Lincoln Wing

Big day today. A trip to St. James University Hospital in Leeds as part of R’s transplant assessment. It’s been on my mind for some time! As I am not a fan of driving in big cities we allowed plenty of time to travel and get parked. We thought we would have a while to wait but we were ushered in to the consultation room almost immediately. Apparently 3 people had not shown up for their appointment.

A thorough assessment and opportunity to discuss how R feels about a transplant. A preferred option is a family living donor. R does not want one of his 3 sons to live with only one kidney. However it would take a year of very thorough assessments before that bridge would need to be crossed. It would also screen our 3 young men for any health issues even if they did not proceed. 

That aside R has declined since dialysis started and may not do well in the stress test to see if it would be sensible to risk the transplant. The consultant described it as fit enough to climb a mountain!

She was concerned about his upper body weakness and was surprised his GP or renal consultant had not requested an MRI of his upper body! Which has developed since starting dialysis. She will request that he gets one in York. Very frustrating from my point of view. All a lot to take in and think about.

Grabbed this view of old and new parts of the hospital as we exited. A shame we travelled back to the cloudy skies at home.