New Year in Pictures

Well, as always, it is difficult to sum up the year in one blog post, so I will illustrate with some pictures again.

January
The start of year 2 after transplant and still going strong.  We had a difficult start to the year with my uncle dying on New Years day after a short illness - although we had at least been able to visit him in hospital in the few days prior.  Later in the month I went with mum to Nick Nairn cook school and had a lovely weekend - I bought a tiny pan for making potato pancakes and have never used it since ;-)

February
This month seemed to be consumed by insurance hunting for our Florida trip - what a nightmare!   On a more pleasant note, myself and mum went to Stobo for a night and had a fantastic relaxing time.  We are planning another visit this year :-)   Myself and Andrew enjoyed some nice walks up at the country park with Seb.

March
Not a good month - got a viral illness  and ended up being flat out for most of the month.  Mum ended up coming through to look after me.  Was rather scared at the time and especially worried I wouldn't be well enough for our trip.   I did of course recover in time, but I was glad to see the back of that month.  It was the worst I have felt since my transplant and brings back some not so pleasant memories.  It does however also make me appreciate how far I have come.

April
Florida!!  The long awaited family holiday was as good as I had hoped - we had a fantastic time in Miami and Orlando.  We did have the saga of getting stuck for an extra week due to the volcano - very stressful at the time but in hind sight I can laugh about it now.  This is me in the Magic Kingdom :-)  On the 25th I celebrated my 2nd transplant anniversary.

May
Started with a hen weekend in the Lake District, which was great fun.  Had a go at archery and quad biking and managed not to do myself any injuries.  We also got planning permission for our extension this month but then started the long wait for a building warrant!  There was a question mark over my contract renewal due to job cuts but luckily it turned out well and I ended up with a permanent contract instead :-)   It was a sad month with the loss of a fellow CF lady, Nicola, but also a new beginning for Victoria who had her transplant after so many false alarms.   I hope this year sees her go from strength to strength.   We a;so had some lovely sunny weather and lots of trips out with Seb.

June
Great report at transplant clinic and a busy month at work.  It was Johns 60th birthday so we all enjoyed his birthday celebrations.  We also were given tickets (thank you Lee) for Paul McCartney concert, which was brilliant.  A good month all round :-)

Me and Andrew at Johns Party

July
My dear friend Gillian's wedding, which was fantastic, and was also a good opportunity to get my lady bug shoes out.  We went down to London and visited Emily and Adam - a fleeting visit but we had a lovely time (apart from the fact Emily abandoned us to go into hospital in the middle of the night - how rude ;-))  Preparations began for the Masquerade Ball!!

August
Another friends wedding and another lovely day.  Started painting all the wood in the house and spent most of the month with paint on my hair, noted a few times at work.   It was my 6 year wedding anniversary and we had a nice lunch out -although did spend the rest of the day looking for kitchen tiles.... the building work finally commenced on the last few days of August and the chaos began.

With flatmates at Al and Clare's wedding

Where the extension was to be built...

September
A busy month of work on the extension and we saw such progress over the weeks.  It was a difficult month too, with Frances Ann's birthday and anniversary - I also spoke at the donor family network day around the time of Fran's birthday.  It was a lovely afternoon, very emotional but an honour to meet the donor families.   I had a slight health wobble with the persistent cough and the aspergillus showing up - however a swift CT scan showed no problems and I have been fine since :-)

October
Wow - a busy month!!   We started with a trip to Cambridge so I could attend a Transplant Psychiatry Interest group, followed by the advocate weekend in London.  That was after I realised I had booked train tickets for the wrong weekend!  It wa a great weekend (especially since I was travelling down with Victoria and Kirsty) and a good opportunity to catch up with all the LLTGL team.  I had the very sad news that my dear friend Fi had died suddenly and we managed to go up to Aberdeen for the funeral - please keep her family in your thoughts over the new year period.

Of course the month ended with a bang - the big Masquerade Ball, which was  a massive success!  It was rather manic in the lead up, with trying to finalise the last details and pull it all together.  We did it though and raised a massive £12, 600 for Live Life Then Give Life!!!

