Up The Farway Tree

Weekend indoors

I am so glad I was at home this weekend as it has been pouring for the entire time - some flooding but not as bad as most other areas. A good excuse to stay indoors which is sometimes quite nice! When I have gone out Seb has been forced to wear his little rain coat - a passer by commented that he looked very smart haha. Despite being indoors I have not really relaxed much as I was in 'sorting' mode yesterday and ended up clearing out the two big hall cupboards along with lots of those 'stuff' drawers where you just pile in everything and anything. I was actually looking for 2 particular items, neither of which I found...although I did come across lots of other interesting things I didn't know I had ;-)

I went into town with my cousin Sarah on Friday for some Christmas shopping - we were very efficient shoppers and didn't hang around long as it was stressfully busy. Unfortunately I got home to find I had left a carrier bag in Debenhams - which I had put down when looking at something. Argghhh. I had to go via a call centre to get redirected to the store - the first time I got cut off, then the lost property department rang out, then I got the department where I left the bag but they didn't have it. I tried again yesterday and after three calls via call centre eventually convinced someone to give me the lost property number - which was constantly engaged for 3 hrs (off the hook more like!) Eventually I got through and they did have the bag (along with several others left my people). I then got a 5 minute lecture from the lady about leaving my receipt in the bag as someone could have returned the item and being more careful in future and I was a very lucky lady blah blah blah. You would think I had left a million pounds lying in a bag the way she was going on!

This week is quite busy as I have a meeting to brief me on the PBL block I am facilitating, which I need to fit into my lunch hour on Wednesday. Then in the evening I am talking to the carers group at work (carers of people with severe mental health problems) about drug therapies. I have spent this afternoon looking over some information but to be honest I think it's quite informal and it's more likely they will just want to ask me questions about various worries. I am not really sure how it works but will be interesting to see. Then I had a letter as there has been a recall on my car - something to do with the steering shaft, which doesn't sound good to me! So that has to go to the garage, and somewhere in between I have the dentist and my second swine flu jag. People who are immunosuppressed have to get two jags as the response to the first one might not be sufficient (since my immune system will not respond the same as a normal person). I felt ok after the first one although my arm was really sore compared to the normal flu jag. However this week I had a bit of a temperature (and it flickered last week too) so I think this might be a delayed response to the vaccine. I am otherwise ok and didn't have any other symptoms so not sure why else it would happen. It has settled down now so hopefully I will be fit and ready for the 2nd jag at the end of the week. Lucky me :-)

The BIG news in this week is that I have purchased a 7ft pre-lit Christmas tree. Oh yes. It is rather magnificent(don't worry, it is still in the box). Post transplant I am not allowed a real Christmas tree due to bugs that can grow in them so I feel quite entitled to a special fake one. Not long until I get to put it up :-)

Lastly can you have a special thought for my friend Emily who is in hospital at the moment. She had her transplant before me and helped me through the journey - the same Emily who I am doing the booklets with. Her lung function has dropped recently and she has had a cough for a while now so she is in getting some IV antibiotics and they will see if lung function has improved tomorrow before deciding on next step - so some good thoughts her way that all goes well tomorrow. In her own words 'I am in hospital being mendificated'. I might try using that word at work next week..