Up The Farway Tree

Busy Week

I was hoping for some well earned rest after the walk, but it has been a very busy week! Monday was supposed to be recovery day but unfortunately I had a hospital appointment mid day which was a bit annoying. It was just a dermatology review - you have an increased risk of skin cancer due to the immunosuppression drugs so they have to be careful about this. Everything was fine and I don't need to go back unless there are any problems. After that I had an interesting afternoon - recording a podcast for the student BMJ (British Medical Journal) about transplant. Apparently the journal are running a big transplant issue, covering various learning topics on this area for the students. A podcast is basically a recording the students can download to listen to. The BMJ editor had heard about me via a doctors forum who were sponsoring my walk and thought it would great to interview someone who had a transplant but was also a doctor. I think they also interviewed a live kidney donor and a transplant surgeon. I was talking for about an hour on the phone (directed by their questions) and they ran out of studio time haha! It will have to be condensed down so not sure what will be covered but hopefully I will sound ok and not 'too' scottish :-) I am not sure when it will be finished but will post a link if it's possible at the time.

Tuesday and Wednesday were very busy because those were my first two full days at work...for a long time! I got on fine and wasn't too tired at all - however I did feel quite stressed when I got home on Wednesday. It was the feeling of walking in the door, straight into the kitchen to start dinner with Seb po-going round me because he wanted a walk. Then I looked around and the house seemed really messy because I would normally have just cleared up in the afternoon as I went along. So in the time it took for my dinner to cook, I had flown round sweeping floors, dusting and cleaning and sent Andrew out to bring washing in and hoover. I felt like I couldn't sit down and relax with all that still to be done. I think it was mostly because I was meant to be working at the uni thurs and friday so just felt it was piling up. What I need to learn is that these things can wait, and it doesn't really matter if I am on top of things all the time. It's not even that I am a clean freak or obsessively tidy, but I do just feel so much calmer and happier when my surroundings are clutter free and clean. It's probably some control thing - especially when in the past I have had very little control over my life, especially health wise, so I tend to use external factors to gain that feeling. I probably need to try and let go of this.

In the end my Thursday uni teaching was cancelled so I had CF clinic in the morning (got on fine) and mum came through in the afternoon. We popped out to Debenhams to spend our vouchers - there wasn't much I really liked but funnily enough I managed to spend the vouchers anyway ;-)

Friday I was doing two PBL sessions at the uni so was there most of the day. It was a little boring because it was two different groups but the same scenario so I had to listen to the feedback on the same information twice. I probably learnt quite a lot though! It was about iron metabolism, which actually does tie in with a case presentation I have to do at work in a few weeks, so probably useful. I actually volunteered to present a case at journal club - I must be nuts! It was really because the case is interesting and I also did quite a bit of work on it before I went of sick two years ago - so would be good to finally present my findings before I leave this job in the summer.

The really exciting news from this week is that we have found drug company sponsorship for our CF booklet (CF and Relationships). I had sent out copies to all the CF units and one of the consultants took it to a conference to show the drug company - they loved it and immediately agreed to funding a run of thousands to be distributed to all CF units who wanted copies for their patients!!! They will hopefully also be able to take it along to the big North American CF conference this year, so I can say we are going global. Their sales team will handle the distribution so I don't even have to do anything. This is the best news for me and Em and has made all the hard work seem so much more worthwhile. We are already planning our next booklet - but it is top secret just now ;-)

Lastly, I was at my friend Gillian's 30th birthday last night - it was fancy dress (famous characters throughout the years - real or fiction). Myself and Andrew went as 'Bonnie and Clyde'. We dressed up based on the movie and fortunately everyone seemed to know who we were meant to be. I had to go blonde for the night which was most bizarre but also good fun! We didn't really know anyone else at the party because my other school friends couldn't make it - but I just sat with some of Gillian's teacher friends and chatted to them. It didn't stop me dancing either and we had a lovely night. I will leave you with some photos....

Me and the Birthday Girl (Marie Antoinette)

Andrew and Gillian

Looking strangely gleeful about holding a gun

Fay Dunaway eat your heart out...