Peter's Hospital Diary

And so it seemed as I left the house early this morning, birds starting to sing, and sunrise at 7:10 as I was travelling up the A303! Definitely a feeling of Spring on its way!

Last week seemed to whizz by, busy at work, and then home again on Friday for the weekend. I finally completed the last piece of coursework for the PGCert – although I am not particularly happy with it – it still seems a bit ‘thin’ to me, so I hope that “less is more”! However I have been accepted for the next stage, the PGDip – the first module starts in just over a month.

We also had Olivia over for the afternoon on Sunday – now just over 2 years old (!) quite a toddler, very vocal and VERY active, so I’m afraid I didn’t get a chance to take any photographs of her this time! It has occurred to me that there haven’t been any photos of her for a while – I must do something about that, and re-arrange the photos already in the photogallery. However while walking round the garden with her (a garden in need of much TLC!) I did notice that there are a number of shoots appearing. The lemon tree (still indoors) has given up all its lemons but is putting out new shoots although it had a bit of a hissy fit and shed several leaves on Saturday – possibly because of a rapid change in temperature in the conservatory, or perhaps because I let it dry out a bit too much. Any horticultural tips gratefully received!

Onwards and Upwards!

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It has been another busy week and weekend! I arrived home safely on Friday – most of the snow had disappeared and the roads were clear and there were no adverse effects because of the date! We were out on Saturday evening at a Valentine’s day party (thank you Caroline and Stephen) and then on Sunday we took a trip up to my parents. This was in two cars as Felicity was taking her mother to Birmingham Airport for a flight on Monday.

Consequently I was up really early on Monday morning for the drive down to work – but it was a very pleasant drive down to Cirencester, and across part of the Cotswolds previously unknown to me. I was surprised to see a Jumbo Jet apparently parked in a field – as I got close it I saw it was in Kemble Airfield, a former RAF base and now “The Cotswold Aviation Centre”! The journey took just over 2 1/2 hours, and I was back at work for 8.

And as the week ticks on – onwards and upwards!

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Well not quite, but I will be setting off for home again soon.

I drove home on Monday afternoon ready to travel to London for my check up and ECP on Tuesday and Wednesday, but before that we had a trip to the Ringwood brewery as part of a birthday present for friend Ian. The tour was interesting, but sampling the products afterwards was even better! A good evening (and I still think the forty-niner is the best!)

The check up and ECP went well, although the trip to London was a bit tedious. We had heavy rain overnight on Monday, and when I went to out local railway station, trains had been cancelled “because of flooding on the line”. This happens every time there is heavy rain, so one might have thought that the cause had been identified (as a simple sailor, I would have said poor drainage) and the problem fixed (better drains) – but no – trains still stopped because of rain!

I eventually caught a train at Winchester and arrived for the check up. Nothing unexpected – my blood counts were good, and the the various subsets of my lymphocytes are showing a welcome improvement. The creatinine levels are still up, but had shown a small reduction, but still outside the normal range (must have been the beer the night before!). We also did an object assessment of the GvHd (a numerical score) and concluded that it is moderate – but probably tending towards mild.

I saw Rachel (dietician) briefly, but escaped without a severe telling off about my weight!. (I have a theory about the weight loss – working in a large open plan office means I walk a lot during the day – to and from the printer, kitchen and so on – so I am more active!)

I was also delighted to see Orla (who used to run the day unit) in the clinic – and we had a long chat about things. Orla, along with Vikki – the specialist nurse, has great source of support in the past.

ECP was uneventful over the two days, and I travelled home on Wednesday on normally running trains (I guess someone had pulled the plug out of the plug hole!)

I drove up to work yesterday – Salisbury plain looking very pretty with some remaining snow and some light mists in the early morning light – and sunrise now at 7:30 – and last night was the first time I have returned to the hotel in daylight!

We were out in Bath again in the evening for a leaving ‘do’ – and very pleasant it was too!

So in all respects… Onwards and Upwards!

