Happy New Year Everyone!

The New Year got off to a great start as I received a phone call on New Year's Eve to say that my blood results are the best they have ever been! My creatinine was 161 (previously 187, and when on dialysis in the 1000's) My Haemoglobin was 12, and my White Blood Count was normal. This is being closely monitored at the moment as they have reintroduced the drug (in a small dose) that made it go haywire before! This meant extra trips to the hospital for tests, but it is worth it in the long run, because as soon as I am settled on the drugs they will hopefully reduce my steroids and I will look less like a chipmonk! Lets have a quick game of spot the difference....




I spent New Years at my Brother's in-laws house which would not have been possible had i not received my transplant, as I would have had to attend dialysis with it being a Wednesday night! I had a great night, we had a takeaway and saw in the new year with some champers! Click here to see some pics of the evening!

While I'm here I also wanted to tell you that I received a reply from 10 Downing street regarding my Battlefront campaign and Organ Donation.

The letter wasn't written by the Prime Minister himself... but it did say "Mr Brown was sorry to hear of your health difficulties."

It went on to discuss the suggested opt out system...

"In its report, the Taskforce does not recommend introducing an opt out system for organ donation in the UK at the present time. The Taskforce felt that whilst it would have the potential to deliver benefits, it would present significant challenges that may not be necessary in order to deliver the desired increase in organ donation rates.

The Government has accepted this, but in the light of the Taskforce’s view that donor rates can be optimised successfully without a change in the legal framework, has set a challenge to see 20 million people on the Organ Donor Register by 2010 working towards 25million by 2013."

The reply was useful and it seems that the government are committed to increasing the number of people joining the Organ Donor Register...

"The Government is firmly committed to seeing organ donation rates rise significantly and is fully supporting the implementation of the recommendations in the Taskforce’s first report. A large programme of work is already underway, which includes:

• Each Trust appointing an organ donation ‘champion’ to discuss organ donation with families as part of end of life care where appropriate;
• Recruiting new donor transplant co-ordinators across the UK; and
• Establishing a UK-wide network of organ retrieval teams across the UK to ensure timely and high quality organ removal from viable donors."

I was however disappointed that the letter did not mention the campaign whatsoever,
No mention of Battlefront, nothing!!!

Oh well a reply is better than being ignored I suppose!

Bye for now x