New Year’s Eve

Up at 6am this morning ready to leave the house by 7am for the hours journey to the Churchill. I am back here today to undergo a procedure. This morning I am being fitted with a Tesier Line. This will enable dialysis in the medium term whilst they create a new Fistula and allow it …

Fistula Failure!

My fistula has stoped working! I went for dialysis yesterday and due to the bruising on my arm they needed to do a single needle dialysis. The bruising was caused during my second dialysis and is due to the Fistula being new and not fully matured. The problem With single needle dialysis is that it …

Out

It was quite a surprise to be visited by the Professor (senior consultant) this morning and told I was leaving today. All week long the plan has been that Anita would pick me up Saturday and take me to Mum's in Lincoln. This had been agreed with doctors and nurses. I want to leave but …

Day Zero

Day zero is the name given to the day of your stem cell transplant. This will happen this afternoon, 48 hours exactly after my chemotherapy took place. The extra day has been to allow my kidney time to flush the Melphalan out of my body, so it won't kill the newly introduced stem cells. I …

Nottingham

It's become a weekly ritual. The two hour journey up the motorway to Nottingham. Parking the car at the Wilkinson Street Park and Ride before catching the Medilink bus. I have come to the city hospital for a meeting with my consultant ahead of a scheduled admission into the hospital some time next week for …

Renal etc

Today I had a mammoth trip to Lincoln County Hospital meeting with two consultants as well as having my Hickman Line checked and prescriptions issued. All in all I spent four and a half hours in hospital, but unlike previous visits there was relatively little waiting. The day began at 9:40 when I arrived at …

Line Management

With the stem cell harvesting completed it's now a waiting game. I am due to return to Nottingham for a consultation on 11th Sept. to find out when exactly the final phase of treatment will take place, though tentatively it is to be in October in Nottingham. Neither the fitting of the Hickman Line nor …

Hickman Line

Today Is the day I had my Hickman Line fitted. It is not a procedure I was looking forward to. Anita, who had a day off work, was able to drop me off and drive me home. This was useful as I was told not to drive home by myself. Even so a lot of …

In Between Days

Tomorrow I travel to Nottingham for the first part of the second phase of my cancer treatment. It's now over a month since the end and of my chemotherapy, the first phase of my treatment. It's been great to spend much of the last five weeks away from the regular hospital appointments and consultations. The …