MCL and Me

Well the holiday is nearly at an end but the weekend still has some events to finish off the week. Saturday is a birthday lunch at Mom and Dad's and Sunday Dad and I are off to the 20/20 Cricket at Edgbaston. Wednesday I went to transplant clinic for the first time in four weeks. On the whole it was pretty good apart from a cock up with pharmacy meaning I had a three hour wait to get my drugs. The best news was that I don't have to go to the clinic for six weeks this time. (Unless of course something crops up and then I can just call the ward or the day unit to get advice and come in if necessary). The plan is to continue reducing my steroid dose three weeks now at 10mg one alternating with 5mg then next , then another three weeks at 5mg daily. A slight disappointment was that my haemoglobin had fallen from 11.9 four weeks ago, when it appeared to be on the rise, to 10.6 this time. I've not felt any of the usual side effects of low haemoglobin so far and I am not in the t...

I don't mean a week off from writing the blog, though that is also apparent, but rather the fact I have a week off from work. Which is what is going to be what I believe is known in modern parlance as a "staycation". The previous week at work was pretty intense as I was covering all the systems for my boss for the first part and then trying to clear the decks before I went "away". On Friday Arthur, my Smart Car, developed a rubbing noise when in reverse so I took him in for a service this morning, so I didn't get a lie in as the appointment was for 08:00 Tomorrow I have a former work colleague coming to take me to lunch to say thanks for reading his Psychology dissertation. He's about to start a PhD on brain imaging at Birmingham University. I think I have mentioned this before. Anyway as someone who's attempt at academia didn't quite run to plan I'm really pleased for him and only a tiny bit jealous. Wednesday morning I am at the transplant ...

Yesterday I had a night out at the Glee Club in Birmingham for an evening of stand up comedy. Though I am a huge fan of stand up I've only ever been to the Glee Club a couple of times and they were both music gigs. So here are my thoughts on the venue and the acts we saw. The booking said it was allocated seating but didn't actually say where we would be seated so after a quick drink in the rather swish Glee Club Lounge we headed upstairs to the main room and were shown to our seats. The room is laid out with theatre style curved rows with small tables in front of free-standing, and not overly comfortable, chairs. We were shown to seats in the second row just off centre, about 4 feet from the small stage. A great view of the stage but potentially a great view for the acts to see us and make us part of the performance. Luckily there were a large group of girls in the front row and they provided most of the audience interaction. We were in our seats by about 20:00 but the show d...

Ok where did that week go? Time does seem to fly by at the moment, still better than being bored. Anyway, on Monday morning I went up to the day unit to have my bloods taken for my ciclosporin level and kidney function etc. The ever friendly staff were pleased to see me and were saying it had been a while since I had been there, which is a good thing really. I expected a phone call on the Tuesday asking me to reduce my ciclosporin dose but no such call came. I thought perhaps it would instead be picked up on the Thursday review of all the normal Wednesday transplant clinic results but again no call yesterday. So if I make it through to the end of the day without a call I reckon my levels must have sorted themselves out. Aside from sitting watching the phone this has been a busy week at work and I've been in to the office on Tuesday and Thursday. It makes those days quite long and very tiring but it worth it I think. The end of the week has been extra busy as my boss has made her...

Well it's been a more medical week than I was expecting after the consultant set my next appointment for 28 days time last Wednesday. On Tuesday I was minding my own business chewing some chewing gum when half one of my back teeth fell away. Well not quite half but a biggish chunk off the tooth I had a really deep filling in a couple of years ago. It didn't hurt thankfully but having recently discussed avoiding all but essential dental treatment  with the hospital I was a bit apprehensive about having to get this fixed. I phoned the dentist and as I wasn't in pain I got an appointment for midday the next day, Wednesday. I went along expecting to have to work out a treatment plan to discuss with the hospital and have to get extra antibiotics to cover it. I was armed with my list of drugs and contact numbers etc. but as it turned out it was part of my filling that had fallen away rather the tooth itself. The dentist was able to drill out a bit more and re-do the filling all w...

....way too many times. So here are my thoughts on the new Star Trek movie. I won't cover the details of the story, there are plenty of other places on the 'net you can do that, this is more about what parts I did and didn't like.  However do note some spoilers are inevitable as I discuss certain elements of the plot. I should also add that I am not a trekie. I know most people say that, but really I'm not. (Ask Gareth , who is one :o)  A brief word about the venue. I saw this at Star City in Gold Class so I could keep away from the unwashed masses. This is expensive, about twice the cost of a normal ticket, but it was nice to have our own bar area to wait in and then be shown individually to our large electronically reclining seats. The screen, whilst not the biggest was fine and the sound quality was excellent. A real bass rumble for the big star-ships moving off etc. Overall I really enjoyed the film and thought the story was pretty good, the plot not too full of hol...