Best Man

This week I have:

• Returned to work nearly-full time (Monday)
• Worked a full day then drive to Oxford to help with practice and have dinner (Tuesday)
• Worked another full day then visited Dad (Wednesday)
• Worked half a day, then gone to SE London by train for Clinic (more good news, and lowered medication), and written a best-man's speech
• Worked a final half day, driven to Cardiff, made two music CDs, had a big pre-wedding dinner (Friday)
• Successfully got Chris married off to Hazel, delivered a successful best-man's speech, and danced for about 6 hours nearly non-stop until 1am (Saturday)
• Driven back to London, unpacked, prepared to go out to see Eddie Izzard later tonight (Sunday).

Not a bad week's work really...

A positive blip

I've been worried since that trip to A&E about getting a reoccurrence of the twisted intestines. I'm 90% sure it happened again this morning. I woke up and felt a sharp pain in my abdomen, but this time I knew what it was. First of all I figured that if I turned over and relaxed then it could well relax and untwist/unherniate itself naturally. A few minutes after I did then I immediately felt bubbles moving showing that whatever was blocked had cleared. It still stayed sore, and I felt it was a bit at risk of coming back, so I took two Buscopans (anti muscle-spasm medication), and a couple of painkillers, and within 20 minutes I'd fallen back asleep. I woke up again 90 minutes later feeling absolutely fine!

That really is very good indeed. The hospital had warned that reoccurrence might mean an operation next time, but it turns out that whatever the issue is, then there's a much greater probability that I can deal with it easily myself. In the grand scheme of things then the downside of that happening occasionally is just nothing compared to the absolute joy I am experiencing every day with my newfound energy, drive, and enthusiasm. 

More positives - even from a negative!

Easter Holidays week 2

By 'eck, I've been busy. I spent the weekend continuing the Great Clearup, and recovering from my big night out. On Sunday night I went to see 'Knowing' at the cinema, followed by a trip to a bar and proceeded to get back to my car in the car park after it had closed for the night. Monday morning I went to retreieve the aforementioned vehicle (£21 - ouch!), shredded about a tonne of old bills and statements, and went to St. Albans to take Patrick out to the park and on a train ride.

On Tuesday I finally got stuck in to filling in some forms and making some phonecalls that I'd been putting off for months. In the evening I went to the Albert Hall to watch the London Philharmonic Orchestra spectacularly accompany the film "Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring" with its original soundtrack (I got goosebumps!). On Wednesday I met with a financial advisor from NatWest who I took an immediate dislike to, and shredded more paper (not at the same time).

Thursday - ah now that was a good day. I woke up at 6:45am, bounded out of bed and got ready quickly, then jumped in to the car and headed over to Oxford. I got there just after 9am, and started helping out at an Oxford University Dancesport Team dance workshop. Absolutely brilliant fun, I was helping one of the coaches demonstrate, and occasionally taking small groups to teach them too. The day lasted 6 hours in total - 3 in the morning, break for lunch, then 3 in the afternoon. I hardly sat down once, so that counts as at least 5 hours of dancing. My feet certainly hurt afterwards, and in the following two days my back and legs have been very pleasantly sore. I'm absolutely over the moon about it - I can dance again! Can't wait to get back properly now. In the evening I met up with Sarah, my dance partner, and we had a brilliant catch up.

Yesterday (Friday), I took an enormous quantity of shredded paper, old clothes, old books, old electrical bits and bobs to Camden's Reuse&Recycling center. In the evening I took the tube to The O2 (alias the Millenium Dome) to see the controversial Russell Brand do a comedy show. He was excellent, and sent himself and the media up very amusingly, although the warmup act was pretty terrible and they wasted irritating quantities of time before and after (until I left) with getting the crowd to cheer, clap and fake-laugh so they could film us for the DVD and for some film. 

Today's plan is to see Dad and Carole for lunch, back here to have a second go at pruning my clothes and books, then perhaps out tonight - maybe something salsa-related, I'm not sure yet.

Tomorrow I'm planning to take Patrick to Beaconscot Model Railway, then in the evening I'm going with a large group of friends to see La Clique at the Hippodrome, again. Did I mention that YOU MUST GO TO SEE IT? Oh yes, I think I did...

Work starts on Monday (hooray!), and I'm going in at least 4 days, probably all 5, at least for the mornings. On Thursday I'm at clinic again.

