Mrs Malaprop's Kidney

Not that I'm a real believer, especially in newspaper horoscopes which I tend to think have been drawn from a hat, but today my stars began "Unsettling as sudden changes in plan are .."

Mr Propermal's began "Making plans is one thing, but keeping them as they were first organised is quite another."

OK, both could apply to all sorts of situations. Weirdly relevant though.

Both of the younger children brought home fabulous reports today, and next week we attend a celebration at number one son's school for his general wonderfulness. How proud are we? Very, very.

Well it would have been less than a week until the transplant. Mr Propermal said today that the new date which as been pencilled in - 25 August seems a long way away. I've just had to check on the calendar, 57 days by my reckoning.

It does seem like quite a long time. Have to keep reminding ourselves that it is much better to wait until all the indications are good. But it is a bit bloody frustrating. Poor thing is necking antibiotics and waiting for the results of a multitude of cultures. Not quite the the multi-cultural experience we would wish on anyone.

On the Malaprop home front we are all fine, Mr Malaprop showing infinite patience with not only the uncertainty, but also my mercurial moods. In my defence, as well as nicotine withdrawal and having had geared myself up for the op, I am also hormonal challenged. Don't think I'm being too beastly but don't really have the impartiality to tell.

Our kids are being their usual amazing selves. Being honest and keeping them informed pays dividends.

Feeling very noble. Third day without smoking, a good walk this morning and super healthy breakfast of seedy muesli. Of course I am procrastinating over starting the housework, but then if I was too well organised I wouldn't know myself.

Mr Malaprop meanwhile has been off fighting the bureaucrat admin dragons and has been most successful. Car stuff, tedious but necessary. He is keeping me sane.

Mr Propermal is feeling a lot better. Our transplant co-ordinator warned him today that it is most likely there will be a delay in the transplant. He needs a little more meat on his bones to be strong enough for what is a fairly big old op. Besides he is just about procedured out for the moment. A little respite from poking and prodding will be welcome.

Mrs Propermal is hanging on in there, frustrated by the delay (as are we all) but trying to eat well too and stay jolly. Very tired. Exhaustion led to a lovely lemon roast chicken quietly cooking on its own all through the night, after Mrs fell asleep. It was the size of a sparrow this morning.

Unless Mr Propermal's infection clears up very quickly there will be a delay in the transplant. He had a CTscan and an X-ray today which at least showed there are no pockets of nastiness inside. The nasty bug is called pseudo something, which is the one that likes to live in plastic.

When I visited today his spirits were remarkably good.

As a family, Mr Malaprop and I took the kids to see a great outdoor kinetic art exhibition in Trafalgar Sq. "Strandbeesten" by Theo Jansen. Amazing. Just the sort of experience that makes living in London OK.

Woke this morning with internal Tourette's. "Farty-bum bollox" and much, much worse.

Raining. Decided that sandals would be sensible footwear for the school run. Why?

Felt cold, wet and stupid and this is June.

Mondayitis, methinks.

Or of course it could be stopping smoking.

Very short blog today - it's Sunday. Mr Propermal's dialysis went well yesterday. More tomorow. With that and a blood transfusion he should be doing the tango by tomorrow evening.

"I think the best approach to the next couple of weeks is to be pretty Zen about everything," I remarked when I got home.

"I agree," said Mr Malaprop.

Mr Propermal was just going off to have his first ever haemo-dialysis as I left the hospital today. He had the necessary line inserted. Now he is eating again which is very heartening. His stomach and whole abdominal area had needed a bit of a rest. A build up of urea in his blood gave a different sort of pain (in his muscles), but with luck dialysis should sort that out.

Phew, that was a bit all a bit medical. So many procedures.

Time to distract myself with the very Zen like activity of net surfing.

Mr Propermal is on antibiotics and still uncomfortable.

Mr Malaprop is reassuring me that I needn't write much today.

Transplant can still go ahead on July 5 as long as the infection has cleared up and things go well. Should there be a delay, we have to see it as for the best. Wait and see.

What a day. What a week or so it's been.

I haven't wanted to write about it until now. Mr Propermal, my recipient, has been poorly; very poorly. His dialysis has been absolutely infection free for two and a half years and now it decides to be problematic. OK that's a little anthropomophic, but if I'm going to chat to my kidneys I can surely get personal with a perineal wall. Or plastic tap - which it seems was harbouring the infection.

