A year ago today, at about this time, I was sat in my sitting room with Trevor, Mum and two Police Officers whilst they were explaining to me how the out of hours doctors (Serco) had been unable to contact me by phone or by visiting my home.
The severity of my condition was such that the Doctors had decided to call in the Police to break into my house, if necessary, and get the message to me that I had to call Serco immediately. Fortunately breaking into my home was not necessary as one of the police officers knew my mum and contacted her and she then helped to get in contact with me.
Having spoken to the Doctor on the phone I was told that I had a problem with my kidneys and that I must go to the Medical Admissions Unit at Treliske straight away. This visit to hospital was the first in my life and it would last a week, half of which was in the High Dependency Unit and the other half of which was in the renal unit.
My blood pressure initially had been the problem with a reading in the region of 250/150. This is why I ended up in HDU. It took a fair while to bring it down to a more reasonable level and drugs had to be used which my consultant would have preferred not to use!
I had a biopsy of my kidney when my blood pressure was under control and numerous blood tests, however, the reason for my kidney failure has never been discovered.
Whilst in hospital I discovered that I had 6% kidney function with creatinine of 679, normal is in the region of 60-120.
My consultant and I were hoping that I would stay well enough and stay off dialysis until we had gone through all of the necessary tests for my wonderful mum to donate a kidney to me. Although the hospital (Derriford for the transplant) were brilliant and swift with their investigations my results started deteriorating and although I was still feeling ok(ish) my consultant decided that dialysis was needed when I got down to a 4% function and creatinine crept over 1000!
I was lucky enough to only be on peritoneal dialysis for about three weeks before me and Mum underwent our operations. On the 11th January 2011, Mum and I were at Derriford and ready to go ahead. Waiting for news that Mum was ok was unbearable. The stress and worry that someone you love is going through a major operation just for you, is a large responsibility to come to terms with.
Both of the operations were successful and Mum was discharged after four days and I was allowed home after ten.
Since then, although there have been many ups and downs, things have been getting better and better. Mum made a full recovery after about three months and after about six months I eventually got back to full strength myself.
Life is now better than it has been in years! I live every day to the full and I'm back to being the person with lots of get up and go that I was years ago!
I am so very fortunate, so many other renal patients have a much longer wait than I have, whether it be because they are waiting for an organ to become available or because they are not suitable for a transplant for whatever reason.
I know my time will come again when the gift which Mum has given me will fail, until then, I am going to live every day to the max and thank my lucky stars for this time of normality that that gift has given me.
The severity of my condition was such that the Doctors had decided to call in the Police to break into my house, if necessary, and get the message to me that I had to call Serco immediately. Fortunately breaking into my home was not necessary as one of the police officers knew my mum and contacted her and she then helped to get in contact with me.
Having spoken to the Doctor on the phone I was told that I had a problem with my kidneys and that I must go to the Medical Admissions Unit at Treliske straight away. This visit to hospital was the first in my life and it would last a week, half of which was in the High Dependency Unit and the other half of which was in the renal unit.
My blood pressure initially had been the problem with a reading in the region of 250/150. This is why I ended up in HDU. It took a fair while to bring it down to a more reasonable level and drugs had to be used which my consultant would have preferred not to use!
I had a biopsy of my kidney when my blood pressure was under control and numerous blood tests, however, the reason for my kidney failure has never been discovered.
Whilst in hospital I discovered that I had 6% kidney function with creatinine of 679, normal is in the region of 60-120.
My consultant and I were hoping that I would stay well enough and stay off dialysis until we had gone through all of the necessary tests for my wonderful mum to donate a kidney to me. Although the hospital (Derriford for the transplant) were brilliant and swift with their investigations my results started deteriorating and although I was still feeling ok(ish) my consultant decided that dialysis was needed when I got down to a 4% function and creatinine crept over 1000!
I was lucky enough to only be on peritoneal dialysis for about three weeks before me and Mum underwent our operations. On the 11th January 2011, Mum and I were at Derriford and ready to go ahead. Waiting for news that Mum was ok was unbearable. The stress and worry that someone you love is going through a major operation just for you, is a large responsibility to come to terms with.
Both of the operations were successful and Mum was discharged after four days and I was allowed home after ten.
Since then, although there have been many ups and downs, things have been getting better and better. Mum made a full recovery after about three months and after about six months I eventually got back to full strength myself.
Life is now better than it has been in years! I live every day to the full and I'm back to being the person with lots of get up and go that I was years ago!
I am so very fortunate, so many other renal patients have a much longer wait than I have, whether it be because they are waiting for an organ to become available or because they are not suitable for a transplant for whatever reason.
I know my time will come again when the gift which Mum has given me will fail, until then, I am going to live every day to the max and thank my lucky stars for this time of normality that that gift has given me.
My diagnoses has changed my life immeasurably. I now treasure everyday and enjoy every bit of it whether it is doing mundane things or having exciting adventures :-)
Lovely blog hun, so glad all has gone well throughout your journey, and hope your mums gift lasts for as long as possible xx
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