sorted a few more of my clothes out. I know this seems to be taking ages but I only do a little bit at a time and a lot of them I need to try on to see if they still fit or if I still even like them. And there’s always those day to day jobs that need doing too!

I went for my walk in the evening. A good hour and a half this time. And I could feel it too 😦 Enjoyed it though. Another lady joined us this evening. She was telling me about her daughter who is also suffering with liver problems at the minute and how she is finding it difficult living with the extreme fatigue. I can only sympathise with her It’s very tough.

Monday 23rd to Tuesday 24th November

Monday morning again and I didn’t feel that great. I felt quite sick at times, my body didn’t want to work and I was very very tired. As a result of a busy weekend shopping and probably staying up much later than I should be doing? I don’t know, all that probably didn’t help though I hate it when I have these days, it really annoys me.

Off I went into Banbury with Robyn. We had some food shopping to do! Then we decided to stop off somewhere and find a jacket potato for our lunch. Well Robyn took me to this cafe she had been to a few times before apparently. I didn’t like the look of it but went ahead and ordered because she told me it was nice. I actually didn’t know if it would be a good idea to eat or not because of the way I was feeling, but I also know it’s not good for me to go without food either, so I decided to try. Surprisingly for me they were quite nice when they arrived. Robyn soon polished hers off but in the end I could only manage a little of mine. The waitress was funny, she kind of told us off for not eating the salad that came with it, she said to say next time that we didn’t want the salad, and she told me to perhaps next time order the childrens’ jacket potato as they are quite filling!!

With an aching tummy, we then went to look around a new retail park that has recently opened in the town. Robyn managed to find herself quite a few new clothes again, I kind of walked about in a bit of a trance not really being able to concentrate on anything too much Glad when we had finished.

Off to work this morning, Tuesday. Felt a little bit better but was still very very tired. Work went fine. I had arranged to cook for us all today, although Robyn was having fish instead of sausages and at a different time, and I was going to do a chicken casserole tomorrow in the slow cooker, so I spent quite a long time stood in the kitchen, preparing loads of veg etc. cooking and then lots of washing up. Just completely exhausted and aching all over by the time I had finished. Sounds silly I know, but true. A tiring day.

Saturday 21st to Sunday 22nd November

This morning Gary thought he should make a start on his Christmas shopping and I agreed with him. Well, I agreed that it does really need starting but I just can’t get my head round to thinking about it and actually doing it. I think I’m becoming a bit of a Bah humbug. I traipse round the same old shops weekend after weekend looking at the same old stuff and not knowing what to buy anybody. It drives me mad. And it definitely doesn’t help that I can only seem to walk around for about an hour at the moment and then my body has had enough 😦

Anyway that’s enough of my moaning, time to go shopping! We went to Swindon today and to one of those massive Asda Walmart stores. We both managed to get a few odd bits but nothing major

In the evening I was at Gary’s when Leah decided to FaceTime me! Robyn soon decided to get in on the act, I think X Factor was on the TV and they both decided to have a sing and dance around with a pair of pants on their head.

Look great don’t they? 😂

On Sunday in Australia it was #DonateLifeThankYouDay

What a great idea and very clever too. I would have loved to have been able to be on that beach and to have signed that book.

What I was doing instead was going shopping with Gary and Robyn. I did suffer today walking around. My back was so painful I wanted to cry, I don’t know why it was being so bad today. When we had finished we went to Costa and I had a coffee and a really lovely mince pie from there. That cheered me up a little bit! That was until I discovered that I had left both my iPad and my phone in the car. The other two were straight on theirs, I was left sat there twiddling my thumbs!

Friday 20th November

My ‘morning at work’ day! All seemed to go fine.

I had decided that I was going to make myself some pasta and roasted vegetables for my dinner. Robyn didn’t want any, I can’t remember what she had instead now! Leah couldn’t have the sauce I was using as she’s following the Slimming World diet at the moment (and doing really well on it 😀) so she came up with this idea …

She was going to use her Slimming World spicy lentil soup as the sauce to go on her share of the pasta, then she added her favourite frozen mixed veg at the minute which is carrots, peas, sweetcorn and green beans! She then cooked mushrooms, shredded some ham, mixed it all together and sprinkled some cheese over the top.