Oh yeah, and in between, we got all the ceilings plastered, emptied and moved rooms more times than I can remember and painted the extension.

This was an accidental picture taken by Pip - we had our photo taken at the same time and the flash lit us up!

November
Extension was finished but some more plastering upstairs - and we also decided it was a good idea to empty the entire room and get new wardrobes.  Of course.  Meanwhile I was still busy at work with my 10th week of PBL, although I really enjoyed the group.  I also did my Section 22 training in the mental health act (and in fact just got my certificate in the post today).   Spoke about CF and transplant at a church group  - always good to keep spreading the message.

December
Christmas count down begins!  Had a great December  - two work night outs, both of which I really enjoyed.  We went with my friends to see Beauty and the Beast Christmas show which was great.  The weather however, was awful and it had been a hard month for getting into work - with trains cancelled, delayed and all round madness on the roads.  It did at least look nice and Christmassy!  I also squeezed in a trip to Newcastle and got a great report, which is always a good way to end the year.  I can't believe December is now nearly over - had a lovely Christmas and still a few days of celebration to go.


2011...
Who know what next year will hold?  I have nothing planned, no big holidays arranged this year - but sometimes that's a good thing.  We will just see where the year takes us!  It will be lovely to enjoy the extension this year and we can finish off the rest of the house at a slower pace.  Two of my close friends are getting married so can't wait to celebrate with them.  I am sure 2011 will be a fantastic year and I will certainly be doing my best to make sure it is - and to enjoy each day as it comes.

Happy New Year to everyone!

Christmas 2010

Another great Christmas!  I was very restrained and although woke at 7am, I did wait until 7.30am before waking mum and dad.  I think that's pretty good :-)   I opened my stocking, got up and festooned Seb in his Christmas scarf and took stockings in for mum and dad.  We then started on the mammoth Christmas present opening ceremony :-)

I must have been a very good girl all year because Santa was especially good to me (again!)  Mum and dad had me lots of fab clothes, including a lovely wee retro black and white dress - which I will wear at a party this week.  I also LOVED the furry bag and ear muff set, which match my very furry boot slippers.  I am like a giant fur ball :-)   Andrew was getting me a new laptop which I am writing this on now - it is soooooooooo much faster than my old one, which was about to give up the ghost.  He also got me a panda hat...best present ever!

We had a lovely Christmas dinner, with a new starter this year of haggis in filo parcels.  Very nice!  I had made crackers for the table with little gifts for everyone, which I was rather pleased with if I do say so myself.  We then just chilled out for the rest of the evening and watched a really cheesy Christmas movie.  All in all everyone had a great day :-)

It's been a hard day...

Yesterday we headed down to Anne and John's, where I am at the moment.  The roads were clear coming down but it did snow last night - fingers crossed we get no more before heading back.  We are now just relaxing and unwinding before the next set of festivities at New Year!

Over the Christmas season, please do keep in your thoughts my donor and her family, as well as all those otherdonor  families, who have given this wonderful gift.  

One More Sleep

It's one more sleep 'til Christmas..tra la la la la, tra la la! I came back home to mum and dads last night after work, so that's me officially on holiday now. Woo!

I can't believe Christmas has come around so quickly and we are fast approaching the end of another year. Another fantastic year :-) I do love Christmas (would you ever guess?) because it's just a great time for family and everyone gathering together. I find it difficult at work in the lead up to Christmas as many patients get very depressed about it - feeling it's a time for missing people, for feeling lonely and for forced joviality. I would say I have had my fair share of loss and pain, and likewise, I do find it an especially poignant time of year. However I also see it as a time for remembering happy memories of those we have lost, of celebration and enjoying time with my family. I think it is about being in the moment and not dwelling on the past - we have some fantastic memories and stories of Christmas' past which we enjoy sharing at this time of year, but likewise, we are creating new memories to share in future years. I'm just so happy I am still here to celebrate Christmas and to look forward to another new year. Bring it on!

