Admission

Monday Clinic Day [30/1/2012]

Me escaping to Costa Coffee; abit too far so here's Petes improvised 'wheel chair'

Day 12 after transplant. This picture really makes me smile..yes it really is this much effort to move!

Thought I'd start with a current picture so you can see the process pre and post transplant. Clinic days are Mondays,Wednesdays and Fridays. So as I was discharged last Wednesday this is my second visit to clinic.Clinic is vital to the health of my new kidney, every time you go they take bloods to check all sorts of things but in particular the immune suppressant levels as they dumb down the immune system in an attempt to stop your body attacking the new kidney.You also take a book in in which you record daily your BP,Temp,bowel movements [ in detail! ]weight and fluid input and output levels.So my new best friend is a plastic measuring jug that goes everywhere with me.
         So far so good re the medication....but I seem to keep loosing weight and that's not acceptable as the weight is made up of extra fluid that's pumped into you, you'll see what I mean when you see how I look in later blogs. I was discharged at 92.4 kilos,having lost 10 kilos since transplant and at clinic on Monday I was 89 kilos by the hospital scales.This is not as the medics wish as you have to keep fluid levels high in the body to keep the kidney awake and functioning.So that's about 14 stone, still half a stone over my admission weight.Today is Tuesday and its the first time I haven't lost but indeed gained weight..point 3 of a kilo in fact. The scales room is like the opposite of weight watchers in which when your weighed there you even take your rings off to make the weight lighter. NO WAY at transplant kidney, you keep everything on and cross your fingers for no weight loss.More later but now I want to start to reflect a little on the process

The Start;The Admission Process

Mart in medical admissions looking cool

My hero

We arrived at medical assessment admissions at 3pm on Tuesday the 17th January 2012.Its like a holding  space until they have your bed ready on the ward. Routing blood tests etc are done here and then our Consultant came down to fill in the consent forms and talk us through the procedures and asks if we've got any last minute questions We have   Mr Cambell who is a star, talented, meticulous and very human! Much to his amusement my main concern was when would he have lunch as by the time he got to me Martyn would have been in surgery for four hours and I wanted him operating on me with a favourable blood sugar level. He assured me he'd be making time for lunch! In the assessment unit I also saw the research nurse and agreed to be in two clinical trails,one for a surgical procedure and another for a drug called Campath.

I really wanted to be in the Campath trail as I knew about how wonderful it has turned out to be in the  treatment of multiple sclerosis but its a random allocation so I wont know until theatre if I am to be in the Campath or the control group. Also as my Pete has polycysyic kidney disease too I'm up for doing anything that will help his future treatment.When all was sorted were transferred to our renal surgical ward.

The Renal Surgical Ward.

Mart was admitted on the male side, me on the female about twenty yards away.We met up at seven for a 'date night' of hospital salad and yogurt.I was hopeful about the food here but that was for me the last meal I could tackle in the hospital [ more later] Even at this stage we both got a sense of the commitment ,care and humour of the staff. It was a welcoming and friendly atmosphere, you could feel their cohesiveness and efficiency as a team.Jen went home here when she felt we were settled,so much role reversal to come!

In admissions jen teaching her dad about his new phone .We had one each so that we could be in contact even when physically seperated

Babba and his daughter