Secondhand Life

Chapter IX: Nothing that ends in a gift ends in nothing.

Mum arrived in the UK (again!) in mid-November, but until she did, my poor friends had to put up with me! My drugged, anxious, sick, tired, generally unstable self was certainly not the best company ever! Turns out, transplant recovery is not for wimps. It. Was. Hard. Fortunately they understood why, and were brilliant at distracting me. As soon as I reached the point where I had more good hours in a day than bad

May 24, 2017 No Comments

Chapter VIII: Billy the Kid

Everybody talks about The Power of Social Media, sometimes so much so that it seems like a cliche, but looking at my phone for the first time after surgery definitely made me a believer! I have never in my life seen so many texts, Facebook messages, Tweets, IG tags, missed calls and other notifications. It appeared word had spread. I also promptly discovered that our plan to keep it secret from everyone still the NKF

May 23, 2017 1 Comment

Chapter VII: 18 missed calls; and a tram.

I arrived at the hotel in Blackpool feeling mightily impressed with myself for having lugged the cycler on the train on my own (well, almost on my own, the station staff helped!). I checked in and then went for dinner with some friends, both of whom are transplant recipients. After dinner we went for a walk to look at the Illuminations and have a drink. While we were walking we spotted a tram with a

May 23, 2017 3 Comments

Chapter VI: Life in a box fort.

I’ll never forget looking out the window while the Baxter courier delivered my first two weeks of PD supplies. When he left, I was surrounded by a mountain of cardboard boxes. I could have built an epic fort, had I been so inclined. Sadly for the cat, I wasn’t. I remember a lot of my friends saying that this was when they properly realised this was their life for the foreseeable future. That was why

May 23, 2017 No Comments

Chapter V: Dialysis – A paper tiger?

On the 4th of August 2016, I went to have some routine bloods before a scheduled clinic appointment a few days later. I felt fine and went and wandered around the supermarket afterwards. But that evening, our landline rang. It almost never rings. On the other end was a registrar from the hospital. He explained that my bloods had shown a huge deterioration in my remaining renal function. My eGFR was down to 8, and

May 23, 2017 No Comments