Great Report 

I made it down to Newcastle on Monday night - although I cheated slightly by getting dad to come and drive me!  I was a bit nervous with the recent weather but wanted to get down for my check up before Christmas.  They were very pleased with me (again) and my lung function was 105% which is pretty much the same as last time.  He was a bit concerned about the fact I grew that fungus a few months back but agreed it was probably spores I inhaled, because if there was active infection in the lungs I would have been very unwell.  Since I was looking so well it's still going to be another 6 months before I have to head back :-)

I was shattered by the end of this week as I was at work all Monday, then down to Newcastle in the evening, then up at 6am for the 7am clinic and back home by tea time - but back to work full day Wednesday and Thursday.   Yesterday myself and Victoria had an organ donor stall at the Students Loan Company, as this is where she works.  Kirsty helped her do one in the city centre office on Thursday and I helped at an other office yesterday.  It wasn't really busy but we did speak to a few people and hand out leaflets - I always think that if even one person stops to think about it, we have done some good.  After all it might be that one person that will really matter.  Afterwards I dropped Victoria home and as she lives in the city centre I decided to take a chance on getting parked so I could pick up the rest of my presents.  I did this very impressive reverse park with about 2 inches between the car in front and behind - this is what Christmas shopping does to me.  It's mind over matter ;-)  I managed to get the few items pretty quickly so that's me all done.  I did most of my shopping online weeks ago but things only starting arriving this week because of the weather.  Today I wrapped, and wrapped and wrapped!!!   Mum and dad popped through so I have sent them away with lots of bags of presents for under the tree at home :-)

Despite trying to avoid too much DIY in the run up to Christmas, Andrew has been building these wardrobes.  He had built most of the carcasses last Sunday and dad was helping him today - the problem is not building the furniture, it's the fact the walls and floor are not straight and they need to be secured along the whole wall.  That's the character of older houses I guess.  He has moved onto putting rails up though, so if we even get that far it would be great - need somewhere to put all my new Christmas clothes (eh mum?!)

Last weekend we went to see Beauty and the Beast at the Citizens theatre - it was fantastic.  It's a really small independent theatre so I wasn't sure what to expect.  I have been there before but not seeing their main show.  I really enjoyed it though and it was a nice alternative to a Christmas pantomime.  I also would really like to see Harry Potter and the new Narnia film but haven't had a chance yet.  I always associate Narnia with Christmas and also with Frances Ann.  She had a box set of all the films and actually knew most of them (especially the lion the witch and the wardrobe) off by heart when we was about 7.  She would talk along with the film!  She then went through a spell of telling us each morning that she had been to Narnia during the night - very active imagination ;-)

Well this week is quite busy, but hopefully rather festive too.  I am working Monday, Wednesday and then covering all day Thursday (we all had to take a day around Christmas) - then home :-)  On Wednesday we have a Christmas quiz at lunch time and then I have my work night out (the 2nd one!) 

7 more sleeps.....!!

Snow snow snow..

It's been a tough week with the snow and trying to get to work!  Monday was complete madness and one of those days you wish you hadn't bothered getting up :-)  I got the train into work and by lunch time there were reports trickling in of mayhem on the roads, with all buses off, gridlocked cars and problems with the trains.  I decided to phone all my afternoon clinic patients and we had a wee phone consultation instead of just cancelling their appointment altogether, then headed off to try and get a train.  By this time all the trains to my town had stopped running and there were no taxi's at all - the traffic was just standstill along the main road.   I decided to just get a train as far as I could, which was about 4 miles from my house.  The first mishap was falling getting onto the train, which was rather embarrassing and caused a pretty impressive bruise on my shin.  I had initially planned to phone a taxi from that station but it turned out most of the taxi's weren't out because of the roads, and it was a 2 hour wait!  I decided just to walk - it took about 1 hr 40 mins because of the snow and ice but I was so impressed that my lungs had no difficulty at all!  My joints however were in agony, and I also went over on my ankle about a mile from home, but the sheer brilliance of the fact I could do it was amazing.  I would never had dreamt of it before :-) 

It's been a bit of a nightmare all week with trains running late and being cancelled, but there is a thaw starting today so fingers crossed the roads will clear a bit, although rumours of more snow next week.  It does all look rather Christmassy and I have my tree and decorations up.  I have this really cool advent house this year - you open a wee door every day and there is another figure to add to the Christmas house (thanks Anne and John!)  I am such a big kid.