Strange food mix, but this is how it turned out in the end.

Doesn’t actually look too bad does it? And she said it was really quite nice.

Just to say that on Thursday evening we had jacket potatoes for dinner and Leah had cheese, ham, baked beans and then again, her favourite mixed veg with it. Despite all these funny (well to me anyway) food combinations she is doing really really well on her diet at the minute. I wonder what she will come up with next …

I know it sometimes sounds from some of my blog posts like my life at home is quiet and not much happens. But always going on in the background of what I’m telling you about is the normal day to day life of living with two daughters! And this is just the food side of it! They both work full time and finish at different times. So mealtimes are sometimes difficult. Robyn won’t eat certain things, Leah now can’t eat certain things and I have to make myself eat as my appetite is poor (although I have been eating more ‘proper’ meals over the last couple of months ) 

So normally between 6-8pm in our kitchen is a crazy time. Sometimes there are 3 separate meals being prepared and cooked at various stages, Radio 1 is on so sometimes there may be a bit of singing or dancing, our dog Jake is around everyone’s feet waiting for his tea or for things to be dropped on the floor, Jack (Leah’s boyfriend) comes in, and sometimes Tom (Robyn’s boyfriend). Tales about their days at work or any gossip are told. Funny debates about the news. 

And before all this, during the day, we have the text messages. What we having to eat later, what shopping is needed, who’s getting it, ‘I haven’t got any money’ ‘I can’t carry all of that back from work’, ‘how many calories/syns/fat is in that’ etc etc.

Chaos. But I would hate it any other way 🤗

Wednesday 18th to Thursday 19th November

Wednesday and Thursday were both just spent at home again. I’m just going about all my jobs feeling exhausted so taking my time, but with a massively aching body as things have to be done!

Robyn wasn’t feeling too great either. Tom has a viral infection so I’m guessing she has the same kind of thing. She carried on at work though too. What heroes!!

Jack has some chickens in his mums’ garden so he brought us over 6 eggs. They were so fresh they were bright yellow and they produced a lovely omelette which Leah made for me on Wednesday.

  
On Thursday I decided to ring my energy supplier as I have had the meters changed recently and it has taken them absolutely ages to sort everything out. I rang and explained everything to one man, got cut off so rang again. The lady couldn’t find out who I had originally spoke to, so I had to go through it all again with her. Then when she had finished I had to wait another 10 minutes to be transferred to a different department. I was timing all of this on my phone and it actually took just over an hour. I was so fed up at the end, but at least (I hope) we had finally managed to sort everything. Then, later in the evening, I checked the details on the email they had sent and I had to join what they call ‘my account’ so I tried and it now wouldn’t accept the password I was putting in. So I then had to have an online chat with another one of their people. He was very good and soon sorted that out for me. But what a performance, surely it didn’t need to take that long?

Today is normally my walk day but my friend text to say she probably wouldn’t be back from a hospital appointment in time, so I just carried on doing things and ended up having my dinner later. Then later she text to say she was back and did I want to go, but I was still eating so couldn’t really. Aaaargh, that’s always how things seem to turn out for me. Most annoying because I enjoy my walk and good old gossip!

Tuesday 17th November

When I got to work this morning Father Christmas 🎅 was also there! I thought for a minute that I had missed another few weeks of my life. Surely he wouldnt arrive in his grotto until December But it seems on this occasion he had. He had two elves with him as well. Despite the fact that I am definitely NOT in a Christmassy mood at the moment it brightened up a morning at work anyway. They were 3 young blokes and a few of the customers joined in with the spirit of things and asked them to sing some Christmas songs so every now and then they just burst into song, they only seemed to know 2 songs though so it did get a bit repetitive. It was very cute when the little children from one of the local nurseries came to see them. Oh I do miss my own kids being little, cant wait for the grandchildren! During the morning when it went a bit quiet Father Christmas 🎅 was just sitting on his posh chair and the elves were literally led on bean bags each side of him chatting. Nice job they had! Another male customer this time, told them that they needed to earn their money and they should be up dancing. So then up got Father Christmas 🎅 and did a little jig. Funny!

