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2008 - July 11th - Friday

JH called into the League of Friends’ Fruiterers in the Hospital and was informed by one volunteer that JH had been seen sat on her sofa with Kathy – in an article in the Extra, the local free paper published on Thursdays.  JH said that she and Kathy were ‘encouraging the others’ to remind everyone that they had two: unfortunately this was a totally inappropriate remark because the volunteer’s husband had been a patient in the Renal Unit for 20 years, and just been put on dialysis.  JH said that she realised that her encouragement was ‘simplistic’, but JH did not think that this lady was too dismayed at JH’s words, as said lady (name forgotten) did congratulate JH for donating a kidney.  [This lady had actually been at the LoF’s AGM the previous evening, and so JH should have remembered that her husband was very ill.]  When JH reached the WRVS Tea Bar, to do her shift, she found that a copy of the Herald’s article had been left in the Tea Bar.  JH took this home, and rang Jane Moss to thank her for leaving it for JH to collect; Jane felt sure that any other interested parties would have seen the article by now, as she had delivered it on Wednesday; furthermore, Jane said that she would bring in her most recent issue of the Extra as – by Sod’s Law – JH had not had one through her own door this week.


 

2008 - July 12th - Saturday

JH received a telecom from the Skinners.  JH reported this conversation very fully in an email, dated the following Sunday, 13th July, to Sarah Stacey at Derriford Hospital, and so has copied in the text of this email:-

Dear Sara, I expect that you have seen the article in Last Monday's Herald, however, I just wanted to point you in the direction of www.echo-news.co.uk and type in 'Kathy Skinner' for your search to find the article about JH and K, in Kathy's local paper: I think both Reporters have done a great job in sorting through all JH's chattering, and Kathy's tears.
 
I regret that Kathy's progress is still very stormy: she got some Antibiotics from my GP, and went home a day earlier than planned, because she felt another UTI coming on.  Furthermore, a cyst had been spotted on a scan - which she had done in Cyprus because she was so unwell, and which the RLH apparently had seen on a scan in November last (but not mentioned).   On her return from Cyprus (before coming down to Plymouth), she went to the RLH;  she was kept in overnight, with a view to having the cyst drained but, when the Registrar did his round in the morning, he decided the risk (of drainage) was greater than the benefits, and Kathy 'flounced out' (JH's words) because she was so distressed: she did tell me that she wrote a letter of apology for her behaviour towards the Registrar. 

She (KS) and Ralph are rather fed up with the differences of opinion expressed by the Clinicians, although JH did express the thought that one has to allow differences of professional opinion, based on undoubtedly sound clinical judgement (as happened with Derriford's 'refusal' to do an invasive angiogram pre-operatively on JH), and of course the passage of time, and repeat bouts of symptoms occurring - change the situation from ‘day to day’.
 
Upon further questioning, K told JH that she had a lymphocele; Kathy also told JH that, when she saw her Clinicians at the RLH on Friday 4th July, that they did wonder if she had 'the bug which had made her so ill when she was having dialysis' (an incident which took place before JH's offer of a kidney).  Finally Kathy rustled up the name of this bug - CMV.  This information greatly concerned me, of course.
 
It was arranged that, now, Kathy would have the lymphocele drained - on Wednesday last 9th July - but, having got up at the crack of dawn, and motoring down to the RLH in the rush hour, the aspiration was not done, because the Transplant Ward was so busy.  So they went home again, and came back at the crack of dawn, on Thursday 10th: the drainage was then performed.
 
Yesterday evening, both Ralph and Kathy spoke to JH in turns.  Their first query was how to spell ‘lymphocele’, so that they could 'look it up': JH was rather concerned that they were frightened to death by their web search, as there were some very alarming case histories recorded in the first pages of the thousands of hits (not to mention lymphoceles in penises - to add to JH's SPAM email on this subject!). 
 
They also said that the initial drainage was 200ml, and that K has been instructed to drain and measure the contents of a drainage bag attached to the drain; Kathy reported to JH that there was about 100ml a day and they thought this was rather a lot, but JH told K that - when you consider that the human body is made up of 90+% water (have I got that right?) that it's not very much at all.
 
I have had a reassuring email tonight: "we had an invitation to a Barbeque today which was very enjoyable.  . . . Still loosing (sic) fluid!'  This Husband and Wife Team never cease to amaze me in their determination to keep going.  I'm glad to say that there has been no further mention of CMV.
 
I also am enclosing an extraneous snippet from my Donation Diary, which I think might interest you, as you are the person responsible for communicating with live donors and their recipients.  The story starts with K, R and JH meeting a load of K's cronies from Cyprus (either visiting England, or having returned to England) in Yelverton:- here, JH inserted the third and forth paragraphs of the Diary entry for 7th July 2008 into the email.



 
 
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