I got the job!

I had my job interview this morning and late this afternoon they called to offer me the position :-) It is a part time post - 20hrs/week - in general adult psychiatry as a Speciality Doctor (used to be called Staff Grade) which is a promoted post from what I am doing just now. I will be starting mid August when my current job is due to end. In the past these staff grade posts did not allow you to continue training but now some of the posts offer training opportunities, which this one does. This keeps my options open for progressing to consultancy should I wish or I can also continue to progress along this route. The big advantage of staying a Speciality Doctor is that it generally does not involve on call, less managerial/admin type work - so essentially most of the time can be spent actually seeing patients, which is what I enjoy doing. I think 20hrs is ideal at the moment - it is a bit more than I currently have but is not putting too much pressure on me and also allow me to continue doing some work at the uni. And also maybe trying to have a life somewhere in there too!

My sinuses are still driving me mad but I am really hoping the new tablet works. I started taking it on Saturday and felt a bit spaced out but not too bad. I then took my next dose on Sunday - fell asleep three times during the day, became really uncoordinated and clumsy (well, more than my normal!) and felt very strange indeed. I could not have driven the car or gone to work like that. I phoned the GP yesterday and she felt the regime I had been given for titrating up the dose was a bit OTT for a tiny person with slightly dodgy kidney function. So I have some lower dose tablets and will build it up a lot more slowly - I took the first one tonight (not wanting to take it before the interview) and so far I feel ok. I don't expect much pain relief until the dose is a bit higher so fingers crossed :-)

We also had a monumental event at the weekend - Seb was allowed off his lead!!! We have been practising recall with him attached to 30m washing line and he is really good. So we took him to the country park where there is some moorland - with no roads nearby at all. At first he didn't seem to realise he wasn't on a lead and kept following me but then he got more adventurous and started exploring. Towards the end he had found a gate which he was trying to squeeze under but he did come back when I shouted (with chicken reward of course). I would still never let him off where there are any roads as he is rather unpredictable but this was a huge step forward!

Also at the weekend we went through to Edinburgh and did a radio interview with my uncle. He hosts a few religious radio shows and wanted to interview myself and Andrew for one of his shows called 'A view from Earth'. It was to talk about my earlier life with CF, the transplant, the journey.. basically my life story. Led by questions I was talking for nearly an hour with Andrew getting a word in now and again ;-) I did manage to get some information in about Live Life Then Give Life and also spoke about organ donation and the need for people to sign the register, but more importantly, to let their family know their wishes. I am not sure when it will be aired but will let you know when I hear.

Lastly, if you haven't noticed, Team Jac has gone over the £20, 000!! In fact over £21,000 from today. I have a few more people to chase for their sponsorship so we are nearly there now. With gift aid added we are closing in on £25, 000. Truly amazing.

A bit of a moan

I might just have a small whinge if no one minds! My sinuses are driving me up the wall again - they have been so sore this week and nothing is really helping. Coincidently I had appointment with pain doctor on Thursday so he has added in another drug (gabapentin) so I am really hoping this will have some benefit. Also this week my joints have been pretty bad - in particular my hip is really stiff and sore. I have been somewhat(!) irritable all week because I feel like I just have pain all the time but I know that things will eventually settle a bit. It's just so frustrating at time - because I just want to be normal!! Anyway that is my whinge over.

Other news is that I have a job interview next week - it is for a part time post in general adult psychiatry, starting in August (I have mentioned before that the funding for my current post runs out in August). I have been trying to do some background reading and preparation this week but it's hard to concentrate when face is sore! I have managed to do quite a bit though and have another few days, so hopefully I will come across well enough in the interview. Think good thoughts for me!

I had my hair cut yesterday - it is driving me nuts at the moment. I think I mentioned it was falling out and although it seems to have stopped now it is definitely the thinnest it's ever been. The new hair is growing in underneath which makes the rest stick out a bit and it's all wispy and weird at the ends. The best the hairdresser could do was to cut a few inches off to try and make it thicker, but she said I will just have to wait until the new hair grows longer and it will hopefully be fine again. I am mostly wearing it tied back which looks ok, so hopefully it won't take too long to sort itself out!

I will leave you with some pictures of Seb. This was him trying to get Andrews attention because he wanted to go for a walk...


Firstly he clambered on top of Andrew - note the paw on Andrew's arm. Seb uses his paws a lot to get attention (he also uses them to push over ornaments etc when seeking attention!)


This didn't work, so he climbed behind Andrew's legs and began to sulk..



Looking across at me with his sulky face..







We ignored the sulk, so he then popped up again...


Then sat like this just staring at Andrew intently...


Andrew did give in and take him for a walk haha!

Seb in his new favourite lookout!

Back Home!

