Jasmine had her dialysis clinic at Great Ormond Street today. It was five weeks since the last one, which is the longest time that we have had between clinics.
We phoned up last week to check whether Jasmine had done all her pre-transplant work-up. She still needed an electrocardiogram (ECG) and an echocardiogram (echo), and we got an appointment at 9:30 am on Monday. To avoid trying to take two buggies through the London rush hour we got up and out of our flat early to get on the tube for 8:15. We went for a lovely coffee and almond croissant until it was time for our appointment and then went to the Cardiac department. Unfortunately we had to wait a long time for the ECG and the echo machine broke down.
The ECG involved sticking ten electrodes to Jasmine’s chest, which she tried to peel off as fast as the nurse could stick them on. The results were normal, and Jasmine helped to peel the stickers off.
When they got the echo machine working again there was another battle with Jasmine to get some different electrodes stuck on. The technician couldn’t get a clear scan, so went to get a more senior sonographer. The senior sonographer turned on the TV, tuned in to CBeebies and had the scan done in five minutes. Jasmine’s heart looked normal.
During the echo Ruth had to take Calista to her hospital for the results of her scan that she had in July. Everything was normal, and she was discharged, which is great news.
After that we had the usual dialysis clinic. Jasmine is growing well. We had already done the the exit site, so the nurse had the great idea of taking a swab and doing it at home. Jasmine threw up everywhere while getting her bloods done, which was rather messy.
The consultant was very appreciative of our graph of weights and blood pressures, which was nice. Most people give us a strange look. When we told her about Jasmine joining in while we do our yoga she said that she would love to be a fly on the wall in our house!