The Date is Set

Tim and I saw the surgeon yesterday, and we have set a date!  May 1st!!! That's not long, is it?  End May/early June had been mentioned but, as we have a family celebration on June 8th, we had intended to defer it to June 12th.  Early May is fine as we'll have plenty of time to recover before the celebration, and now it won't be a spectre hanging over the event.

Going back to the start of yesterday, I left here really early to drive to London and miss the worst of the traffic on the M25.  My first appointment was a treadmill test in the ECG Dept at 9.00am. This was quite easy; the actual test takes only nine minutes, and it was only the last three minutes which were remotely trying.  For that part the thing is going at 3.4 miles per hour and it is tilted up at some angle, which puts a good stress on your shins.  To me this was actually the same feeling as doing a forced march on my RAF training many years ago which I think was about 4.5 mph (and don't forget the 30kg backpack and rifle).  The technician took regular blood pressure measurements, and I was pleased to see how low mine was - starting at 118/78 isn't bad, I think, and the highest it got to was (I think) 150/70.  The machine showed the systolic figure as a percentage of 159 which I was told was the highest allowable figure for a person of my height/weight/age.  Anyway, the technician wrote a few lines about the test, ending with "Good Effort", so I think I passed that.

Then at 12.00 the Renal Dept staff were surprised to see me when I arrived with Tim!?  It turned out that there had been some horrible accident which had blocked the A3 and they had expected that I (like some other distant patients) would be severely delayed by that.  While we were waiting there was lots of time to provide another urine sample which seems par for the course.

I was seen first and had a lively chat with the surgeon, Sarah.  She is a lovely person who inspires confidence and knows how to treat you as an individual.  Her questions to me were full of good explanations which allowed for the fact that I am fairly intelligent and have done some research on-line.  She ascertained early on that I'm a Chartered Engineer, and she has a husband and brother who are both engineers, and so she started using engineering terms.  She even described herself as "just a plumber"!!  She then produced a schematic of the relevant bit of "plumbing" and asked me whch kidney should be removed? I said that I think the standard answer is the left, other things being equal.  It turns out that other things aren't equal as my right kidney has lots more plumbing than my left, so she will definitely take the left as that makes it much easier (=safer) to both remove and install.  My right kidney has three arteries in and two out, but my left one has just one of each, so is perfect.  The other issue is the size and the right is just a bit bigger, and they prefer to leave the donor with the larger one if possible, so that was all the ticks in the same box. It was good to actually see the pictures from last year's CT scan (see this entry last August).   These showed clearly the difference in the arteries of the two kidneys - isn't the technology incredible?

Sarah was most impressed with the quality of our tissue type match - I think her word was "amazing".  She wants me to do a fasting blood test at my GP (again? I think someone lost the original from last year) but otherwise I'm good to go.  I was with her for almost an hour, and then it was Tim's turn for about 45 minutes, then we were in together and the main question was the date, followed by a few practical details.  There still remains the HTA interview and "our case" will get discussed by her team at some weekly meeting soon, and I think that there will be another visit for me there somewhen in April (possibly the week before admission?).  One of the practical details is that we are admitted on the morning of Tuesday 30th April and they seem to spend that day doing lots of checks (and doubtless taking more blood and urine samples!) 

Of course, before we left, there some more blood samples to be provided - they never seem to have enough of those, but at least I haven't got the same bruised arm as last time...