Our two happy years

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO US!

Tuesday 1st September marked two years since Sammy asked me to be his girlfriend and what a wonderful, happy two years we have had together. In the very early hours of the morning, two years ago on Tuesday, Sammy and I were walking back to my car after a night clubbing in Southport. I don't think Sammy had, had any alcohol that night in a bid to woo me with solidarity. I can assure you that he has made up for this since. Anyway, we were walking back to the car when we bumped into a tipsy Emma Mcdonald (who we shall now forever refer to as 'cupid') who comes out with 'Sam, is this your girlfriend?' cue swift smiles and swifter goodbyes with neither of us knowing how to answer this, Anyway, we continued back to the car, and at some point Sam says 'I would like it if you were my girlfriend' and obviously, I was thrilled :) 

Sam and I first met a couple of months earlier - June 18th 2013 - two days before I travelled down to London for surgery. I was introduced to Sam at the pub and we hit it off straight away. Sam talks to everyone and hits it off with everyone, so I guess I just feel like the lucky one that he hit it off that bit extra with. He sent me loads of texts all the way through my surgery and I bumped into him again in Southport the week after and then we saw each other several times a week from then on and became best friends. It would be extremely corny if I were to tell you that I fell in love with my best friend. 

But I did.

We've had so many wonderful adventures together: date nights, days out, mini breaks, a holiday to France, fun with friends, two Christmas days, two Valentines days, a Holiday to Scotland, road trips... Probably my favourite day out with Sam was our day out to Edinburgh whilst we were in Scotland because we crammed so many memories into one day.

Sam has always been really supportive of my illness and has been through more than he should have had to with me. He's travelled hours to the hospital to sit with me while I slept and he's changed many a vomit soaked/tube leaked bedding. He gives me tummy rubs when it's sore, makes me hot water bottles, cups of tea, food that I can eat and waits on me hand and foot. It makes my bad days so much easier to cope with and I have so much less to worry about. He's sat many hours in waiting rooms, A&E and out of hours with me. He's the perfect Zebra-mate. 

Even on our two year anniversary he got up at 6.30am to travel to an appointment with me before we could even start our anniversary plans.

We'd decided that we were going to go on a walk together, weather permitting and since we were already in Manchester we opted for a lovely countryside area near Cheshire called Dunham Massey recommended to us by Megan! We parked up in the village and then walked about 3 miles up the canal to another cute little Village called Lymm. It was really hot and sunny on our way to Lymm. Once we arrived in Lymm we found an amazing extremely allergy friendly cafe called The Terrace which I cannot recommend enough - really friendly staff and really friendly locals! I'm looking forward to going back there again sometime. Whilst we were at the cafe, out of nowhere the rain came down really heavy so we waited for a little while longer in the cafe. Once it had eased a little we set off back along the canal where we stopped for a picnic on a sheltered bench along the way. The weather came changing for blazing sun, forcing us to strip down to our t-shirts, to torrential rain that forced us to run for shelter under the trees. There was even some pretty hefty thunder. Once we arrived back in Dunham Massey we drove back to Ormskirk. I had bad tummy pain when we got back so Sammy made me a hot waterbottle and we curled up under blankets on the sofa and watched Gone Girl. Then we finished the day with a team effort in the kitchen and Sam finally succumbed to allowing me to cook his steak a bit rarer in the pan and he enjoyed it!

Sammy bought me some lovely flowers and a beautiful vase inscribed with the words 'I would not wish any companion in the world but you' from William Shakespeare's 'The Tempest'. When I first switched my degree from nursing to English, Sammy bought me the full works of William Shakespeare, and within the book he highlighted this line. Yes, he is a romantic one and yes, I do know how incredibly lucky I am.

Here are some pictures from our 2nd Anniversary:

Romantics asside, here is a little update from my dietician appointment on Tuesday:

Everything went fairly well. I updated her on the plans to trial TPN and we discussed how I'd been getting on since I came out of hospital with my gut still being extremely sluggish. She suggested that I go back to liquids only and leaving out any solids until my admission comes around and so that is the plan for now. Despite all this, I've managed to put a bit of weight back on and I am in range again for now. Saying that I am aware that my weight bounces around and that I may have been this weight before and just dropped every time I've been weighed before and likewise that I am likely to drop again (but hopefully it means I can pick back up again too). I do feel like I look a bit healthier when I look in the mirror and other people have commented on it too which is good :)

In other news, this week is my last full week of work (well, actually, it wasn't a full week because Monday was a bank holiday and I took Tuesday off as holiday as well - but it's my last week as a full timer!) before I return to uni. From then onwards I will be working two full days, in uni two days and hopefully volunteering one day a week. This is the plan, fingers crossed we go to plan! I'm looking forward to the fact that at least for next week I will have a couple of rest days which I feel so desperately in need of right now.

That's all :) Thank you to all the people who read my blog and say lovely things about it - you are wonderful and it means a lot!