t-Week 8

Recuperation's a chore at times

I get anxious when I attend clinic and I will have seen that I don't know the Doctors running it. Familiarity is important, at least for me, where I don't need to feel that I must 'educate' the Doctor to see me in a different light than they might do with the rest of their patients.

I'd traveled down the afternoon before on the train and was picked up outside Waverley station by Rob and taken off to his house outside Dalkeith. Steph (his wife) and Abbie and Sam were there although the kids were off to Guides and cricket practice respectively. While they were out we ate and chatted around the table for most of the night.

Up early in the morning and Steph dropped me off at the hospital having sent Rob and the kids off to their schools. I was in before 9 so I nipped up and said Hello to the Ward Sister. I was then in early with my book waiting for the 9.30 start of clinic. Whilst my appointment wasn't till 11.30am, I had been assured that if you get in early you tend to get seen earlier. I hoped that would allow me to jump onto an earlier train home.

As it was, I wasn't seen till 11am, mainly due to unforseen delays. I was called in by the more senior of the two doctors, in this case Dr A J MacGilchrist. Straight away I was put at ease when he introduced himself, saying that whilst we hadn't met he had been aware of me from the initial application. He explained he was going to change some of my medication, mainly the Azathioprine, replacing it with Mycophenolate(MMF). This will be better for my kidneys and will allow them to reduce the Tacrolimus quicker.

Generally he was very happy with my progress and with a month to go before many of the medicines are stopped it is encouraging to see someone with his experience tweaking the medicine in order to get the best out of it for me. A great clinic visit.

A taxi to Waverley and there was an earlier train, but because I'd taken advantage of a cheaper fare I couldn't change my times. I had an hour to wait which ended up with me buying a pair of 32" jeans and some kids toys for a birthday coming up - not mine I should add which is on Sunday! I'm eating well but I am down to 75.1kg! I'm wearing clothes in sizes that I haven't been able to get into since my teens!

Last Friday we had an abrupt end to the sunny scorcher with a monsoon type rain fall. Caz was unable to get into Aberdeen as the roads were closed around Aboyne. Elsewhere they never had a drop but that is the micro climate of this area. After a great weekend where we had a lovely meal on Saturday at the Longino's, I drove in to Aberdeen on Monday for the first time and went to the gym. Perry came past to see me and I gave some advice to the fighters training. Three people didn't recognise me at first! That was my first trip in by myself and I managed it ok. I was a bit tired the following day but I was visited by Kenny - an old doorman colleague, club student and friend - before he shoots off to Abu Dhabi for work. Big thanks to those who make the effort to visit - it gets boring at times this recuperation lark!

Today, I went up to my work and popped in to say hi to people. I had a chat with pals, colleagues, bosses and HR. It is only roughly a month away before I could return gradually to work. Its been a long journey for me and some of them have been on that journey with me in the sense that they have been impacted from the day I told them that I had cancer. It was good to see them and the place was busy and healthy too.

In the morning, I am going up to the gym and will cover the class and teach for the first time in a while. I wont do anything other than speak, but it should be good to do!