Quarante-quatre

I give thanks for Prêt a Manger's hot pots of delight...just the thing to perk one up on a wet cold trudge through the city taking advantage of some small retail opportunities! It would have been a great morning to stay in bed after a disturbed and painful night, and gratitude was in short supply when my alarm woke me, but I did give thanks for choosing to travel to the hospital by train and bus across the city for a different journey experience and fresh views to feast my eyes on. What a beautiful place to live!

There was more walking involved in the day than someone with fibromyalgia and arthritis would prefer, but I give thanks for very productive meetings with medical professionals regarding renal matters. I was told it's now OK for me to occasionally use anti-inflammatory cream on my sore bits and enquiries will be made to the pharmacist about CBD oil. The dietician advises my blood tests show I can cut down on some of my pills and my occasional food sins aren't doing me any harm while the consultant will tell the staff to ignore any weight fluctuations as if I put on a pound or two it's pies not pee, boost my EPO to see if it gets my haemoglobin up to a more workable level and see if there is any progress on finding me a regular treatment slot somewhere so I can better plan my life. All this made me really rather happy as you can imagine...but just as I was leaving she said she'd heard I'd been asking about holidays and had I any plans, and I mumbled about cost and advance planning and Brexit uncertanties putting paid to those ideas. And then she said something that dialysis patients can usually only dream of...she said 'You know with your results if you wanted a long weekend I wouldn't have problem with you taking a day off now and then.' A day off, as in no dialysis!!! It's like a fairy tale...you expect to have more treatment as time goes on, not less. And though I accept one day this will probably happen to me, I am indescribably grateful for this wonderful blessing in the meantime. I give great thanks for the little miracles that happen in my body sometimes....and for the happy chemicals coursing through it since I had this news.