As I mentioned in the last post I had concerns about my blood levels of anti rejection medication nothing that I could put my finger on, but I felt it needed checking since I stopped taking medication for the bout of shingles.
So I went to my GP surgery as I was advised by Harefields transplant clinic and provided a box and a form for them to use to send the sample.
The bloods were taken by the practice nurse who had experience of sending bloods in the past and they were sent to Harefields to be checked and reported or were they.......??
I rang the clinic on the Friday after the Thursday they were taken the blood had not arrived I was asked to ring on the Wednesday following,still no bloods.
I was most annoyed, I contacted the GP surgery to find out that the staff had no idea about what had happened and as the nurse who had taken the blood was away there was no way to find out I was informed.
I took issue with the head receptionist and asked who had sent it to the post office as it was an important sample and poor levels could compromise my transplant.I was informed that it had not been sent to the post office but it had gone in the Christmas post sent from the surgery! Mixed in with the Christmas cards and presents being sent around the country at this festive time of the year.
As you can imagine I didn't feel very festive about the prospect.
I made a appointment to have the bloods repeated the next day with the same nurse, and I made a complaint to the practice manager.I secured a reassurance from her that the blood sample would in future be sent by registered post for next day delivery. It seems that it costs extra to send, and because no one was authorised to pay it was just put in the normal post by the staff.
I was shocked and astounded!!
I just hope that some poor child doesn't come down an Christmas morning to find, instead of a present from Santa, a plain brown box addressed to Harefields immunology with a second class stamp on!!
The blood arrived on the Friday and it was bad news.
As I suspected the levels were below the recommended minimum to prevent organ rejection!!
Thanks to the swift attention of the staff at the transplant clinic I was able to adjust the dose up to improve the levels in the blood to the therapeutic range with a daily 500mcg tablet addition. Then it was a mad rush to get a repeat prescription to order to get some more to cover the Christmas period.More bloods will be needed for levels before the year is done but I hope I can breath easy once more just in time for turkey!!
On a more positive note I had been contacted on twitter by a lady wanting to interview someone with information about organ donation and experience of transplantation.I was happy to answer her questions about my experiences and pointed her in the direction of LLTGL and NHSBT for further information and other resources such as Donna's Dream a group campaigning for a opt-out system for organ donation as she was interested in this,due to the current debate on the subject.
She has now published her report on her blog and is encouraging people to sign the register.
This is being shared around The University of Central Lancashire in Preston and will form part of her work as a student of Journalism
I would encourage people to read it
The lady is Emily Childs and her blogs is "Someone had to Say It"
Please share it so that more people will become organ donors in the future!
So that many more people can enjoy a new life
I would just like to say ✞ Happy Christmas✞ to all my readers
My prayers and respect go to my donor and his family
who allowed me to celebrate this year in good health.
♥
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Thank You :-)