My life in 2013 in Review

Who would have thought that it’s been nearly 18 months since my last blog?  Why did I stop you ask?  I’m not really quite sure.  Life just seemed to be a blur with nothing much going on and I just didn’t think anybody would really be interested in my day-to-day ho-hum happenings.  2013 has just flown on by and even though I did have a couple of huge events occur it just never occurred to me blog them!

The most exciting thing to happen was the birth of my beautiful little great nephew, the first born of my niece Nicola and her partner David.  He was born in July on the same day as his Uncle Adam’s birthday, Nicola’s brother, which we all kind of hoped wouldn’t happen but he now has a birthday twin!  They have named him Ryder Jeff, the Jeff being his grandfather’s name (David’s dad).  He is now 4 months old and it is so hard to imagine life without him now.  His conception had caused quite a drama in the family as some of the family thought she was too young to have a baby (she was 20 when he was born!).  They didn’t have anywhere to live as they were still living at mum’s house part of the time and then at David’s parents’ house the other times.  Still living even now at mum’s although they moved in with me and my hubby at one stage with the baby as they weren’t getting on with mum.  So yeah, it’s been a struggle for them as they shift between homes and try to find a home of their own.

In March, my daughter Libbee married her man Daniel.  Such a simple and beautiful wedding and the wedding she always wanted.  It was very low key and very low budget which she is extremely proud of.  I bought the wedding dress for her online.  It was a copy of an original designer dress worth $2,500 to buy the original and it cost $350 online for an exact replica.  We worried at the time at what we would end up with as it was made in Hong Kong and the colours would be slightly different but when we got it, it was the perfect fit (we worried our measurements might be out!) and it was as beautiful as the real one she had tried on in the bridal shop.  So she got her dream dress for a fraction of the original price and even after wearing it all day until 6am the next day it still looks as good as it did when we got it!  It got dry cleaned and now hangs proudly in her closet.   

In August Libbee and Daniel had to move as their rental house was being sold so Libbee has been living with us and Daniel is living with his mum on the Gold Coast as that is where he is currently working.  Libbee lives with us as she is working near us.  So, sadly, they only see each other once a week while they struggle to save for their own place again.  Not an ideal situation for a newly married couple who have yet to take their honeymoon but for the moment it’s the best they can do.

Health wise things are finally looking up after 5 years of constant specialists, tests, biopsies, blood tests etc.  I still have monthly blood tests to ascertain liver function and am on a cocktail of meds probably for the rest of my life but things are finally starting to level out and the drugs are finally working.  My last specialist visit a couple of weeks ago showed my liver function is getting better with only 3 numbers showing in the red.  One of the numbers has gone way down and is well in the normal range now and the numbers in red have halved so the new drug I am on is actually working.   This means now if the numbers stabilise with this drug I won’t need a liver transplant and things aren’t quite as dire as originally thought.  It also confirms that I have PBC which Primary Biliary Cirrhosis.  What this means is my bile ducts are kaput which is what is causing my liver to deteriorate.  The bile ducts can never be repaired so the life time drugs will keep on doing what the bile ducts should be doing.  And if we can manage that then the liver will be sparred further damage.  Maybe one day down the track there will be something they can do but for now I am happy to keep popping the pills as it sure beats the alternative.  I don’t go back now until end of January so I am hoping my next blood test will have positive results.

Anyway that is my year in a nut shell.  Here's hoping for a better 2014!