On a high

I've just woken up, and I'm still buzzing from last night. With some difficulty I tracked down a couple of friends (Harriet and Jan) who weren't off seeing their families over the weekend and headed out in to Soho for a couple of drinks. There we met up with my friend Rich, his boyfriend Tim, and two other friends(one of whom was apparently one of Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake dancers), and sat around chatting for ages before heading out to Heaven nightclub which is beneath Charing Cross station.  

I had such a brilliant time! Different rooms in the club played everything from 70s and 80s through to more modern music, and I danced non-stop. Harriet (who is another ex-oxford dancer) and I couldn't resist showing off a bit with some impromptu latin, and were particularly amused when we found another latin dancer having a bit of a show-off. We ended up almost putting on a bit of a show, with each of us guys taking turns with Harriet with rather cunning ways of jumping in and taking over while she never stopped!

So I really feel that if I could cope happily with that last night I can cope with anything. I met some lovely people, had a great time, and it really goes to show just what amazing progress I'm making to be able to do that just exactly 9 weeks after my transplant. In fact another confirmation of that was the clinic appointment on Thursday where I got my blood-test results from 2 weeks ago. Two more levels had come down in to the normal range (including the previously all-important bilirubin which is now below 20!!) leaving only the GGT level slightly higher (although only marginally, and it had been steadily reducing over the past 3 weeks). I'm still waiting for a reduction in my medication, but they wanted to review this week's blood tests before deciding on the new dose. 

The consultant was all set to tell me to take one and a half steroid tablets per day (instead of 2) until I objected that they were 'enteric-coated' i.e. covered in sugar to prevent damage to the stomach lining, and that if cut in half this would have no effect. He laughed, and said it was a good point, and that he'd leave me on 2 tablets for now, then hopefully reduce it to one in a fortnight. You've gotta watch these guys...

All the medics and nurses were very pleased to see how well I was looking, and they confirmed that I'd gained 4kg in the past fortnight, which is an incredibly achievement for me as I've always really struggled to put any weight on in the past. I think the workouts must be helping, but the chief reason has to be haing a liver that actually plays its part in the digestive process!

This weekend I'm mostly taking it easy and gently carrying on my huge reorganisation of all my papers, clothes and books. Tonight I'm driving to Luton airport to pick up Charles and family. I think I shall also start planning another evening out for another weekend some time soon!

Back home!

Life is good! I'm back home in my flat. I've been starting to sort out the mountains of paper and detritus that had accumulated while I was being too tired to sort it out before my operation. I've slept incredibly well (turns out I like sprawling accross my own double bed really rather a lot), and been enjoying shopping and cooking for myself. That said, it comes as a surprise each time I look in the fridge and realise the food hasn't been magically replenished - being pampered at Dad and Carole's was really rather luxurious!

I'm just about to head of to Barry the Shiatsu practioner, then I'm having lunch out with Dad. This afternoon I have a particularly nasty pile of paperwork to deal with, plus a little working out to do, then I'm out with my friend Elias tonight for dinner.

Tomorrow is clinic day, so hopefully more good news. Charles, Kathy and Patrick are back home from Portugal so I shall try and see them on Friday, then the weekend is still to be filled up!

Now, I'm just off to book flights to Tuscany before I jump in the car...

Manic - in the best possible way

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What a week it has been. I've been far too busy to post on my blog, and I guess that is a trend that may continue so you'll have to excuse me if I'm posting only once or twice a week now. On Tuesday I went in to work in the morning and had a really efficient few hours. I got lots of projects started, and managed to grow my things-to-do list in to double figures! In the afternoon, after a very short break for lunch, I headed over to St. Albans where I took Patrick out to the park and we had a lovely time looking at trains, playing in the sand pit, and collecting pine cones, stones and twigs in his little wheelbarrow. I love my Patrick-time, and I'm pretty sure he's quite keen on Uncle-Didi time too. Tuesday night was my one and only evening in, at home with Dad and Carole. One Wednesday morning I drove over to St Albans again and helped bundle a huge quantity of suitcases in to Charles and Kathy's car, along with Patrick and friend-of-the-family Mark. I took them all up to Luton airport, though Patrick was so excited he was demanding I turn and look at every single item in the airport ("LOOK Uncle Didi LOOK, is a BIG Airpot an' a REALLY REALLY BIG windmill" - aka the radar).

