Can't say that there is an awful lot happening today except for the fact my memory is getting much much worse, is it age or a side effect of dialysis? I a hoping that it is a side effect of dialysis because the last thing I want to admit to is getting old! When I realised that I w0uod be 40 next birthday I didn't know whether to cry or cheer. After all aking it to 40 is some achievement after all I have been through this year but the vane part of me would rather I could turn back time and relive my 30's again. 30 seemed to be the age where I was wise enough to avoid all the pitfalls but parts of my body still pointed north! Why is it the older and wiser you get the less the opposite sex seem to take any notice of you.
And once again we are on a dialysis day so later on I will be spending another mind numbing 4 hours hooked up to that noisy thing, I swear I will go deaf before i finish dialysis and I wou't just need a kidney transplant I'll need a hearing aid.

I am well and truly bored, once again I can not sleep, I wonder if other dialysis patients suffer from unsomnia. However the first question the doc asks you "Why do you think you can't sleep?" I DONT KNOW, I JUST CAN'T. I mean I have tries everything under the sun drawing the line as sleeping tablets but even those I have has for 3 days ans I must addmit I slept the sleep of the dead/ Please if anyothe reanl patients have any ideas, please pass themon, I'll ry anythinjbut I draw the line at codliver oli and tripe! Otherwise all sujjestiomswelcom.

It sometimes seems as if dialysis days come around quicker and quicker. Yet another 4 hour session which is particularly annoying today because the sun is shining and it is a glorious autumn day. It would be a wonderful day to go out and sit outside in a restaurant o pub and have a few drinks - I can dream can't I?
Nick is training to run the Cardiff half marathon in a month so anyone reading this please sponsor him on the just giving link, he is running for Kidney Wales as usual.
Better go as the machine is calling my name!

Well, I am back - still alive and still kicking! Seriously though, I have recovered well from the car crash I had in March and luckily I am no longer undergoing physio. It was a hard slog to get mobile again after I was sent home from the hospital and it took the services of a fantastic physio called Bob Jones to get my leg bending as normal and me walking with crutches at first then two sticks and now, on a good day, just one stick. My metal work (arm, hand, elbow, knee and thigh) still gives me a bit of jip but on the whole I can't complain. The fact that I survived the wreck that was my car makes me certain that it just wasn't my time yet however I think I have now used a few of my nine lives!
Dialysis is still as boring as ever and I have to admit I would dearly love to be able to forget about my routine for a week or two, take a break from dialysis. This is not an option so it is a case of making the most of an annoying situation and trying to make the most of the time I spend on the machine. It is pointless getting angry or upset about dialysis, I would rather expend my energy on something I can change or at least something I can do something about. As the Serenity Prayer by Reinhold Niebuhr states; God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; the courage to change the things I can; and the wisdom to know the difference.
I want to be that wise.

Hello Again

Hello again, my recovery is continuing and I have been able to get out of bed and move around using a modified Zimmer frame. I am lucky enough to have had lots of visitors and cards from people wishing me a speedy recovery. I am hoping to be out of hospital in three weeks at the latest but I do not know if this is just wishful thinking.
Dialysis is going well after doing several extra shifts to get rid of the excess fluid I had on me because of the operations I received. The only thing does not change is the boring nature of sitting on a dialysis machine for four hours.

Message from Mel

Hello this is being posted for me because at the moment I am stuck in the trauma ward of UHW following my car crash. I still have to do dialysis three times a week in Suite 19. The only good thing about it is that I do not have a 45 minute journey to the dialysis unit. It is just downstairs!
I am having physio to help with my injuries and I notice the effort it takes isn't helped by being exhausted after dialysis. I hope to be up and about in the next week and then I will be a step closer to coming home. Once home again we will be able to continue with home dialysis and then the longest trip I will have to make is across my own landing.
I will keep you up to date with my progress and am looking forward to typing my own Blog.

This is surprisingly the first time I have composed anything on Mel's Blog. Unfortunately it is to explain why Melanie has not been able to update the Blog in the past few weeks. She was involved in a very serious road traffic accident on 7th Mar 08. The accident was near to Cardiff airport and was early in the morning.
Melanie suffered many broken bones which thankfully have been repaired and are healing well. Luckily there were no internal injuries and no renal complications, so dialysis goes on as normal.
She is an incredibly courageous lady, who has been through an awful lot recently. Through it all she still manages to keep smiling and keep all around her smiling as well. She is an inspiration and I am proud to be her husband.

Back at last

Apologies for being away from the blog for such a long time, there is no single reason for this but a whole raft of conflicts that have joined together. I have been writing to Nick every night which has given me a chance to put my feelings on paper and so I have not felt the urge or requirement to vent my feelings here, if that makes sense? I hope it does.
I attended a meeting at the Assembly buildings Tuesday and it was extremely informative amd good to know that the issues surrounding and affecting renal services in Wales are taken seriously by the politicians in the Welsh Assembly however there is a big BUT; we need more AM's involved in the campaign to improve renal services and transplant rates in Wales. What can we do as individuals that's easily answered: Lobby your own AM's, write to them, ask to meet them and if they fail to relpy to your requests continue to write until they do. Politicians are there to serve us the public, they are paid out of the public purse. We as renal patients are the public, we are the people who voted our political representatives into office. Never forget this fact.
Ok rant over.
What did become clear to me was the need for a public education programme to make people fully aware of the issue of the opt out scheme (more commonly called the presumed consent system) I personally believe calling it presumed consent is a missnomer and gives people a false idea of the whole idea, hence the need for public education.