Well today the offending plastic was removed. Under a local which was a bit spooky. But there has been lots of pain, discomfort, antibiotics, hospitals and each day we have all been convincing ourselves it would be all better.

Drastic action and here's hoping tomorrow it will be much improved. Downside in addition to all the above is a possible delay in the transplant. Dialysis will now be haemo, which on the positive does mean the tummy will have a chance to recover from having 2 and half litres sloshing about inside before the kidney arrives.

Mr and Mrs Propermal are being very brave.

Web and email responses to this blog are so appreciated. Very warming aspect of this process for me is accepting all the good wishes that are coming from around the world.

This is not just about donor and recipient. In this instance we are hugely blessed in all the other people involved.

Revealing more of my weirdy beliefs now. As well as the kidney pep talks I seem to be enlisting the support of dead relatives. My mum in particular, feel as though she thoroughly approves.

"I want you to know I have a good feeling about this."

I'd been feeling just a bit worried but a relaxed chat with Mr Malaprop helped a great deal. Remembering back to having to have my wisdom tooth out, I was far more pathetic about the the idea of the general anaesthetic then. Suppose the drama queen will out on occaision.

Indulging in my hippy side meanwhile by having (silent fortunately) improving chats with my kidneys. A little eccentric but I can't help but believe our autonomic system is susceptible to suggestion.

Last blood tests tomorrow.

Fingers crossed.

Decided that this morning I'd finally start on the super healthy regime I've been promising myself. Ha ha. Two strong coffees, a chocolate croissant and fag later...still how could I read the Sunday papers any other way?

Luckily I recall that all the tests have been done on me whilst eating my normal array of foodstuffs; from the indulgent and sugary to the fresh and fruity. Moderation in all things as my mum used to say.

Besides I am being very conscious of my breathing, so even if I'm not being perfectly well behaved on the ingestion front, it will be an awfully well aerated kidney.

Tomorrow: posture, posture, posture.

Just a normal Saturday. Barbeque in the sun with the family, gorgeous weather.

Read about some great books in the Guardian review supplement but wasn't clever enough to write any of them down.

Feeling a little bit nervous about the operation, but I'm reminding myself that is natural. Now it all seems as though it really will happen which is great. Up until now it has all gone so smoothly, yet in the background there was the concern that something might crop up that would stop us going ahead. The meetings with the surgeon and physician helped enormously. In just a few weeks from now no more dialysis and we'll both be, if not fighting fit, at least able to eat mushrooms.

Extremely pleased that I've managed to post a blog. Not so pleased about the spelling mistakes.

Was in a bit of a funk about it yesterday. Not terribly patient when I can't work technology.

We explained the timing of the operation to the children yesterday; that I'll go in the day before and they'll be able to visit that night. The next night, the day of the transplant no, but I should be well enough to see them the day after. I'll stay over the weekend and come out on Monday, as much because of the World Cup Final on Sunday as wanting to make sure I don't rush back in to normal life.

Reassured them that the operation would not go ahead unless the doctors thought it was very safe and that I am very healthy.

Twice this week when I've mentioned going in to hospital other people who are considering becoming live donors have wanted to know more. This has seemed the right thing to do from the beginning for those of us directly involved, confirmed over time as all the tests came back positive. It now looks as though us going through the process might have a useful knock on effect for other potential donors. Very cool.

"Darling you've every right to feel a bit wibbley".

I suppose I do. Three weeks from today I am giving away one of my kidneys. This time in the morning in 21 days, I'll be in the operating theatre. Only one last blood test next week to check the antibodies in our blood haven't done anything too radical since they were checked last year, and one more administrative hurdle to complete. Hopefully the blood test will be fine, all indications look good and the last bit of admin is a letter from the ethics committee which should be straight forward.

The transplant will take place in the Renal transplant unit of Hammersmith Hospital. Visited the two wards last week and the are lovely and shiney and new and clean. Big relief. No children allowed under 14, so the kids will have to visit in the foyer by the lifts. But that has full length windows and is probably more pleasant than the wards for them anyway.

Feeling only slightly wibbley, mostly very positive and grateful for the support of family and friends. Not long now.

It's now Thursday and I still haven't worked out how to post this blog. Just when I was beginning to feel confident about my grasp of technology.

Trying again.