I'm back

Sorry to have neglected this blog for so long. The past 10 days have been the most momentous, unimaginably amazing days of my life. And that's NO exaggeration.

On 6th August, a very great friend and I were both admitted to Guy's hospital. The next day, the amazing surgeons there removed one of his kidneys and put it into me. The 10 days since then have been a total whirlwhind. The basic news is that I feel 20 years younger, and full of life.

I'll post a diary I've been keeping of the whole thing here (I need to get a new power supply for my mac first!). But the highlights have been:
- Weds 8 - woke up feeling great
- Fri 10 - played saxophone, with Maff on piano (see videos below)
- Sat 11 - escaped from hospital for the evening, and had a great time with the guys and girls of Borough Market in the GInger Pig Butchers
- Sun 12 - urinary catheter removed (Aaaaaaaah!)
- Mon 13 - Discharged from hospital.
I'm now at 10 days after the transplant, and feeling better and better every day. I get tired quite quickly, especially as the energy I have makes me want to run about and do loads of stuff. But I'm taking it easy.

I've been getting messages from all corners offering good wishes. Thank you to everyone who's been thinking of us during this time. All your wishes have been felt - and I'm sure are why I seem to be recovering so well.

UPDATE: Thursday 23 August. I've transferred a diary I wrote in hospital into a bunch of backdated posts below.

3 days later

It's Friday, and they're letting Maff go home this afternoon. I checked with my surgeon on the morning ward round that I wouldn't rupture anything by having a blow, so I got Suzy to bring my sax into hospital, and we put it to the test. Here's what happened, caught on film by the wonderful Olivia (who has an ideosyncratic style!). One of Maff's surgeons happened to be walking by, and heard the music, so came in to eat his lunch in the atrium He was a little surprised when he saw who was playing. The shopping bag attached to my belt is discreetly containing the tank connected to my urinary catheter (no pressure allowed on my bladder yet, until the tube connecting the new kidney has healed).

Here's 'I Wish I Knew'. At about 2'30" we both improvise exactly the same phrase - a bit of kidney magic happening.


And here's a bit of Duke Ellington's Come Sunday.

Diary of a Kidney Transplant - 1

Diary of a Kidney Transplant

Monday 6 August

Met mum with Suzy at Kings X - 12.20 or so. Headed down to London Bridge - ate upstairs in the Market Porter (fish and chips for me - the first in many months)

2.30 - met Maff (my donor) and his wife in Guys Reception. Went to Richard Bright ward. Not ready for us there, so to Renal outpatients for final blood tests with Madeleine Wood standing in for Isobel Gordon (tx coordinator). Then back to
ward.

Meet Surgeon - Roberto Cacciola, a lovely Italian guy (I feel in safe hands) and sign the final consent form for the operation. He scribbles on my belly (below right) and Maff's surgeon, Nizam Mahmoud does a similar scrawl (below left)showing which kidney they're planning to extract.
Out to dinner with mum, sister, Maff & his wife at the bar at Pont de la Tour by Tower Bridge. Maff and I have the Belted Galloway steaks - and some very good Rioja. This turns out later to be a choice with severe repercussions, despite the fact that we'd been told we could eat normally until midnight. Here we all are...