Me and my journey through kidney disease . . . .

Being New Years Eve I thought I would reflect back on the past year and what a year it has been!! In January, Trev and I commenced our 10th year together, I can't believe how quickly that time has flown by!  It only feels like yesterday when we met! In February I received the most exciting letter of my life from the Flora Day Committee, asking me to be in the leading set of the Midday Dance!  The mix of emotions I felt when I received the letter ranged from jubilation to shock to being in tears!!  I rode this high all the way until May the 8th when I finally had my dream come true!! Trev's 40th Birthday was in July so me, Anita and Richard spent many a day planning his surprise birthday holiday to Tunisia!  On the morning when we were to leave and I "let the cat out of the bag" Trev would not believe me and it took some persuading!  He could not believe that everyone including his colleagues were "in on it"!! In July Anita and Richard had the honour of g

This Christmas, although it has been wonderful, it has also shown to me loud and clear that I am very poorly and now have many limitations.  My Christmas celebrations started on Christmas Eve by going out with great friends for lunch.  I felt absolutely great and enjoyed myself for about five hours. I had to go straight home to bed but I felt like I had before I was ill which made me very happy indeed!  I woke up early on Christmas morning to see that Father Christmas had visited and left Trev and I a sack of pressies each!  I then went visiting my dad and his partner Jen, then my brother and his family and finally to my mum's where we were to have Christmas lunch. I was still feeling on top of the world and was thinking that I would be up for my friends to come up to our house in the evening as is traditional for us (although the normal copious amounts of alcohol would not be consumed by me!!)  However, as I started lunch exhaustion hit me like a sledge hammer and I spent the e

As expected the week just gone was an interesting one!  It started with my dialysis training at Treliske on Tuesday.  As I'm sure you can imagine, I was apprehensive about being dialysed for the first time! When I arrived at the hospital, the dialysis nurse put me at ease straight away.  She slowly went through the procedure for setting up the dialysis equipment then "plugged me in" so I would experience how it feels. It was a funny sensation, as you felt your insides filling up.  The very first bit of solution is cold but then the rest has been warmed by the machine.  Once the fluid is inside it is left there for a period of time, where, via osmosis and diffusion , impurities and toxins are taken out of your system.  Then the fluid is removed before the process is repeated.  Now that is the bit which I wasn't so keen on.  When almost all of the fluid is removed you can sometimes feel a little pinch inside.  The best way I can describe it is like when you drink the

Some days I look at how my life has changed and wonder how on earth I cope with the information which I am now bombarded with on a daily basis!  I have had the steepest learning curve over the last three months and I think that I am just about to reach its peak!! Yesterday I was delivered all of my dialysis consumables and machine, what I was left with is below: Now, I was expecting a fair amount of stuff but the fact it filled an entire room was somewhat of a surprise!  I was also surprised about how many bits and bobs there were which I now have to learn how to assemble in order to dialyse on a daily basis!! Today I had to go to Treliske for my tubes to be flushed through, yuck what a horrid thought!!  I also had the first look at my scar going down from my belly button!  As Anita kindly pointed out to me it looks like a pork loin or pasty crust!!  I have been assured that there will be very little scar once it has healed!! I also met up with my dietitian this afternoon, as wit

I have been trying to think of an adequate word to describe my feelings yesterday when I received some much waited news and all I could come up with is WOWZERS!  A favorite word of mine at the moment!  Anyhow, lets start at the beginning of my day yesterday. After yet another sleepless night I packed my bag ready for my trip to hospital to have my Peritoneal Dialysis Catheter inserted (for those dorks out there like me who likes to know the proper medical term this is a Tenchkoff Catheter!) I have never experienced a general anesthetic before so all this is very new to me!  However, when I arrived at the hospital I had the welcomed surprise that a friend of mine Michelle was working in the ward where I was to be looked after, she put me at ease straight away. After going through endless forms, meeting the surgeon and anesthetist I had to put on the oh so fetching hospital gown and then make the walk to the operating theatres.  It was the strangest of feeling! I was chatting away to

Here we have a quick update on yesterdays activities. I woke up early, having actually slept very little to discover that my 5% had dropped to 4%, not a good start to the day!  4% feels like such a small number to be maintaining so many important functions in my body! Thankfully more snow had not fallen so me and mum were able to make the journey to Plymouth.  We got there in ample time for mum to make her appointment in the Nuclear Medicine Department.  As with last time mum had various injections and then her blood taken at specific intervals to see how well her kidneys performed under stress. Next we had the all important appointment with the Surgeon.  To my surprise he did not seem at all aware of the fact that he was supposed to be making a decision that day or that he was considering my transplant operation in December at all!!  The Surgeon along with a nurse that I had not previously met literally shattered my hopes in one minute flat in the public waiting room!! What I have