Home Again

Finally on Tuesday afternoon I was set free from Churchill Hospital. Following another dialysis session I was given the release notes and packed my bags.

My mother in law kindly gave me a lift back to MK, living close to Oxford it was a relatively quick journey for her to get to the hospital,

I got home just about 6pm having used cross country routes to escape the Oxford traffic. Along with my baggage a mountain of meds.

It was nice to be home, nice to chill out knowing that there were not to be a ton of tests. No disturbance during the night which gave a good nights sleep. Proper food.

Now home I could lie in during the morning, despite the need to take antibiotics at 6am I could go back to snooze mode.

I still had dialysis on Wednesday and was called on Wednesday morning where I was informed I was now to be dialysed in the afternoons not the evenings as previously. Since I am signed off work for at least 6 weeks that it not an issue for now but will be later on, I will need to discuss this later on.

I still need to go back to Oxford for clinic – each Monday until further notice and will dialyse there as well on that day. The exception will be next week where Bank Holiday moves clinic to Wednesday.

Next week on Wednesday they will carry out a biopsy on the kidney under local anaesthetic. The following Monday they will remove the stent in my Ureter using existing tubing and a camera to see inside.

The kidney “Kevin” remains asleep and I got some indication as to why.

Apparently when the kidney is removed from a deceased donor many of the cells in the kidney die off. These include those responsible for urine production. When the kidney is transplanted the kidney begins to perfuse with the hosts blood and is renewed but those dead cells take time to regenerate. At the moment that is the process which is hopefully happening. The biopsy will check this is happening. Nonetheless there is a chance this is not happening and won’t happen in which case I am back to square one. Whilst it will feel like a waste of time I will be no worse off than before. However, I still hope and pray that there will be real movement in the coming weeks which will show the kidney has been resurrected.