After I finished work I was going to meet my friend Jackie for a cuppa. She works in Co-op with me too but doesn’t finish until 3pm so I went ahead and sat and waited in Cafe Nero. I got myself a mug of tea and one of their special Christmas gingerbread filled muffins (as I hadn’t eaten, but sssh don’t tell Robyn :/) It was very very nice. 

Since I’ve started back at work I haven’t been in Cafe Nero. I do miss just sitting and blogging in there. A bit of a luxury that I was able to treat myself to now and then.

When I finally got back home it was time to get dinner ready. Today we were all actually going to be eating the same thing at the same time, which doesn’t actually happen too often in our house. I made one of those things where you cook everything in a bag together, so all it takes is a lot of chopping of all the vegetables and a bit of meat, add the seasoning, and then you just put it in the oven in the sealed bag and wait for it to cook. And they do always seem to turn out quite nice. For me, not being the greatest of cooks! they are great.

I heard on the TV today that storm Barney was on its way. Meaning lots of rain and strong winds. We definitely could do without that. I think I’m going to be adding to my garden path saga shortly, as the roof seems to be leaking again. We had this problem back last year and a couple of different roofers went up there but never seemed to fix the problem so my landlady eventually decided that she would get someone to do the roof. When it came down to it she only got the front of the house done. Anyway this last week we have noticed that the wall in Robyn’s bedroom is getting wetter and wetter and the damp patches are now also going much further down the wall. 

As it happened I saw my landlady today and I told her that we are having problems, so watch this space …

Saturday 14th to Monday 16th November

What to do today?! In the afternoon I went shopping with Gary, to Witney for a change this time. I didn’t really need to buy anything though so we just wandered about for a while and then came back! 

In the evening we went down to our local pub to watch a band play. They weren’t really my thing, thankfully they did get a bit better as the night wore on. It was okay but not the best night out I’ve had !!!

On Sunday we went back to the Blue Boar in the early evening to watch some more music. This time just a man on his keyboard singing and a drummer. We have seen him before and he was good. Dare I say, much more enjoyable than the night before It’s also a lot more relaxed in the pub on a Sunday evening rather than a Saturday night too. Quite a nice time to go out.

A bit unusual for us to go out twice in a weekend though! 🙄 But that’s just the way the music worked out. I think there’s a weekend coming up in December when there’s bands that we like on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday 🤗

Back around to Monday again and Robyn’s day off. We had both had a bit of a stressful weekend in different ways, so just wanted to do something nice together!

My friend Nina rang me first thing this morning to say she had a present for me. So she called round on her way to work and gave me a chocolate sponge cake that she had made to celebrate me being able to go back to work! How kind of her, and just what I needed to cheer me up a bit. Can’t wait to try a bit later. 

Anyway me and Robyn just ended up going shopping to Cowley in Oxford in the end.

Robyn was a bit wary of this as since the terrorist attacks in Paris she doesn’t want any of us to go out to any nearby cities. I guess it’s understandable but we can’t all just stay at home just in case can we? Hannah feels the same as Robyn, but Leah is, as always, a bit more relaxed about it all. It is awful though that we now all have that fear, everybody not just my family, of being caught up in an attack somewhere, as all we are doing is trying to go about our normal daily lives, and it maybe now makes us think twice before we do something. What about all those Christmas shopping trips we are all going to need to be making very soon? 

We had a good time shopping anyway. I think we both managed to get a few little things for Christmas presents. We stopped and had a jacket potato for our lunch in a little cafe and then it was food shopping time. Robyn’s favourite part of her day off – not 😱

When we got back I then had to go to my appointment to get my flu jab. My GP really wanted me to have it before I started back to work but I haven’t been well enough until recently to have it, and then I had to wait until they could fit me in. I never used to bother about having things like this and maybe now you would think that I should be used to injections but I hate having anything at all done to me now. It went ok, was over in a second, just gave me a bit of a sore arm for the rest of the evening.