I'm high but I'm grounded.

Just a quick wee post to say that my Cyclosporin level in my blood is 281 (we were aiming for the range 250 - 300) so we now have the dose pretty much spot on so I can stay on it for the next 5 weeks or so. I'm even getting my blood checked at the local GP's rather than having to go across Glasgow to the Beatson just to give blood.

In other news even though I've been on this high dose of Cyclosporin for a month now there has been absolutely no problem with kidney function which is the worry for the test down in Newcastle, so it's all looking OK at the moment.

Hoping to go out for a few drinks on Friday night to see a few people I've not seen in far, far too long.

Anything's better than posh isolation

As expected this week I started taking Cyclosporin again, the anti-rejection drug that I would need to take if I were to have a Lung Transplant. The plan, as I have mentioned before, is for me to tinker with the dose over the next few weeks till we can all be satisfied that the dose I'm taking equates to a therapeutic dose in my blood. This means that for the next week or so I'll be going twice weekly to get blood taken to check for the level of the drug in my blood. We're looking for somewhere in the region of 250-300 mg/ml.

When that dose is stabilised I'll probably be on Cyclosporin for a good 6 weeks before going to Newcastle to get the GFR test repeated to see if I can, in fact, tolerate the drug regime I would be on post transplant.

Now the extensive checks conducted on my kidneys by the renal and urology consultants when not on Cyclosporin suggest that there is nothing structurally or functionally wrong with my kidneys, but that then has me wondering why the initial GFR test showed a problem with my kidneys in the first place. Surely the absence of Cyclosporin is the only variable between then and the recent barrage of tests so if I go back on it then it stands to reason that the GFR will give me the same response as it did last time. Well maybe, but remember it wasn't just the Cyclosporin that was removed from my repeat prescription these past 9 months or so - there were also had a couple of other drugs (an antibiotic and an anti-hypertensive) that have the side effect of damaging the kidneys changed for more kidney friendly versions. So maybe it was them that caused the dodgy result in the GFR test and it had nothing to do with Cyclosporin at all.

All these things will be answered when I go down to Newcastle again in early March. It really can't come quick enough. I've got bored of wondering what path my life is going to take and now just want answers, even if it's not the one I hoped for. At least then I can come to terms with it and get on with whatever life I can get on with having.

There's a song playing on the radio

Got nothing medical to tell you but thought I'd wish everybody a Happy New Year. Mine was very quiet indeed, just staying at home and in bed watching rubbish telly. Can't say I was that bothered as I've never really got into New Year, it's always been Christmas that's been the more important time for me and Christmas with the family was absolutely brilliant.

In fact preceding that we had my birthday on the 23rd and it was also excellent. All my friends and I had a bit of a tradition that my birthday was the big night out of the year because it was always the day where you could guarantee we'd all be home from wherever it was we were all living at the time. It used to always be going out for a curry but my situation meant that what we did this year was to have a take away curry at my house. It was an absolutely brilliant night, with me almost certainly telling stories that you shouldn't air in front of your mother, and with everybody else in absolutely tremendous form so even though we didn't go out it was still fantastic.

The usual promises were made of coming to visit more often but I know that real life will somehow contrive to get in the way of that and I'll just have to take my visits where I can get them.

The people I didn't see on my birthday I mostly caught up with the weekend before at my mate Gerry's wee boy's Christening so it's been a great period for just hearing how things have been going outside in the real world.

Little things like that trip out to the Christening, or the guys coming round on my birthday, can seriously perk me up for days afterwards. It's not that I'm sitting moping about at home all the time, but for some reason a visit from a good friend just seems to flick a switch and I'm genuinely happy for the days following.

So 2012, you've got a lot to live up to. March, I'm looking at you specifically.