Week +5: Rough With The Smooth - I am settling in for the long haul and taking my recovery one day at a time, so will be shifting to regular weekly-ish updates. I have been blown away by the response to my blog from friends and strangers alike. Thank you all. I still have many tales to tell about my journey, so watch this space.
Week +4: I have been at home now for just over two weeks and today is 4 weeks post-op. In many ways I feel better than I have done for years. My recovery has various aspects and each is important to focus on. The road to recovery is a bumpy one and they never really tell you about the rough stuff. They generally limit it to what life is like after recovery (those rose tinted spectacles I was talking about) but as you'll see, getting there a mixed bag.
Yachtsman Tracy Edwards MBE may seem like an unlikely hero for a 40-something bloke from Stoke-on-Trent. Nonetheless, Tracy's influence on me at a formative age is an important aspect of who I am today.
The day had finally arrived. I had grown very attached to the amazing staff on ward 726 but after 13 days in a room by myself, I was ready to go home and be with my beautiful family. I had missed them terribly.
Day +10: Origins. In contrast to my outward facing 'fitness freak' persona, many have asked how I ended up chronically ill and eventually on the slab receiving a kidney transplant. The story began two decades ago and my my eventual diagnosis which was due the curiosity of a particular GP I saw by chance and his desire to do good by his patients. Thursday was a day where I was waiting and did practically nothing - this is an appropriately long read.
Day +9 was a day of more positive news and moderate exercise, albeit tempered by more waiting and watching of the world go by. Sometimes you don't get exactly the news you had hoped for, but when it's for your own good you can't help but feel contented and grateful.
Day +8: Some time ago I made a pact with myself: To be as fit and active as possible and not to let my illness drag me down. My motto has been to 'only slow down when you have to'. Admittedly I was forced to slow down a lot, but staying active yielded tangible benefits. Exercise and healthy eating works. Trust me.
Day +7: Long Awaited Reductions - Monday became the beginning of the end of my stay on ward 726 - the end was now in sight. All I would need to see me through was a lot of patience, regular painkillers and and plenty of cardboard pee bottles.
Day +6 [Sunday]: The road to recovery is not necessarily a smooth one. There will always be bumps along the way and realistically speaking, these bumps are to be expected. Nothing could dampen my general sense of gratitude but there was definitely a certain amount of anxiety that is generated by these unexpected forays into the unknown.
My life had already irrevocably changed for the better, but there was a lot of information still to take in. The staff knew it was front-loading their patients and to take it easy by drip feeding the essential aspects of their care that was to be self-administered. The Doctor warned me that I was now a very different beast from the one that entered hospital seven days earlier and that it would take some getting used to.
#R24TRC 