And so the ball just kept rolling

I know this is over a week late really but I'm here to update you all on how clinic at Harefield went on Monday last week.

Well it was a long old day to say the least, 6am knocking at my front door, tap tap, tap, I had forgotten to set the alarm. The first time ever I get hospital transport and I forget to actually get up. I ran down stairs in my dressing gown and told the driver I would be ready in 10 minutes, luckily I had indeed had a shower the night before got my clothes ready to put on and my food for the day packed. So running round getting dressed, I did my hair up in a slick donut Hun. Pristine and easy, make up in a bag, I would be putting make up on whilst in a moving vehicle! (I did not understand how hard this would in fact be!) and food thrown in so I wasn't quite 10 minutes but 15 isn't bad when you've just woke up!

So the journey was long, we went via Southampton for another pick up several hours later we arrived, I'm just glad the company in the car was good, otherwise it would have dragged!

I felt particularly nervous about this appointment, sometimes you can build things up in your head, bigger than they actually are. Possibly what iv done over this while fundoplication operation. But anyway my lung function has been a bit lets say squiffy and I had a heap of questions about this operation, in fact a huge sheet, not all for Harefield as there not the hospital doing the operation but they can certainly answer a lot of them. So I had bloods, lung function (which wasn't as bad as it had been(yay)), x-ray, then we lunch for a bit and go back, by this time tiredness was setting in and in the hot environment of the hospital I was falling asleep.

I was called in, a doctor I have never met before, although he assures me he knows me as he was at a talk I did on transplant and organ donation (humm I wonder whether he's another stalker(only joking)) we sit down and the first thing he asks is have I had it, had it, had what? Had a baby? Did I look pregnant? No the op, did I have the op, humm straight in there with that are we, interesting. So I fidget in my seat uncomfortably and tell him that I actually really don't want the op as the surgeon scared the living s*** out of me, I blurt out all my fears and uncontrollable thoughts and he steadily looks through all my information, with my one big question, do I really need it? Well he explained the risks, which I knew already, I wish doctor would ask that before explaining away, a simple, do you know the risk of not having the operation if you do indeed have reflux? I could say yes then 5 minutes wouldn't be wasted of me going yes I understand that. I sit and go through the reasons I'm worried about the op, such as open surgery being a big op, with huge recovery times, iv just got recovered from the last one, yes al be it slightly more major, I also said about affecting my career, well everything.

So the first thing we looked at was my previous reflux test, he said it was positive, this is 2 years ago I had this test, when I was having severe symptoms, before my transplant, in which time my reflux has vastly improved, iv had some dodgy bout after my stomach bug but actually on the whole it's lots better. So we decided I needed to have a retest, also I would need a ct scan to see if I have any signs of chronic rejection from any possible reflux, then a lung biopsy to also check for rejection. He conversed with my consultant and came back at which my consultant had said they were surprised about the possibility of open surgery as they hadn't realised my former bowel surgeries and agree that they should retest first as open surgery poses many more risks, including infection due to weakened diaphragm and intercostal muscles.

So I heard what I wanted to hear, if the tests come back and If i need it then fine. Ill be straight In that operating theatre. The tests are all to be carried out immediately so that if there is reflux we won't be delaying the operation to much and no further damage will be done, iv also been prescribed higher doses of meds for reflux in which will prevent it as much as possible.

As for my lung function they weren't all that worried.

So that was it, the big appointment I was nervous about, I had no reason to be.


I will be writing a blog on a few other catch up things but just to let you all know I will be on itv west country today (Tuesday) at around 6pm it will be available on the Internet and ill post it here. It's for itvs 'from the heart' campaign supporting organ donation. It's an amazing step in the right direction and I'm glad to be a part of it and I even got to introduce and sign off my own piece a small step toward TV presenting.

So I will leave you all now, hoping all my readers are happy and well and if not I wish it for the future x

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