Thursday… More Hospital Visits!
Sep 11th 2008PeterGetting My Life Back!
Hot on the heels of Vicki’s Birthday last Sunday, youngest daughter, Rachael, celebrated her 18th Birthday yesterday!
However before that I was up in London for another two days of ECP. A slight change in procedure on the second day because as my weight is creeping up (10st 4lb) I have a greater blood volume, so I have a slightly different ‘set’ for the collection. The enables the machine to collect 3 lots of 250ml of blood, rather than 6 lots of 125ml so the procedure is slightly quicker, and supposed to be more efficient as the centrifuge is bigger. It certainly seemed to be about 30 minutes faster.
Yesterday I went into the office for the last time to clear my desk, and to hand in identity cards and so on. I still have another couple of weeks of paid leave to go, but to all intents and purposes, I have now finished!
Today I was back up at Guy’s for another check up. All seems well, no lumps or bumps, liver working well, however it does seem that my kidney function is impaired, and that will probably be permanent. No cause for alarm as it is only slight damage, but probably the result of the chemo and possibly from when my blood pressure was low. It also seems that my overall immunoglobulin levels are low – again no immediate cause for concern – but something to be monitored, and it looks as if I will need another pneumococcal immunisation as those anti-bodies are still quite low.
However the highlight of the visit was seeing fellow patients, Jean and Andy. Jean, you may remember, had her transplant at the same time as me back in January 2006. She has had her trial and tribulations over the last two years, but she was looking really well – it was great to see her! I see she has posted a comment on the previous blog entry – thank you Jean! Andy, who had his transplant after me and who I got to know through the blog, was also looking well and was on good form! And both of them had news of our other transplant patient, Mark, who is also doing well! Great news all round!
So… Onwards and Upwards!