Excercise, tubes and cameras!

Ever since the transplant I've been staying with Holly at her parent's house. Everyone there has been amazingly kind and I feel like a part of the family now. I think it helped both of us to have each other around to rest and watch TV together.

It was very nice to be able to venture outside with Holly for a couple of short walks. It made us both feel more normal and closer to recovery. We took some cool photos by the river and sat watching people go by.

It was only after the walks that we realised we need to rest more as we were both exhausted and subsequently fell asleep for a couple of hours!

On Thursday, Holly and I had a follow up appointment back at the hospital and thankfully the doctors told us that everything was going as smoothly as it could do. I think we both had a few questions and worries that we wanted to get sorted and so it was nice to hear comforting words. Holly also had her final tube removed which meant about 3 hours waiting for a 5 minute procedure but she is tubeless at last!! YAY!

The rest of the day was spent taking pictures with my new camera! Holly and her family surprised me on Wednesday evening with one of the best presents I have ever received! I have added a link to my online album that I will be using. So far the camera hasn't left my side and I'm sure I'll be taking pictures like a pro in no time! Thank you Holly!!!!

One week ago

I can't believe how quickly this week has gone! Holly and I were saying it's a week today that the operation was. In fact it was almost at this time last week the the kidney was being put into Holly!

Anyway, I thought I'd write a quick recap of this last week for you.

Friday morning was the op and apart from walking to the recovery room I don't really remember much. We were given a dodgy batch of antibiotics before the surgery that we both reacted to with very itchy hair! That wasn't a good start. Apart from that all I remember is waking up and hurting quite a bit and then I remember waking up again in the ward when Holly was being wheeled in. Apparently I was talking gibberish but I think the morphine had something to do with that.

Friday night I was woken up roughly every 2 hours and each time I thought it was the morning and time to get up :( Thankfully I had a little button that administered morphine to help me get back to sleep! You've got to love that!

Saturday and Sunday kind of merge into each other and I can't remember what happened on what day. I remember that on Saturday night I had a bad stomach ache from feeling bloated (pain killer's side effects) and it was also causing my scar to hurt but by Sunday night I was able to walk about and I wasn't attached to anything! That was a very nice feeling. Made me feel normal again. There were also lots of visits from friends and family that helped pass the time.

Monday was mostly spent sat on an armchair next to Holly with a blanket over our knees watching people walk past like an old couple until I was finally allowed to go home with a load of medicines. I will never again complain that paracetamol doesn't work.

Holly came home on Thursday which was a really nice surprise as everyone was expecting her to be in hospital until after the weekend! I think now we are both looking forward to doing nothing and resting up until the whole healing process is over. I'm quite lucky in that I seem to have healed really quickly (the surgeon said he has never seen anyone heal so fast after this op). But, it still hurts to use my stomach muscles.

I have a follow up appointment and will be joining Holly for hers next week. Hopefully the doctors will be nodding approvingly at all the results. Fingers crossed!

All is well!

Well, the op was last Friday! I woke up in lots of pain but morphine is gooood! :)

Everything went really well. I am now back at Holly's parent's house recovering and will be here until my follow up app on the 30th.

Holly is still in hospital but is walking around and feeling a lot better every day! The doctors are all nodding approvingly at large amounts of wee!!!

Just a short note for now before I fall asleep but there will be an update tomorrow.

One week!

I can't believe how quickly the past few weeks. When the date was first set it was in 2 month's time. Then suddenly it was in 6 week's time. Then 5, 4, 3, 2 weeks went past as quickly as days. It has really flown by.

Today I realised that it's no longer weeks. I will be in hospital NEXT Thursday!

I've been thinking a lot about the whole thing and I try to keep myself busy so I can take a break from it. Like Holly, I've been contemplating millions of 'what ifs' and 'buts' and people have been asking me questions like 'why?', 'how?', 'what for?', etc...

What I have found really helpful in trying to get over some of these questions is to explain to people why I have decided to do this and what will happen afterwards. It not only helps other people to understand my thoughts but it also helps to clear them up for myself.

