Hi... Sorry I've been so delayed in updating! Still on a high from becoming an Auntie! Abigail is just gorgeous, not seen her today but will pop by my brothers house tomorrow to see them all!

Now to fill you in on my Fistulaplasty, it didn't go quite to plan as the narrowing was worse than they first anticipated!

I arrived at the Royal at about 7.30 and the nurse guided me to my bed at which two other ladies were sitting so I was a bit confused, she explained that (as usual) there was a bed problem, but because my mum had rang up and said we were on our way that the bed was mine! The nurse then took some blood, asked some routine questions, gave me a lovely sexy gown and that was it.... the waiting began. Breakfast came and I decided that instead of starving myself like last time I would chance a piece of toast, which I am glad I did as breakfast came and went and so did dinner (which I didn't eat). So more waiting and more waiting, (at this point I was having a kip on the bed.) I got changed into my sexy gown that flashes your bum and eventually went down to the radiology department about 2.30pm! I went into a cubicle, signed a consent form, and a form to say I was willing to take part in a stent trial (they are testing new covered stents) then I walked into the theatre about 2.45!

I was in the theatre for just over an hour this time as things weren't totally straight forward, the narrowing was bigger than they thought, It was a bit uncomfortable when they were pushing and pulling at my arm. Next they inserted a wire, a tube and a balloon into the vein and filled the balloon up with saline! At this point my toes were curling a bit and the nurse checked I was ok as it was very painful for about 30seconds but the pain went immediately when the balloon was let down! They had to do this with 4 different balloons to ensure the narrowing had gone (the surgeon was very impressed at how well I was handling the pain and said he would have been crying - typical man) A 4cm titanium stent (which is very expensive) was inserted through the wire and into my vein, it was then opened to the size of the vein to ensure the narrowing didn't return. I mentioned I was taking part in a trial before, this process is randomised and so at the begining of the procedure an envelope was opened to see which stent I would receive, turns out it was the plain old stent anyway so it didn't really matter haha! Although I think the surgeon will still take more interest in my scans when I return.

The tube was taken out and the nurse placed pressure on the wound for 10mins in the recovery room. I didn't even need a dressing on it. I went back up to the ward on the bed (I could have walked, but they insisted) I then immediately got dressed ready to go home and they said I had to stay till 5, but they could see I was dying to get away so at 4.15 the nurse said I could go. However a friend of mine (a nurse from another ward) turned up for a chat which was nice, so we didn't end up leaving till 4.45 anyway!

My arm is ok now, I can actually feel the stent under my skin which is a bit freaky! I haven't got a bruise whatsoever which is great. The only problem is, is when the nurses are needling my fistula it is alot more painful than it used to be, they have to push alot harder (its like they are hitting a barrier, or the skin is tougher) I'm not sure if this is them having to needle through the stent or not! Hopefully the procedure has been successful and I wont need anymore work doing on it in the near future, I have to go back for a scan in a month's time, so we'll just have to wait and see! Will keep you posted!

Just a quick blog...

Still no sign of baby, Fiona went in to be induced yesterday but nothing has happened yet! Will keep you updated...

All this baby stuff is sort of keeping my mind off the procedure on my arm that is happening tomorrow (am a little bit nervous,) I'm hoping I'll be well enough to visit my neice if she is born, I am determined I will be... even if my arm is dropping off, I'll be there! x

Ok, so first things first... No baby news!!!! She is going for a routine hospital appointment tomorrow (she will be a week overdue then) so hopefully we'll know more then, maybe they will keep her in and induce her, who knows.

Seem to have had a busy few weeks really, can't pin point on things I have actually done. Met up with some friends and did some crafting (in anticipation of baby pictures.)

I also caught up with a friend I used to dialyse with Steph (who received her transplant a year ago) and one I still dialyse with, we went for a burger at Frankie and Bennys it was lovely!


On the dialysis front, nothing new really, had a few off days last week, vomitting and sickness but I'm lucky really, my really bad days are getting less and less as I get more and more used to dialysis I suppose. I have been good recently at taking my new tablets (Alucaps) and had my blood tests last night so hopefully it will show in them. I'm also counting down to my procedure on my arm (which is hurting today, for some reason!), the stent will be insterted under Local Anesthetic next Thursday and hopefully I'll be out within a few hours!

Thats it really, hopefully I'll be officially an Auntie soon and I will be able to announce the baby's name, which as yet no-one knows apart from Andy and Fiona!

