The future teaches you to be alone

I have a hellish sore throat and a bit of a chest infection. Nothing that will require hospitalisation, just rest and lots of soup.

I have taken the decision to reduce the number of feeds that I put on overnight through the PEG tube in my stomach. I'm well past the target weight of 54kg and putting what is essentially just a fatty liquid into my body is doing bad things to my cholesterol level. I am on a statin drug to help bring that back down to a normal level but it's always going to be a battle to keep it under control if I'm pumping liquid fat in every night. So when I reached 60kg I decided that it was probably ok to alternate the nights where I put a bottle of feed on.

My dietician phoned the other day just because she is now on a different day from my clinic days to make sure I was doing ok and completely agreed with that plan. Claire has been with me all the way from the bone marrow transplant and has been a really good friend as well as looking after my health. Her phone call was well timed too as it gave me the chance to ask her what would happen with my PEG tube as it's nearly two years since it was put in and that's how long they're recommended for. She's going to check but as long as the tube is still working perfectly, which it is, then there's really no need to replace it. This is the answer I hoped for as I can't be bothered with another procedure, even though it would be much less of an intrusive procedure than the original placing of the tube. I can still do without it.

I had a renogram last week and it confirmed that there is a little bit of an issue with my right kidney. It is a little slower at draining than the left but it is such a small difference that it is regarded as pretty negligible, and certainly not a reason to preclude me from a transplant. It also matches up with a slightly darker area that was seen on the ultrasound when they performed that. I'm going to see the renal consultant again next week - I've got the blood tests done that he wished so he can now give me a better idea of where we are. He explained to me last time that my kidney function appears to be going through cycles where the creatinine levels go up and down. He suspects that when I was down in Newcastle and had the Glomerular Filtration rate test done it just so happened that I was at the peak of one of these cycles, so it isn't indicative of my overall renal health. Here's hoping the next time I go down I'm at a trough in the cycle.