We had a lovely weeks holiday in Nice and I am only sorry it is all over so soon! The weather was great all week - about 25c max - which was not too hot for walking around sight seeing. I am not so good at the relaxation part and did have Andrew traipsing all over the place and getting on and off buses to random places. For me that is relaxing though - I enjoy seeing new things and love to explore places I go on holiday. We did spend a little time at the pool - more so in the early evening just having a coffee and reading my book. It has to be at least 30c before I get in a swimming pool but Andrew does like a swim. I get really cold very quickly in the water and am not a very strong swimmer. I can only do the front crawl and it is very splishy splashy!!

View over Nice from hill where Castle used to be

Nice itself was a lovely place - very Italian feeling about it, as it is near the border (lots of pizza and pasta on the menus!) The old part of the town is beautiful - lots of tiny winding streets with interesting shops and cafes. I love stopping for a coffee and sitting watching people go by - and the French do proper coffee :-) The beach in Nice is pebbly so not great for sunbathing although it was very busy all the same. There is a long promenade based on the English style (designed when Nice was a destination for wealthy Brits) - it stretched for miles along the coast.

The little train at the promenade - takes you around Nice

Breakfast sitting outside the cafe (don't worry, half of that is mine!)

Cimiez district of Nice - this picture was in the gardens of a monastery

We also visited a few other places along the riveria as our hotel was near the bus station and it was a euro no matter where you seemed to be going! We spent a day in Monaco - looking at the castle and watched the changing of the guards (although I couldn't see anything because I am so small). We walked along the waterside looking at all the big yachts and visited the casino(just the inside hall - you have to wear shirt and tie to get into casino itself). Monaco was an insight into the very rich - posh cars, posh shops and very expensive. I much preferred the more laid back feel to Nice.

Monaco

View over Monaco from the castle

Other places we visited were Grasse - where they have all the perfume factories and Eze, which is a little village perched on a hill. It was a steep climb but amazing place - tiny streets with shops in little caves in the stone. At the top were exotic gardens and an amazing view!

View from exotic gardens in Eze

View of a villa (now a museum) in Cap Ferrat which belonged to Baroness Rothschild

I just can't believe how much easier it was for me to move about although everything on the Riveria seeming to be uphill! But I was not out of breath once! The heat also did not bother me at all where as in the past it would have made my breathing very difficult. Unfortunately I did have a lot of problems with my hip - but I think its coming from my back when I hurt it before the walk as opposed to part of my CF arthritis pain. I am going to ask my physio if someone could take a look at my back because I am not sure what to do next. I did have to take a lot of painkillers to keep it in check and also had heat packs on it (not much fun in hot weather haha) but maybe some exercises would help things ease up. Despite the hip though it was still easier to get around than before the transplant and it made the whole trip so much more enjoyable.

It's back to reality now though and back to work tomorrow. I hear we are forecast some good weather this week though so perhaps I can just pretend I am still in Nice.....


p.s Just Giving appear to have changed their website when I was away, so there are problems with the counter I had before and also intermittent problems loading my page. I will manually update the total at the right hand side of the blog though so you can keep an eye on it - heading towards the 20K now!!!!!

Bon Voyage

Just a last catch up before we head off on holiday! Today was last day at work and tomorrow will be mad packing, organising and running errands. Oh joy! I had my morning planned out, which involved nail painting and other such frivolous activities, but then I got a phone call from GP to say I need my bloods rechecked at 9am tomorrow morning. Pah! Kidney function was slightly off again on Monday but I asked receptionist for the results and they sounded not bad to me so not sure what all the drama was about - best to get them checked before I go, although not much I can do about it now!

I have had quite a busy week - no more lunching out though ;-) It was Andrew's gran's 90th birthday on Tuesday so she had party which I think she thoroughly enjoyed. She is rather amazing for 90! I was also busy at work - it's that thing of trying to tie up all loose ends before you go on holiday so ended up leaving quite late today. At least I left with all work done.

I planted out all my bedding plants the other night - didn't want to leave them in the greenhouse when we were away (although someone is watering stuff for us). They were mostly very tiny so not sure if they will grow to much...or even survive, but it's all good fun anyway. I am not even sure what some of them are ;-)

Seb is really loving his dog walker! She had him out for nearly 3 hours the other day as she was meeting up with her mum who also walks dogs - so he was totally shattered but very happy. Sometimes when he is dreaming he makes little noises and moves his legs - that night he started wagging his tail in his sleep! I have never seen that before - he must have been dreaming about all the fun he had earlier. Today wasn't a dog walker day but when I got home he kept looking past me to see if anyone else was coming in the door! That dog has no sense of loyalty ...

On a final note the Team Jac total has now gone over £19,000!! I seriously think we will make 20k (and that is without gift aid). Will be amazing if we do! Maybe by the time I come back it will already be there :-)

Well, off to pack my factor 50 and sun hat now...