I've decided that I have started talking more about family and friends rather than dialysis, so I'm going to take some pictures of the unit and talk you through my dialysis routine in my next post.... watch this space....

I got the date for my procedure on my arm... wait for it... 4th September!!! Aggggeeees away so no need to get nervous yet! At least I know now when it is though, I hate not knowing, which is ironic as I don't know when or if I'll receive a transplant, it's just a waiting game! I'm an impatient person and my sister-in-laws pregnancy seems to have gone on forever!

Only 20 days to go till I'm an Auntie! I'm getting really excited now and can't wait to meet the little one! I even felt her kick the other day which was amazing, although it did freak me out a little bit, especially when I actually saw Fiona's tummy move!

Yesterday afternoon I decided to treat my Mum and Dad and take them to the cinema to see Mama Mia! It was fantastic, I loved it, I could have watched it again straight away (sad I know) it's not everyone's cup of tea but hey it was certainly mine and my Mum's (and even my dad's although he won't admit it out loud!)

Had a busy day today babysitting Peter (my mum's friends son) who is 2 now, we spent the day running round and playing with "choo choo" trains! Fiona then came round and we all went out for a pub lunch to our local, which had a bouncy castle for the kids to go on (although I may have made my way on there, only to encourage Peter obviously!) We came home to play some more and as Fiona was leaving Mum decided to tell Peter there was a baby inside Fiona's tummy to which he looked a little confused but started stroking it and saying "baby"! He then lifted her t-shirt up to see if he could see it but looked more confused when he couldn't. Next he moved on to dad and tapped his stomach and said "baby" to which all three of us were in stitches! Kids say the funniest things as they say!

As Peter left we said that he would soon have a little baby friend to play with, no doubt he is impatient, but lets face it he isn't the only one!

I have uploaded some of the pictures from my trip to Ireland, click on the links below if you want to have a nosy!

Ireland - Part 1

Ireland - Part 2 (The Wedding)

Ireland - Part 3


Today I went for the ultrasound scan on my fistula, the doc went really quiet so I could tell all was not well. Hmmm interesting he said and I said interesting good or interesting bad. He replied well I'm not going to say just yet so that confirmed my suspicions. Whilst he was scanning my arm he listened to the flow of the blood through my fistula, there was also a sound of the water pipes in the hospital in the background so Mum and Dad were a bit confused as to what sound was my fistula and which was the water as they both sounded similar.

He then explained that the narrowing that had previously been widened has returned and he was worried that it had returned so quickly. So I need to go in to get ballooned again but this time I'm also going to have a stent inserted to keep it open to ensure it doesn't narrow again! So not the best news but hey it can't be helped. Here is a pic of what a stent looks like incase you're interested... The one I will be having will be about 4cm long and when it is opened it will spring out so its 1cm wide.




I may have to keep going back every so often for the stent to be ballooned aswell so the problem won't be completely solved. There is also a slightly higher risk of infection in my fistula after having the stent inserted so I'll just have to be careful about keeping it clean. I wasn't surprised to hear that I would need this done as the last time he wasn't completely convinced that it had been totally sucessful, and I could also tell myself that my arm was getting bigger again (although my mum kept telling me that it was just me, probably to make me feel better.)

I then asked the doctor the really important questions such as will it hurt more than just having it ballooned and will I beep going through airport security if I have the stent inserted, the answer to both questions was no! He then said that there were two choices of stent, a covered one and an uncovered one (not completely sure of the difference) but they are doing some trials to compare the covered one to the uncovered and measure their effectiveness. He asked me if I wanted to be part of the trial, I'm not bothered either way and even if I say yes there is no guarantee I will receive the covered one as they pick an envelope at the beginning of the procedure and whichever envelope is opened that's the stent they use.

After the scan and the chat with the Doc I went up to the transplant ward to see a fellow dialysis patient who received a transplant 10 days ago. She had been waiting for around 5 years and although she has an infection at the moment is looking absolutely marvellous, the change in her colour in that short amount of time was amazing. So hopefully things will continue to improve and she will be out and about soon.

Finally (as I think I have waffled on enough in this post) whilst I was away on holiday I appeared in my local midweek newspaper and on an online newspaper promoting National Transplant Week (Thanks to Em and Em from LLTGL for the press release.) If you want to see the article click here.

So that's all the news really, I don't have to decide about the trial till the day of the procedure and he said he would have more of a chat about it to me then. They'll be in touch soon with a date for when it's going to go ahead.