Me and my journey through kidney disease . . . .

The West Briton Newspaper called me a week before the first anniversary of my transplant asking if they could do a follow up of the story from the previous year.  Mum and I agreed as we are keen to spread the word about kidney disease. Here is this article: If you can not read the above, click HERE to read the article online!! Frugi Organic Clothes where I work three days a week kindly bought me some gorgeous flowers for my anniversary and also blogged about the occasion, you can read their blog HERE !!

A year ago today I received the most amazing gift from my mum, a kidney which has given me freedom from the nightly dialysis which was keeping me alive, along with a normal active lifestyle. I can still remember how Trev, Mum and I felt entering the hospital early in the morning.  But twelve hours later, one of mum's kidney's had been successfully removed and was transplanted into me and working like a good one!! Mum recovered well and was fighting fit again within three months.  She is as busy as ever now and currently building her own home, which is keeping her on her toes!! It took me longer to be fully recovered than anticipated.  I naively thought I would be up and fighting fit in no time!  However, taking immunosuppressant’s   along with a mountain of other drugs takes it toll on your body.  However, at six months it felt like a switch had been flicked and I felt great!! From there things have just got better and better!  I am sti...

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 b...

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 j...

Hello everybody!  It has been absolutely ages since I have written a blog.  As I have been feeling better I have not felt the need or desire to write anymore!  I am taking this as a positive thing! So, what has happened in the last two months?! We held the curry night in aid of Kidney Research UK.  My sister in law, Tracy, organised a fabulous event and we raised a massive £1,000 in the end.  Take a look at this link for the article written by the West Briton on the event.  A huge thank you goes out to everyone who came along or who supported us by buying raffle tickets. Me and my two brothers treated Mum to a pamper day for mothers day.  I went along too (obviously!!)  The day was great and thoroughly relaxing.  Mum deserved that and more after donating one of her kidneys to me. Trev and I hired a little boat over the first of the long bank holiday weekends and enjoyed mooring up outside of pubs in Mylor for a spot of lunch and b...

It has been a full month since I last blogged!  Time seems to be flying by!!  In my last blog I reported that I had an infection and cough.  Well that took an entire three weeks to shake and most of those three weeks were in bed!  Well I am pleased to report that it has now gone and I am once again starting to feel good!! Also during the time of being unwell, my kidney results deteriorated and every time I went to the hospital I had to wait for my results with the potential of having to stay in hospital and have another biopsy (that would be my third on the new kidney).  The week before last the hospital also requested that I go to Treliske in the week for an emergency blood test.  Whilst there I saw my consultant which was really nice.  If those results were poor, again I would have been checked back into Derriford. Well I managed to get away with not being checked back into hospital and now my results seem to be improving again as a result of red...

I haven't updated the blog for a few weeks as everything has been going to plan!  I had been feeling better and better everyday that passed.  My appointments at Derriford have been reduced to once a week and my date for transferring back to Treliske had been set. However, this week I have literally been knocked off my feet!  Sunday evening I had a somewhat restless nights sleep and I had a tickle at the back of my throat.  Here we go I thought, my first cold since my transplant.  I had already been told that a cold would floor me now due to the immunosuppresant drugs, but I was not prepared in the slightest for how I have been feeling!! Monday I carried on as normal but Monday night I had no sleep whatsoever as I was coughing all night.  Tuesday all I managed to do was lie in the dark all day with my eyes closed.  Wednesday, after another sleepless night I called the hospital and was told to go to Derriford straight away (with my overnight bag packed...