Transplant information evening

Went to the hospital last wednesday for an information session about transplant. Met up with my sister beforehand as we had arrahged to have our bloods taken for tissue matching. We should know the results in two or three weeks, so fingers crossed all goes ok.

The information evening itself was very good, although I didn't particularly feel I'd learnt anything new. The evening started with a 25 minute video, this focussed on the transplant process and some of the negatives associated with it. This was followed by a short question and answer session with the transplant coordinators for the hospital. The evening finished off with an opportunity to meet people who had already had a transplant, this was for me the best part of the evening.

I came away from the evening feeling positive, which was very different from when we had the diallysis visit last year. That left me feeling quite down and negative.

Happy Easter

Well its been snowing but it hasn't settled for long and now we have glorious sunshine.

Spent yesterday afternoon out walking at Clumber Park. Managed to miss most of the rain and enjoyed the fresh air.

My sister telephoned late yesterday evening to ask if we wanted to go to their villa with them for the week. So the choice a week of sunshine in Spain or a week of work in the wet and cold UK, guess what, I'm staying at home. I know this sounds crazy and I must be mad to not take up the opportunity but I do have some reasons.

The first and big one is I hate flying, i know it irrational, its the safest form of transport but, I don't need that stress at the moment. Secondly I'm due to collect my degree on 5 April and I would have to rearrange this if we went to Spain. Thirdly I've only been back at work a month and a half and I'm still only working part time, and I feel like the new boy at the minute. So taking a week off would put me back again. Lastly I have to loose weight for my transplant, so far I'm doing well I've lost half a stone and I'm feeling better for it. I afraid that if I go away on holiday at the moment I will break the routine I'm in and at best not loose any weight and at worse put weight on.

So I'm not going but I might take up the offer later in the year if I reach my target weight.

Tired at the end of a busy day. Had to do a little work on the car, unfortunately the fuel filter had started to leak and the idea of a pool of petrol on the drive wasn't particularly appealing. As always a job which i thought might take an hour took two hours. To make things worse half an hour after I started it began raining. Still its done now, so hopefully no more problems for a while.

Had a phone call from the transplant co-ordinator at the renal unit to confirm the arrangements for my sister and myself to have our bloods taken next week for the tissue match. It still feels a bit surreal at the moment. A couple of months ago I was feeling tired and generally unwell and I honestly felt ill, but at the minute I feel reasonable fit and healthy and it makes it feel strange to be talking about having a possible transplant. I guess I should just enjoy the moment because I'll pobebly feel crap again next week.

The transplant surgeon wants me to loose weight before I have a transplant. So I've got to loose 35lb or there abouts. Made a good start I've lost 6lb in the two weeks since I saw him. I've been walking about 2 miles everyday and i've cut out the snacks between meals. My dog Duke thinks this is great as he is getting regular exercise too.

Thats about it for now, the weather forecast is for snow over the easter weekend so lets wait and see.

What a lousy start

Well despite all good intentions, I havent updated my blog for the best part of 9 months.

Much has changed some good and some not so good. Healthwise my kidney function has stabilised somewhat, with only a small decrease of function, about 2%. Unfortunately this is only one aspect of kidney disease. By October I was becoming increasingly tired and unable to cope with work. Despite not wanting to accept this I needed to to take time off work and remained off until the begining of february. I have now returned to work although only part time for the forseeable time.

Despite the small reduction in Kidney function I've been referred for a transplant. If my sister is a suitable donor, I could have the transplant in the next 6 to 9 months. As you might expect I have lots of thoughts and emotions at present.