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It's Been Six Months TODAY!!

Wow!  How time flies!  It is six months today since I had my transplant and what a six months that has been!!  It's also been a meager ten months since I was diagnosed with kidney failure!! 

In only four months I had gone from thinking I was getting old, to being in HDU for a week, to having to come to terms with the fact that I only have 6% kidney function, to going onto peritoneal dialysis before being fortunate enough to have a transplant on the 11th January 2011 courtesy of my wonderful mum.

Mum and I were talking the other day about how we felt as we walked into the hospital on the morning of 11th January.  Mum was extremely apprehensive, I was worried stiff about mum but very excited too about feeling better!

Well, six months on and I'm now feeling amazing!  It took longer than I anticipated and I was still tired and lethargic for about five months and I thought it was never going to improve, however, one day it all just changed!  All of a sudden I didn't feel like I had to just sit down and relax as soon as I got home from work and the weekend started to involve getting out and doing things again! 

This weekend is a prime example of how my life has changed, last year I got a gardener as I couldn't be bothered with it (well that's what I thought at the time) but he is no longer working for me and I was considering getting another one, however, this weekend I thought why on earth do I need someone else?  I spent about 14 hours in the garden mowing, shredding, raking etc.  Now it is looking good and I can look at it again and think I did that!!

Mum is doing wonderfully and has been back to full strength for a while.  She still worries about me constantly and I would like to encourage her to get back to worrying about herself and go up to Bristol and have a break with Andy, Emma and Jago.

Everyone has been very generous with any fundraising efforts me and members of my family have been doing for Kidney Research UK.  My one wish would be for a treatment to be found so that the wonderful gift which my mum has given will last forever.  That is not the case at the moment but I pray that in the next ten years something will change so that I will not have to go back onto dialysis and wait for another kidney.

This leads me to my final message, if you are not a registered organ donor, please think about signing up.  I have always been on the register but I have never really thought about the reasons why.  I have no problem about anyone using my organs in the case of my untimely death. But I have now done lots of reading around the subject and the stories are heart rendering.  If you were in need of new lungs or a heart, kidney or liver for example, would you want to have a transplant?  I am sure that the answer for the majority of you would be yes and if that is the case and you are not registered, please click HERE and sign up straight away.

So there you have it, everything is great so I would therefore like to dedicate this blog to my mum who has given me the ultimate gift and improved my life immeasurably.  Thank you to the bestest mum in the world xx

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