T + 283 The Eyes Have it

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 transfusion zone just yet. To try and give my blood making system a little boost the doctor prescribed some folic acid once a day as it is a good general blood "supplement".

The other downer was catching up with a young guy who was in hospital the same time as me last year quite often and whom I've seen in the clinic a few times. He had a transplant off his brother in July last year and had been going really well with only visiting clinic every couple of months. However now he is back to visiting every week as he has developed Graft Vs Host Disease of the lungs. He's on steroids at the moment and being carefully monitored. We didn't have much time to chat because I was called in for bloods and then he went in to see the doctor.

It's obviously a set back for him and a reminder that even nearly one year out after transplant there can still be bumps in the road, or even big pot holes. A sobering thought in case I get too used to this partial re-integration back into civilised society.

Thursday I went to Birmingham and had my eyes tested. As well as needing a new prescription and being warned the time when I'll need reading glasses gets ever closer, I was also told the pressures measured in my eyes were a bit high.

Even after a second measurement they were still high so the optician referred me to the Midland Eye Centre at City Hospital. The pressures are only a bit high and it's probably caused by the steroids but I have been referred to check it out in case it is the early signs of glaucoma. I have to ring the hospital in a few days to make an appointment.

After the opticians I went clothes shopping with Gareth and got some really nice stuff , t-shirts, polo shirts and jeans from M&S, shorts, a new man bag and a crazy Ben Sherman shirt from Debenhams. I lasted the day quite well and enjoyed my first trip to Starbucks in about 18 months, but I was quite tired by the end of the day.

Today, Friday, was to have been a day trip to Prestatyn via the waterfall at Dyserth. However I decided to give this a miss since the forecast was for a waterfall pretty much everywhere anyway, and so it has proved to be.