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The snow has gone from home, the geraniums that are outside look very sad (or dead) and I drove up to work this morning. I wasn’t sure about the route to take, but in the end I had no choice as the A34 was blocked in both directions just north of the A303 (an overturned lorry carrying 39 tonnes of vegetables – presumably now crushed!) so it was down the A303 and across the Plain. In fact the journey was fine – lots of snow in the fields on either side of the A303, very little on the Plain itself until I got to Melksham, where there was snow on the verges, with icy slush on the lanes.

It is raining at the moment, so that should help (provided it doesn’t freeze!), but there is more snow forecast for this afternoon – when I am driving home again, ready for the next check up at Guy’s tomorrow, followed by ECP at St Thomas’s. I just hope the trains are running in the morning!

And in preparation for the check-up, – I jumped on the scales at the weekend – unbelievably my weight has dropped (despite the chocolate biscuits) to 10st! I had better avoid Rachel (dietician)!

Onwards and Upwards!

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Home again after an interesting couple of days!

Driving back to the hotel last night was fine, the snow was melting, the roads clear, and then it started to snow again so that this morning we had another four or five inches. The drive in was trickier, the gritters hadn’t been out, and the weather was warmer so the snow was slipperier (is that a word) – and not helped by someone driving on my tail as I drove at 15mph up the hills.

There were few people in, and the word was to go home early, so after waiting a while for the gritters to get to work and things to settle down, I left just before midday.

Again I elected to use the motorway, Salisbury Plain would not have been a good idea, but even the A roads round Chippenham were icy – not sheet ice, but that knobbly broken ice that feels as if you are driving on broken stones. The M4 was OK, two lanes open to Swindon, but very light traffic, but the bit from Swindon to Newbury was very wet, with lots of spray from the melted snow. The A34 was fine, and after 5 miles was completely clear, until I got to Winchester, when the snow started again and started slushing. Still, once past that, the roads were clear again and I was soon home! The countryside did look very pretty though.

I suppose compared with some of the Falklands weather it was fairly benign, it is just that we are not used to it!

So onwards and upwards! (and fortunately not sideways!)

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And the snow continues to make life interesting! I went over to see my sister, Anne, last night (good curry!) and left just before 10. Roads were clear, no snow. By the time I had driven to the M4 the snow was just starting and I drove past a recovery van pulling a car (on its side) out of a field; the roads were still clear, so I don’t know how long it had been there. Five miles further on in the descent down into Bath, the snow was starting to stick, and by the time I got to Box hill, I was crawling along in second gear at 15mph with uncertain traction. I got back to the hotel safely, but I didn’t leave a minute too soon.
This morning there was about 4 inches of snow on the car, and the roads were ungritted. I left early and got in before there had been too much traffic to compact the snow, but several people have rung in to say that they are snowbound. The forecast isn’t good, so it will be an interesting drive back to Winchester tomorrow!

Onwards and upwards!

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And it is – as I write! I was up early this morning to find a reasonable dusting of snow on the car, ready to drive up to the West Country. Given the snow, I decided that driving across Salisbury Plain was not a good idea! In fact the A34 was pretty clear up to the M4, so apart from keeping my speed down, the journey wasn’t too bad and didn’t take much longer than normal. However since arriving, the snow has caught up with me, and there are intermittent flurries and about an inch on the ground outside.

With all the concentration on the job, the third anniversary of my transplant on January 9th went un-remarked – which I think is probably a good indication of the progress made in ‘getting my life back’!

So, Onwards and Upwards!

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Where did January go? It seems to have shot by, and here we are in February already! However I have noticed the evenings starting to draw out, which always raises my spirits!

I think I have recovered from that nasty little virus, and I am trying to get stuck into the last piece of coursework for this module – and in fact the last piece for this bit of the course. I think I have missed something fundamental, as the answer seems too obvious, but I’ve just sent off an e mail to my tutor for some guidance.

Meanwhile work is going well, although the contract is currently set to end at the end of February, so it will be interesting to see what happens in the next month.

On the health front, I have some more ECP in a couple of weeks – but it really has made a difference – some of the deep aches and pains have gone, and the mobility in my arms is much better. I contacted the dive club during the week and decided that I’m not going to give up diving yet – so I shall renew my membership with a view to getting in the water again this year – even if it is only in the swimming pool!

So on all fronts (apart from the coursework at the moment!) it is Onwards and Upwards

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