Some pictures of Tim, my fantastic donor - and TV news clip

Here's Tim on the train, pre-surgery. He looks pretty calm.

And then after the surgery. This guy.. thumbs up indeed! I didn't look this good after my surgery, believe me.

Day 21: Nobody told me there'd be days like these

That's the line from a song of John Lennon's. It pretty much sums up how I feel about this time period. It's a time that I feel I should be celebrating. But there is so much to do..there is no time to relax, no time to even really heal. It's quite complex.

I have been to the hospital 3 times already this week - and it's only Wednesday. I went on Sunday morning for 5 hours, Monday for 6 hours and yesterday for 5 hours. These are all early morning appointments, for which I have had to get up in the dark and walk slowly through the snowy cold to the train station. I usually ride my bike, but I can't do so now for 6 weeks or more.

I have gained a lot of water weight in the last week, 3 kilos to be exact. That's 6.6 pounds. And they haven't been able to figure out what it could be from. My kidney function is going well - for that I am incredibly grateful, for a myriad of reasons. But I shouldn't be retaining fluid. They gave me antibiotics to stave off an infection - now I'm on 3 separate types of antibiotics, (this is incredibly ironic, given my years of attention to things like 'healthy flora' and all things natural).

So to check the levels of steroids in my system and make sure that the anti-rejection drugs aren't too strong, they gave me a test on Monday that involves taking my blood every hour for 4 hours. I was told not to take the medications that morning.

I have very bruised veins at the moment, so they left a needle in my arm for the duration of the testing. I walked slowly outside for fresh air for a bit, unable to move my right arm. By the time the test was over, my hand had swelled a lot from the needle. I couldn't wait to have it out. I asked 'Should I take my medication now?' The response was 'But didn't they tell you?? You were supposed to take it after the first blood test this morning. Now the test is invalid. We have to do it again tomorrow.'

I was so wiped out. I got out of there, really upset that the information hadn't been given to me by the doctor or the nurse or the blood technician. And I was so tired that I ended up getting on a wrong train and ending up in Schipol Airport instead of gentle Haarlem. It took an hour and a half longer to get home.

Yesterday I did the test again. This time I insisted that I lie down during the breaks. I took a book and lots of snacks. It was a lot easier. Especially since I'd been given the correct information, how refreshing!

And...the Publicity!! Radio 5 - BBC this morning.

The U.K. has really picked up on our story. We were featured in several Sunday papers, including the Daily Mail, News of the World, The Mirror and Channel 4. Yesterday we were on page 19 of The Sun, the biggest tabloid in the U.K., (complete with very bad photo of me in the hospital looking wiped out!). Radio 5 is about to call this morning to do a live interview with me and Tim. Tim was on television yesterday, too. He is now famous for doing this, something that will hopefully spur on the idea that, for the right person, donation can be a positive experience.

I intend to try to direct the conversation this way when interviewed this morning. After all, this story is no longer really about 'us', but about the chance for other people to see that donation to a stranger is a chance for both parties to be rewarded - not only in health, but in the power of human giving and receiving.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article2075547.ece

dialysis and a donor

Okay, I've known I'd had a failing kidney for years and years. And I'd secretly hoped I'd be in my eighties before hearing of end-stage kidney failure. But in May of this year I was told I'd need to go on dialysis.

They wait until you're at about 10% kidney function for this. So I imagine all these years of having compromised function.

There are 2 types of dialysis: hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis. One is done at the hospital, the other at home. I chose to do home dialysis. It enables you to have somewhat more freedom; you are in charge of your own care to a large extent. The drawback was having a catheter placed in my abdomen, travelling down through my organs to sit down at a low point inside me to enable a daily system of removing the toxins from my body and inserting new, clean fluid to do its work.

So since July, I've done home dialysis, first during the day, 5 x per day...(not leaving room for anything else, really) and then, after 2 months, with a night machine.

In August my mum sent out a huge email that went around the world to all kinds of contacts. There was an article in a little local paper in an area of the UK where I grew up: East Anglia. A stranger contacted me: we were the same (rare) blood type, type O-. He came to the Netherlands and had all the tests and we were told a month ago...we're a match!

Now the transplant is going to happen on Wednesday. The donor flies from the UK today..I'm actually excited!