For anyone who missed The Tubridy Show on Radio 1 yesterday morning (or for those of you who keep similar hours to myself and who are only turning over for another round of zzzzs when he is on air from 9-10am), I thought I'd put up this link to his discussion on Organ Donor Awareness Week. Admittedly, I'm really only doing this because I featured on the programme(!), but also for anyone who is thinking about the possibility of a living donation from a relative, you will hear from a married couple who took the 'in sickness and in health' vow to a new level. Pretty interesting stuff.
http://www.rte.ie/radio1/thetubridyshow/
(Go to this page and just scroll down to 'The Kidney Story'...They spell my name wrong, but this is a constant problem. I know that if anything exciting or tragic ever happens to me with an ensuing media circus, my name will appear in the papers as Rachel Hanley, aged 32...the final insult).
Out of the scratcher of a hungover morning you got me. Worth it though.
ReplyDeleteAh, a voice for radio! You sounded very much at ease in front of the mic, maybe a future career there? :-)
ReplyDeleteHi there, I'm also a dialysis patient, 30, female and on CAPD for almost 2 years and I'm intrigued by your story. A couple of things I picked up on from the Times article. You should try to go on a holiday if that's what you'd like to do. I have travelled out of the country at least 4 times since I started CAPD. Baxter are extremely helpful with delivery of fluids and I have never taken myself off the list. I figure it's worth taking the chance and if I did get the call i'd try to get a flight back. Granted I haven't gone any further than Europe. I try as much as possible not to put my life on hold, go to work as normal (I start at 6am, so early to bed!)and not focus too much on my illness. I have been lucky in that I haven't had too many problems and have been in pretty good health. I did have to have my tube 'refitted' though, as it kinked the first time in my tummy so had to go through the surgery twice. I wasn't pleased about that!
ReplyDeleteThere has been 3 transplants in my immediate family so we've all been through this process before. My family members that had transplants are all doing well which offers great hope for me. They are all male so they didn't have to worry about babies etc but I see everyday how their life changed after they got the call. So I just wanted to offer some words of encouragement and hope that you don't dwell too much on what's happening now and focus on what your transplant will bring. That's what keeps us going....
Hear hear!
ReplyDeleteRadge - you can imagine the shock it was to my system to have to get up at 6.30am that morning
ReplyDeleteBrian - I was only at ease cos I was still half asleep!
Anonymous - Thanks for your message, always good to hear from someone in a similar boat to myself. I get the impression you thought I sounded quite down in my Times piece. You're right, and I have myself said that if I had written the piece on another day, it probably would have been very different. I just wrote honestly how I was feeling at that particular time. As I'm sure you know yourself, you have your good days and your bad days. My friends would tell you I have more of the former than the latter.
Poor you having to get the tube "refitted". Once was bad enough! I may consider a holiday in the near future. The problem with APD is the machine. It's seriously heavy and if you're going away, you have to transport that yourself. Not very travel friendly.
I do try to keep focused on the transplant and if you read some of my other posts on this blog you'll see it's what I daydream about these days - no tube in our tummies...how great will that be?!