The 2nd & 3rd; Being constantly poked in the back with a cattle prod.

The 2nd of August. The one day I'm actually able to sleep past eight o'clock, I got woken up by Mommy at ten past because she'd got me an appointment with a different GP at twenty past nine. We decided to go back because of the gabapentin causing me breathing trouble, so it needed changing. Because it was for this reason, I didn't mind being woken. I got up and dressed as quickly as I possibly could, and had time to eat my cereal but not have coffee before we had to go out. 

Dr. Carter was a very sensible and reasonable person, and she actually listened to what I had to say. After some chat, she just asked what I wanted. I said morphine or oxycontin, so we decided on oramorph. I have to taper off the gabapentin first, so I'll start it four-hourly on Thursday. Hooray!

Came home to have coffee and give the kittens breakfast. I spent the rest of my morning writing, and anxiously checking my inbox for replies from some people I sent my piece about second transplants to. 

After lunch, I watched the third episode of Mr. Robot, so I'm caught up on what's been shown, and had just started one of Fringe when Sheila rang to tell me about a potential adopter for Nola. We went through all the information, and had got to the end when she was recanting a conversation she'd had with the woman, said the name of the kitten she's interested in, and it isn't one of mine at all! Whoops. At least she realised before I phoned the woman; that would have been very confusing. 

After we hung up, I have started on the cookie jar cat, and I've had responses to both the emails I sent which I am 90% happy with so it has been a positive day!

The 3rd of August.

It was not a good night, and the day has not been much better. I was really cold in bed, having to pull up my blanket over the duvet to be warm enough. In August. I despair. 

I woke up ten minutes before my alarm, which was set for half past seven because I needed to be at the (new) dental hospital for 10.35, but we had to leave the house earlier than we normally would because the cricket was on today and Edgbaston Cricket Ground is right by the dental hospital, so we thought parking opportunities would be scant. This turned out not to be the case; there was plenty on-site, so we were really early!

I checked in and we went to sit in the assigned area to wait for my name to be called. We both got decent chunks of our books read, and not too long after my appointment time, I was called in. Through the doors and down the corridor to the booth on the end, where I met a new dentist called Dev. We ran through my drugs and talked about how I've been, then he had a look in my mouth. There is an ulcer on my tongue at the back on the right, but we didn't think it was massively problematic. He went to get Mrs. Richards to check, and she actually thought a steroid injection was necessary, just to give the ulcer a hand in moving on. This was a surprise to us but I wasn't opposed to the idea. Dev got another dentist, a chap I have met before, to help him. He put some local anaesthetic into my tongue, but the first lot didn't seem to have any effect, so he had a second go, and that one I felt. My tongue then went numb and swelled up as it should have, and then the steroid was injected into the ulcer. I am to go back in six weeks. 

As we drove home, I had to ring Grandma with my huge tongue and explain to her that we had left and Mommy would be with her as soon as possible, because they were supposed to be going to a funeral and time was being squeezed. 

We decided to actually pick her up and go straight to the church, where I would go home from in my wheelchair. However, when we arrived, it emerged that Grandma had a very enlarged leg and a potential DVT, so she was not going to this funeral. We went home, Mommy sorted out her stuff and went back to Boldmere Court to take Grandma to A&E, as the GP was going to take too long. 

I had to wait a good couple of hours before my tongue had gone down enough for me to be able to eat lunch, which I managed to make but my back did not make it easy as I had to go down to one gabapentin today. Like being constantly poked in the back with a cattle prod. 

The post arrived, and there was a letter for me from Andrew Mitchell, my MP, in response to my email regarding Anthony Nolan's campaign to not withdraw funding for second transplants. He was not interested. He feels that they're not cost-effective, not good value for money for the taxpayer. I was a waste of money. He also wanted to let me know just how much the government has done for the donor registers, which is all well and good but pointless if we're not able to use those donors for their matches. So then I spent the rest of my day trying to write something about it. It was hard. 

Mommy got home about teatime. Grandma's blood test didn't show a DVT but that's not 100% reliable so she has to go back for an ultrasound tomorrow. 

Morphine in the morning. Hopefully I don't throw up.