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2007 - December 3rd - Monday

JH’s appointment to give blood today is cancelled: therefore JH will no longer be able to donate blood as she will be outside the cut-of time of 6/12 from the date of discharge from Hospital after having a major operation (and is too old to be a potential donor after a longer time period).  JH had rung up the National Blood Service (NBS) a few weeks beforehand to make the appointment, and an appointment had been arranged for today, just within the 6/12 time-limit; JH had obtained written email confirmation from Ray, that JH had NOT received a transfusion during her operation.  However, JH realised that she must ‘admit’ to the NBS that she is now taking an antihypertensive, zanidip: when the personnel - at Derriford Hospital’s NBS Department - were informed about JH taking this medication, JH was told that this particular drug did disrupt calcium ‘utilisation’ in the body, and so JH’s blood would not be acceptable for transfusion into someone else.  And, it would not have been a very good idea for JH go give blood whilst she was undergoing a course of acupuncture - apparently!


 

2007 - December 7th - Friday

JH had long chat with Kathy on phone: she had returned home on Wednesday evening, 5th December.  Kathy had been given a definitive diagnosis of osteoporosis to account for her pain – which surprised nobody – together with an ‘arthritic spine’.  Kathy had received an injection which took three hours apparently: JH assumed that this was not an epidural injection as JH had originally surmised, but rather an infusion of some sort of NSAID given intravenously.  Ralph is due to have his hernia operation (again) on 14th December.

2007 - December 14th - Friday

JH rang Kathy to chat about communications with the media: in this morning’s Herald JH read a report about Barbara Ryder, a Pre-operative Assessment Nurse at Derriford, who had made an altruistic donation of a kidney; she is only the second person to donate a kidney to a stranger since the HTA’s change in the Law - to allow ‘stranger donation’ – came into force on 1 September 2006.  Kathy is still eager for JH to participate in communications with the Daily Mail, but JH had already suggested some time ago that perhaps the moment had past for K and JH to be seen in the photos of donor and recipient in their night attire, and that perhaps – in order to ‘encourage the others’ - we could put ourselves forward during National Transplant Week to be held in 2008.  Kathy was no longer taking morphine for her pain – so that she could act as chauffeur for Ralph who was about to attend Southend Hospital as a day case admission.

Kathy also mentioned that Bill and Ann, friends from Cyprus, would be in Plymouth at the end of June into July 2008, and that Kathy and Ralph would like to stay with JH during that time. 



 
 
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