At my six week check, the consultant suggested that I could get access to "PatientView". This is an on-line IT system which does what it says - it lets patients view things about themselves, like their results.  My brother Tim has been using it for some time, but I hadn't appreciated that I would be allowed to use it as well.  It used to be called RenalPatientView but is now getting rolled out to include other specializations.  So I filled in the form as suggested and, after a very short wait and an exchange of e-mails, I now have access to this nice little system which allows m ..read more

I had a small package arrive in the post on Friday. It didn't look like a Christmas present, and it's a bit soon for that anyway.  The padded bag was about A4 size and an inch thick, with an unfamiliar postmark - I don't know anyone in Bristol. Opening it revealed a small box and a letter from the Chief Executive of NHS Blood and Transplant which thanked me for my donation. This is what the box contained: It's sterling silver and about 2 cm in diameter.  It's a design by Liz Welch which incorporates a crossed anchor as a symbol of hope and an Ankh to represent zest for life. It al ..read more

I had my six week check this morning - I think that's meant to be six weeks after the operation, but in fact it is now exactly six weeks since the surgeon checked me on the week after the op.  This little slippage is because the surgeon's discharge letter took ages to get to me, and I was waiting for it before booking the appointment. Eventually I gave up and booked it anyway. On Monday last week I chased them for the letter and on Wednesday it arrived, postmarked Monday.  Guess what? On Thursday a copy of the letter arrived, postmarked Tuesday! Sigh. The check up was done at the Ch ..read more

It is now four weeks since Tim and I were operated on St Georges; the time seems to have flown past and I have healed well, while Tim is also doing very well. Most people I have spoken to seem to have an expectation of kidney donors suffering some considerable pain for a long period.  I suppose in a way that was my understanding, although I think that possibly people are just preparing you in case you suffer such pain; then, when you don't, you feel happy about the situation. Whilst I was training in the RAF (a very long time ago), the often-heard mantra was that "pain is only in the min ..read more

I have some tips which any Potential Living Donors (PLDs) out there might find useful. Some of these tips I learned early on in the process, but others it was too late when I realised what I should have been doing, so you might benefit from my mistakes.  Some don't apply if you are making a non-directed donation. Be positive. Make your decision to donate up front, and then go through the process which follows. This will make everything flow more easily as the staff will recognise your commitment; moreover, it will encourage your recipient when he/she starts to feel guilty about putting y ..read more

Before this operation, I have only really been concentrating my thoughts about my brother and what this would do for him.  After my discharge on Friday I have been back on both Saturday and Sunday to see him, and he is literally "in the pink"! I have not seen him looking so well for several years. He was discharged today and now will have a lifestyle change to cope with the anti-rejection drugs. Kidney donation is called "The gift of life" by many people and it really is. Instead of hardly being able to work, and going home too tired to do much at all other than sleep, Tim will now be ab ..read more

Well, the headline news is that all has gone extremely well ("textbook" operation) and both Tim and I are fine. I knew that things had gone OK when he was wheeled into Recovery beside me with this enormous bag full of urine attached to his bed.  His creatinine was measured at less than 200 immediately after the op and he told me that he had NEVER known it that low before - it was above 200 when he was first diagnosed six years ago and was about 400 before the op.  It was down at 140 at the last count which was, apparently, less than mine which was 154! I was mobile by Thursday after ..read more

Further to the previous post, I've now had a sensible explanation for the need for cross-matching blood immediately before the operation: it's to identify suitable blood for possible use during the operation as a transfusion.  If they don't do this beforehand then, in an emergency, they would have to use blood which was "probably" the right match but may not be the best match; the analysis takes a few hours and in an emergency they don't have that time to spare! Obvious really, innit? Why can't people tell you the simple answer in a simple fashion? Possibly there might also be a cross-ma ..read more

Another December, another annual check up! Glad to say that I'm still fine - creatinine 129, BP 112/75 and cholesterol down a bit. After taking allopurinol for the last year, my urate level has dropped from 525 last December to 332; I now have just an occasional slight twinge of gout which lasts for a few minutes but am otherwise not affected at all by it. I'm always delighted by the treatment at the transplant centre; this is the one where my initial tests were done in 2012 but the operation in 2013 was the centre near my brother in London. I arrived 20 minutes early due to buses being on-ti ..read more