My friend Fi gave me this decoration, so it was nice to stop and think of her when I was decorating the tree.  She loved Christmas too :-)

Seb is still enjoying the snow, but really not so keen on the slush.  I am still making him wear his wee coat when he goes out to keep him a bit cleaner - this is what he thinks of it!

This is after a walk when he sits in the kitchen waiting on his treat - bit intense!

It was my Christmas night out at work yesterday, which was really good.  There was the minor blip of the fire alarm going off during coffee and us all having to stand outside the hotel in the freezing cold!  They started handing out those foil blankets but thank fully we weren't outside that long.  It was a good night and I managed to do quite a bit of dancing despite having gone over on my ankle earlier in the week - I had it all strapped up with tubi grip for the purpose of dancing.  Not the most sensible I know, but can't really go to night out and not dance!   I have another night with all the doctors next week but am unfortunately covering the resource centre the next day so better be sensible and not too late.  I also have appointment at transplant clinic on Tuesday but will decide nearer the time if it's safe enough to drive down.   

I will leave you with a picture of Andrew trying to work from home and Seb 'helping'

Apologies for the interruption to service..

I didn't realise it had been quite that long since I blogged - as you can tell, have generally been keeping up the pace, but think I will now slow down for the Christmas season :-)

Between dad coming through for a few days and me and Andrew painting all last weekend, we have finished painting the hall and bedroom now, phew!  The hall is pretty much finished and the bedroom is waiting on the new wardrobe from Ikea - can't seem to get hold of the delivery people in Edinburgh so think the weather must be affecting them.  We are not even thinking about the spare rooms (which now need painted because ceilings also plastered, and the living room walls can just wait too!)    I have decided to set up the Christmas tree in the extension and will just live in there for the time being :-)

I finished my PBL last week so have a break now from university work.  It was a lovely group and I really enjoyed the 10 weeks but am glad I have a little more time just now - especially when the snow started and it would have been a nightmare to get there!  I am getting the train to work just now, which is a bit of a hit or a miss.  I ended up sharing a taxi home with three random people from the train station last week when my train home was cancelled - would have cost me £20 otherwise so was rather handy ;-)  I thought it might be a quiet week at work due to the weather but my patients seem very dedicated - they all turned up for clinic appointments all week.  Good effort, and just as well I managed to get in too.  I did however have to cancel my transplant clinic appointment last week as there is no way we could have made it down and mum wouldn't even be able to get out of her driveway, never mind get through here!  It's rearranged for 14th December now so fingers crossed the weather is better by then as it would be good to get checked out before Christmas.

Seb had been enjoying the snow and even more than the snow, he has been enjoying lying on the Yeti rug afterwards.  This is a little rug I bought for the extension and it was actually called Yeti.  Seb thinks it is a giant bed for him and it is so cute because he just disappears into it.  He has also been chancing his arm at getting on the sofa so you have to keep a close eye - he is allowed on the footstool beside the sofa but at every opportunity he tries to casually sneak over..

Paws make it over to the sofa...

I said 'don't you dare' and he lies down as if hadn't been planning to go anywhere...

Still trying to keep up the pretence..

Seb looks longingly at the snow!

Myself and Victoria were helping Kirsty with a photo shoot last week.  Kirsty has just started a business called  
The Cupcakes (who are available for parties, hen nights, weddings etc) and they were planning to do a calendar for charity, so Kirsty was styling people and taking pictures with a vintage theme (although the calendar will not be going ahead until next year as it was too late to get good prices).   Anyway, when I looked at the pictures afterwards I was really pleased with them, but most of all, I couldn't believe how much I looked like my mum when she was young.  It is rather uncanny...

Mum in the late 60s