Hi guys, Kati again – I also wanted to write tonight, just to give my side of the journey, too.  As Oli’s Dad has already said, Oli is back on E ward tonight and looking pretty rough. 

So far since his hospital discharge, Oli and alternating family members have been taking him back to Harefield each morning in order for bloods to be taken to let the docs know what his Tac (the immunosuppressant) levels are.  On Christmas Eve the doc phoned and and said that Oli’s level was 5.something and gave the instruction to effectively double the dose.  As I understand it, the Tac level they are aiming for is around 10, so doubling it makes some kind of sense, I guess.

It didn’t make sense to Oli’s system, from late Christmas Eve Oli began to feel particularly tired and nauseous.  We weren’t too worried, he’d been doing a lot more activity in the previous few days and we were all thinking he’d maybe overdone things. 

Christmas morning started slowly for us which is particularly unusual for me, I am an eternal child and still wake up around 5 eagerly looking to see if Father Christmas has been.  This year, however, I had it on good authority that Father Christmas was not going to visit me but would make up for it next.  Oli woke me on Christmas morning with a cup of tea and a cuddle, that’s worth any Christmas stocking to me – although I did get a stocking as a matter of fact.  It contained a loofah, Father Christmas had apparently had short notice and all the best stocking fillers had gone so he only had a loofah and a few bits ‘n’ pieces left over.  Like I said, he’ll make it up to me next year!

As Christmas Day wore on it became pretty obvious that Oli was struggling.  He felt so tired and so sick and so sad that he couldn’t enjoy the Christmas he’d wished for.  Of course to us, it was just amazing that he was with us, nothing could spoil our day.  By this point I was convinced his body was struggling with the Tac levels, his temperature was fine, his spirometry (lung function) was fine, there were no numbers that were ‘out’.

This morning Oli woke up and was sick before he left for hospital, he was sick on the way to hospital and he was sick at hospital – it was fairly obvious they were going to keep him in.  Later this afternoon his blood results came in.  His Tac level was 39!  No wonder he felt so awful. 

The doc who saw him is fantastic.  She said exactly what I was thinking – other than the effects of the increased Tac, his body was fine.  Of course he was tired and feeling rough – anyone who’s had a morning being ill knows that you’re not at your sparkling best the following afternoon.  They put him on a saline drip to rehydrate him and IVd an anti-sickness drug straight into him as he couldn’t take anything orally.

I’m fairly convinced this won’t be a long stay, it may extend to over the weekend but we are happy that as soon as the Tac is under control Oli will be bouncing back out of those hospital doors and home in a jiffy.

Unfortunately, Oli is also a complete dingbat.  His phone is out of battery at the minute and he’s left the charger at the flat, this would be easily resolved except that his keys are with him in hospital and my keys are in Dazz’s pocket while he hurls himself down the Alps. D’oh.  This means that temporarily he can’t read your comments but I promise that will be rectified by tomorrow, honest injun.

This is 3 dodgy Christmases in a row now, although at least this is now the first of many Christmases that we can spend together, yay!

Hope you’ve all had a wonderful few days x