A Wet Weekend and Pre Wedding Dinner October 2011

Its still September and I had my routine monitoring appointment with the PH team, this includes a walk test and blood tests and a check on my Hickman Line and site entry for it. All is stable and for the first time since I had been diagnosed I was told I didn't need to come back for three months. Hurray - something to celebrate at long last, my next appointment was sent through for end of December, but as it was during the Christmas period and I didn't know whether we may be busy with family, I changed it and got an appointment for early January. Three whole months off from hospital including Christmas! This felt like a good result, after more than twelve months of hospital visit after visit and test and after more tests, I was stabilised at last and I was beginning to feel I was.

Early October and it was my sister's wedding, which was taking place in the Ribble Valley was imminent. The girls were to be bridesmaids and I had spent a lot of time sorting out and altering their dresses to fit and sorting out my own outfits to wear. Rob is going to do one of the speeches on behalf of my father. We were really looking forward to it.

We had rented a cottage nearby the wedding for three nights, big enough for all of us to have our own space and relax before and after. Sarah was bringing her boyfriend and they were staying for three nights, we were going to stay for two as we needed to get Rose home to go back to school on the Tuesday, she has been given permission for the day off on Monday. Rob and I decided to make the journey up first and stay at our cottage in the Lakes for a few days beforehand, so I will be rested after the long journey ready to cope with the rigours of the wedding day. Sarah and Oli planned to go onto the Lake District after they had finished using the cottage we had booked in the Ribble Valley for the wedding. So there had been a lot of planning logistics for the days around the wedding and a lot of preparations. We were are all looking forward to and were excited about a long wedding weekend together and had been building up to it for months.

We enjoyed a day or two in the Lake District first, just Rob and I and the weather was glorious. I even managed a lovely boat trip round my favourite lake, Coniston Water. The wedding was to be on a Sunday and we travelled down to the Ribble Valley on Saturday and found the cottage we are staying in. It was lovely and spacious and best of all nice and warm, it also had a disabled bathroom in our room, so bathing should be quite easy for me.

When we woke up on Saturday morning it was absolutely lashing down with torrential, driving rain and this was forcast for the whole weekend unfortunately, but never mind we will still have a great time, you cannot plan the weather, however meticulously you plan. Poor Rob had to load the car and then unload it again in all the rain at both ends of the journey. We had mountains of stuff, bridesmaids dresses, suits, flowers, wedding hats as well as usual luggage, my wheelchair and mine and Rob's 'just in case' transplant bags, so he was pretty wet through and soaked to the skin by the time he had finished and I was helpless as usual when it comes to heavy lifting and carrying and walking up and down.

Many of the wedding party were also staying nearby including my sister and husband to be and their children and we planned to meet up with them for a pre wedding dinner that evening. Oli drove our girls up in the driving rain during the afternoon and the plan was they would meet us at the Three Fishes pub, where we were having dinner.  We set off to the pub, a little late, because we needed to do my intravenous medication first. It was a cold, dark drive and the rain was still pouring, we were splashing through flooded country lanes and not sure if we were going in the right direction, it was so bad and visibility so poor. We made it to the pub at last and met up with Jayne, Rob and some of their friends and Rob's family and the girls and Oli soon arrived as planned.

We enjoyed a lovely dinner. I had decided I would like to give my sister and Rob their present that evening, as we had spent a lot of time thinking what to buy them and we had had a bespoke piece of word art, with lots of their personal wedding and family details on it, made for them. I really wanted to see their faces when they opened it and I knew they would not have time on their wedding day perhaps to open it in front of us. They were really pleased with it and it was a lovely evening. None of us wanted to be too late to bed, because of the big day ahead, so after the meal we braced ourselves back into the driving rain and dark night and drove precariously with Oli and the girls following.

We ended the evening catching up on X factor and just enjoying being all together in the lovely cottage and feeling excited with the anticipation of the wedding. It was so lovely for us to be away from it all, all together and looking forward to something that had been planned for ages.