Lady who Lunches

I seem to be spending a lot of time being a lady who lunches - really need to work some more in order to pay for it all haha! I went into town last week with mum for some holiday shopping (for her, not me) and we met up with Andrew for lunch, as he is temporarily working in the city centre due to flooding at his workplace. I then had lunch at the country park with my friend Lucie, went through to Edinburgh to meet my friends for the afternoon yesterday and I am just getting ready to go into town and meet a friend this afternoon. I think that may be a bit excessive in one week - although to be fair I have been so busy the last few weeks that I have hardly had time to meet anyone!

Being away yesterday gave Andrew time to sort a few things in the garden - namely Seb proofing the vegetable beds. He has curved some chicken wire over the beds to prevent Seb running up and down them - it will be ok once the plants are larger but he has destroyed lots of seedlings. Well I was in the greenhouse last night and caught Seb taking the chicken wire in his mouth and trying to pull it up - presumably so he could crawl under! You really can't trust that dog. He wasn't very happy with me anyway because I did a really stupid thing last week. I left the key in the back door and the dog walker couldn't get in!!! They tried to phone me but I had my phone on silent because I was at work - and then to make matters worse I went off on a sandal hunting expedition all afternoon and didn't get home until tea time, by which time Seb was not a happy boy. Oops. I tried to make up for it by taking him to the country park on Thursday and up to Loch Lomond on Friday. I think he has just about forgiven me...

I was also helping with baby duties this week. My friend Lucie had an important meeting so I went along to look after her 6 week old baby, Reuben, while she was in the meeting. Well he cried, and cried and cried some more. Eventually I started singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star over and over while walking about jiggling him up and down ....and this seemed to help. I am the worst singer around (mum will confirm) so I was quite surprised. It could be that he thought by stopping crying I might stop singing :-) Amazing how much attention you get when you are carrying a very cute baby up and down - a bit like when Seb was a puppy - although not quite the same thing ;-)

I will leave you with some pics of Seb. I had stripped the bed and left the duvet on the floor....I later found Seb had made himself a wee bed.....

Better late than never!

I meant to update at the weekend but the weather was far too nice to be inside on the computer!! We have had something of a tropical heat wave the past few days and I have been loving it - last summer was so awful and I missed the only nice weather we had in spring when I was rather tied up getting a transplant. So I have been making the most of the sunshine while it lasts :-) I was wondering how I would cope with the heat because pre-transplant I found it made me very breathless, couldn't tolerate it for long, and would also often feel sick with a headache. This weekend however I felt absolutely fine - took Seb to the country park first thing, rushed around Tesco getting BBQ things, prepared all the meat and enjoyed the sun all afternoon without feeling unwell at all! Just as well because we have finally booked our summer holiday - a week in Nice in a lovely ( I hope!) hotel with a swimming pool - so we have option to visit places on the French Riveria but also can chill out and relax at the pool if we feel like it. I can't wait :-)

We also spent a lot of time in the garden catching up with bits and pieces. I have re-potted all my bedding plants and have been putting them outside during the day - I have no idea what I am doing but they seem to still be alive ;-) Andrew has started work on the next stage of garden planning - lifting all the grass at the side part and putting down slate chips and making some raised beds, to try and use up the ton of topsoil we have lying about!

Bedding Plants

Stage 1 of slate chipping!

The vegetable beds however are a bit disappointing. Lettuce is growing, and carrots are peeping out but Seb appears to have trampled everything else!! Every time he goes outside he runs straight to the vegetable beds, runs up and down before peeing on the lettuce. He just gravitates towards anything that is raised above the ground so we are thinking of ideas to deter him. Some sort of suspended netting might work while still allowing things to grow. Or perhaps an electric fence....

Found Seb on the bag of topsoil....no idea how he got up there!!

He also likes to sit on stones in the rockery

My presentation last week and today went well. I put a lot of work in to them both, especially the one for journal club today, so I was pleased with how they went. It did take me a good 10 minutes to work out that there was nothing on the screen because the projector wasn't in focus ;-) I am getting used to the full day and on the plus side it is less stressful and manic at work because I don't have to get everything done before I leave at lunch time. I don't really fancy doing it every day though haha.

Seb started his dog walking last week and apparently he got on ok. He went with the dog walker no problems but did bark in the van - the dogs are in crates though, which is not what he is used to. He got on fine with the other dogs though and seemed to enjoy himself. He was acting really strange when I came home after his first walk - he kept making this strange noise while looking at me then staring at the door as if trying to tell me that some strange lady came while i was out and took him away! He seemed fine today though and was quite chilled when I got home - this makes it a lot less stressful for me getting in from work and at least I know he is not being left for long periods. He is a sensitive wee thing after all.

On a final positive note - we are now over £17, 500 for Team Jac and I have not finished collecting team members sponsor money!! I am not sure when we will have the final total but it's sure to be amazing :-)