I'm feeling nervous and excited for next week. Nervous for the fact that I am going into surgery that I don't actually need but excited by the fact that I will be helping someone in ways that are unbelievable but also excited about the thought of experiencing something unique and new that I have never been through before. OK, I have had surgery before more times than the average person but it has always been essential surgery that I needed at the time.

The final cross match was negative again which is a good thing so everything is going ahead as planned. I have to be in hospital by 2:30pm next Thursday so, apart from actually driving down to London, everything is set.

I found a really cool website the other week, I Heart Guts, and got Holly a small present. They have some really cool stuff there and have kindly linked back to our blogs!

Spaced out...

Hmm...

For the past week I've been feeling really strange. Almost like I'm watching myself do stuff rather than doing it myself.

I don't think it's nervousness as I know everything that is going to be happening in the next few weeks and I have been through that kind of stuff many times before. I really don't know what I'm feeling at the moment. Deciding to go through something like this is not something that many people would do. I think mostly out of ignorance about the whole thing.

Gah! I don't know what to say really. My mind isn't really working properly.

I've booked an appointment for the blood samples to be taken and sent to the hospital about a week before the op. This will be the final cross match test to double check the results and also to make sure that I don't have any illness or infection before the op.

The last visit to the hospital

I spent the day in the hospital again yesterday. This time Holly and I brought our parent's along too.

The day was mainly to talk to people and answer any questions we had about what was going to happen. Although, it started off with me having an echocardiogram which is an ECG thing where they do an ultrasound of my heart at the same time. It was really cool to see my heart working away on the screen and interesting to see how it works with the valves working and everything.

After that we met the surgeon who will be performing the surgery. He was really nice to talk to and explained a load of stuff to us about what was going to happen before, during and after the surgery. He told me that they will be taking my left kidney as the left one has longer blood vessels which makes it easier to attach to the recipient and he showed me where the incision will be made on my body (about a 4-5 cm incision on the left side of my body just under my ribs).

We spoke to a consultant who spoke to us about follow up arrangements and medication etc... which, for me, doesn't require too much. Just some pain killers for a few days following the surgery.

Finally we spoke to the independent assessor who will decide if I am trying to sell my kidney and whether or not I actually know Holly. We were all kind of nervous about this but we brought along photographs and letters from friends etc... and she told us it would be more than enough. She spoke to me and Holly individually and asked me how I had made the decision to go through with this. She also told me that I had up until the start of the anaesthetic to decide not to go ahead with it.

It was good taking my Dad and Holly's Mum along with us as they hadn't really got involved up to now and had loads of questions to ask.

Now I'm just waiting for a response from the legal side of things and that will be the final 'yes' or 'no' to decide whether or not it all goes ahead!!

The date is set now for the 17th October and I have some vials ready for some blood tests to be sent to the hospital on the 6th for the final cross match.

Once I know that it's going to go ahead I have a feeling that time is going to pass very quickly up to the date of the operation. I can't wait for it now (which seems really odd) as it's going to be a very strange/cool/unique/exciting experience I think.

Results???

Well, following the trip to the hospital, things kind of went quiet. I've had a couple of results back and they all seem OK but all I ever hear is "We just want to confirm this." or "We're just waiting to hear back from a doctor."

I have no doubt now that everything is going to go ahead and be fine but without hearing those words I don't want to start planning or arranging anything. It seems like an endless wait every day and all I can think of is when the phone is next going to ring. The worst thing is that I can't do anything to speed things up or change the outcome of what I'm going to hear. I feel completely helpless at the moment and more than ever I want to hear anything.

I'm starting to think of who I'm going to ask for "references" to prove that I actually know Holly and have known her for years. I think I'm kind of worried about what they might say but I'm sure it's just me being paranoid. I received a couple of sample letters from our coordinator and I think it should be fairly easy to prove that we are who we say we are. After all, we don't have anything to hide.

There isn't really a lot to say at the moment. I don't know for certain that anything is actually going to happen so it feels kind of strange making arrangements. I'm sure it'll all come together but I wish it would just happen and the wait would be over.