They got off successfully, and I headed back home for another swift lunch before heading to Harrow for another Shiatsu session with Barry, who was delighted with my progress from the previous week. I went straight from there back to my flat where I met with my old school-friend Andy. We had a really fantastic catch-up over a superb meal from the Fine Burger Company (really worth a try if you've not been before), and I didn't get back to Watford until midnight. 

Thursday morning I was up bright and early to go to work again. More efficiency, more meetings. I was loving it, and definitely looking forward to getting these next two weeks of Easter holiday out of the way, to get back nearly full-time work. Once again, a brief lunch at home, then off to Harley Street to meet with Drew Price, a nutritionist. It was my first consultation and I was very impressed indeed - he has both a clinical/medical background as well as being a top sports nutritionist (apparently he works for Chelsea football club too). Lots of useful hints and tips and he is going to send me a big information pack with recommendations next week. Quite excitingly it was my first trip by tube since the operation. I know they said to be careful of public transport but considering I've been wandering round supermarkets and my school I think its a little silly to single out trains as banned, so I'm just being careful about being in well-ventilated carriages and keeping my hands clean.

As soon as I got home from that I had all of 45 minutes before setting off to Hampton Court (a horrible journey at 6pm) where I spent a really enjoyable evening in my friend Sharon's art exhibition in the Fountain Gallery, followed by a lovely Italian meal. Again, not back until midnight!

Friday, I had my only quiet morning, then headed off to Finchley Road in the early afternoon, taking most of my belongings with me from Watford. I had a lovely afternoon pampering myself with long baths, relaxing, and doing some dancing around the flat on the lovely wooden floor, before going out to the best show I have seen in years. La Clique is a burlesque circus showing in the Hippodrome. I just can't recommend it enough. It is painfully funny, stupendously impressive, joyously entertaining, and totally unexpected. Book it NOW, you absolutely will not regret it. No, go on, I mean it - right now...

Rich, who had taken me to NoFit State Circus last Sunday has seen it 4 times now, and I can completely understand why he was so keen to take me to see it too. I can't wait to see it again either. He and I had a really good meal and chinwag at Wagamama's afterwards - a *really* wonderful evening.

Saturday morning I was woken at 8:30am by Nick and Sarah who had just flown in from South Africa. We had a good catch up over a cuppa and swapped Safari stories. Our friend Ian arrive at 10am, and we got ourselves ready and headed to Green Park station by 11am. There we met up with the remaining members of the Stag and Hen parties for Chris and Hazel's wedding, although chief Hen Laura was sadly in A&E with a trapped nerve in her neck. Fortunately the challenges and games went ahead anyway with what props I brought with and the girls went to buy on the spot. After an hour of running around, pouring beer over each other, blindfold sniffing, accosting strangers to tell stories, welsh-national-anthem singing, and other such shenanigans (which the many, many tourists in Green Park were loving) the stag and hen parties went their separate ways. I led the Stags (in my role as best man) to Gourmet Burger (again) in Soho, followed by Zebrano Bar for a cocktail-making and drinking session (where I sipped a little of each to show willing). On to my flat for poker and pizza (with two decks of Karma Sutra playing cards), and finally the tacky 'delights' of Spearmint Rhino. All the Stag-Do boxes were thoroughly ticked and a good time was had by all. I hear the Hens had a similarly good time, and fortunately Laura was soon discharged from A&E and joined in most of the day with them.

I am now finally back home, elated, and looking forward to another good week ahead. So far it is looking less busy, though frankly if this week is anything to go by I shall fill it up swiftly. I think I will spend at least half my time in Finchley Road, maybe more. 

Healthwise, all is going well. The remaining stitch that was poking out and being slightly sore was finally accessibly to trim today, so I suspect the soreness will reduce hugely now that its no longer so sharp and pokey. My digestion is putting up very well with all this eating out, and I'm putting weight on at quite a rate (2 or 3 kilos in the last week, which is remarkable). I've only had about 6 paracetamol tablets in the past 5 days, and otherwise no other painkillers. I've done 2 more workouts, each longer than the last, and I'm finally managing to put a little effort in without feeling exhausted after 5 minutes. There is next-to-no yellow in my eyes at all, and every single person I meet has told me how well I'm looking (yes, I need to put a new picture up).

Life has never been better.