Up The Farway Tree

Another Busy Week!


I have had another rather busy week - I'm almost looking forward to going down to Newcastle today to get a wee rest :-) Tomorrow is my 6 month bronchoscopy and check up!! It's not actually 6 months until the 25th Oct but they are doing the bronch a little early just to fit in with my clinic appointments. I cannot believe it is nearly 6 months since the transplant!! The time has just flown in and I have come so far....however in some respects it does feel like an eternity since I got that call, and it seems even longer since I felt so breathless and unwell. It's funny how your brain has a way of forgetting the difficult times and you start to get used to the new 'normal' - feeling like this is the way it has always been. Sometimes I am really afraid to forget how difficult it was before the transplant because I worry that it will make me appreciate this new life less....however I also understand that you cannot live in the past and the only way to make the most of this opportunity is to move forwards and make the most of each new day.

Making the most of each new day is probably the reason I have been so busy! On Tuesday I sat in on the addictions clinic, which was really interesting and a bit of an eye opener. I am not sure I would be able to work in an area like that full time though, as it is quite emotionally draining and frustrating at times. I was mostly sitting in with the nursing staff so will probably go back and sit in on some medical reviews as well so I can see it from that perspective. On Friday I had the second part of the PBL facilitator training, which involved observing a PBL group as they worked through the process. It was very strange watching this from the other side, as I did PBL twice a week for the first three years at university so am well used to it from the student's perspective. I also realised I was actually 10 years older than these students, but I probably looked younger....not sure if this is a good or bad thing ;-) I really enjoyed the session but hadn't quite appreciated how much work the facilitator should do out with the sessions. They are given notes to read up on, so that they understand what the students should have learnt, in order to give some direction if they are going off course. I was reading up the notes before the session and I could hardly remember any of it from university! It was all about cell cycles and receptors and other things I have long forgotten, so I felt like I was doing all this revision before I even got there. Hopefully if I do get to facilitate a block, I can do one that has some psychiatry in it, as this would be a lot easier for me.

Andrew's friends was staying at the beginning of the week as he had an interview nearby. For the first time in a while Seb well and truly showed me up! I had cooked a roast chicken and took a couple of plates through to the dining room and then went back for the others. I was only gone about 1o seconds and returned to find Seb sitting up on my chair tucking into my roast chicken!! The worst of it was, he wasn't even bothered that I caught him and simply lifted a large chunk of the plate and jumped down before I could catch him. He then had the cheek to rattle his bowl in the hope I would put some chicken in there. I was so embarrassed! Just wait until we get to these training classes next week....

The rest of the week I was working like a busy busy bee on this 'CF and relationship' booklet. Most of this time was spent trying to work out how to use a publishing programme and there was much 'Oh I didn't mean to press that!' 'Where has that graph disappeared to?' 'Why is that heading three times bigger than the others?' before I finally got the hang of it. I have now made a pdf of the whole booklet (it is rather long!) and my friend is kindly proof reading it for me at the moment. Myself and Emily will then need to think about approaching some people regarding publishing, but in the mean time we can hopefully make a downloadable pdf. I will let you know how to access it once we are finished, although it's probably not very interesting if you don't have CF!

I have also had a busy weekend, as I had friends over for dinner last night. I think my meal was quite successful although I had a few timing problems. I can cook each part of the meal fairly well but trying to get all three courses ready at the right time was a bit more difficult. I clearly have a long way to go before I am up to my mum's standards :-)

So, I will blog when I get back from Newcastle, which will be Wednesday if the bronchoscopy is clear, and the end of the week if there is any rejection. Fingers crossed for a clear biopsy! The only reason I have to stay until Wednesday is because I am doing the last part of that study into reflux with the NG tube. At least this is the last one though, so it's not too bad. I am hoping to visit my friend Louise when I am down there, as she is still in HDU. I hadn't updated because I hadn't heard anything for ages and neither had anyone else. It turned out she couldn't contact anyone because she was in ITU very unwell for the first 5 weeks post transplant, but she is now on the HDU ward and progressing slowly. I think she still has a way to go but things are looking a lot more positive now :-)