PRN Films

21/08/2024

You can now get Behind the Mask via Trademe.

Made in New Zealand during the Covid Pandemic from interviews recorded with doctors, nurses, paramedics and other healthcare workers. This film is the definitiv...

07/08/2024

First batch of DVD’s ready to go. I’ll send invoices to those that have already ordered and do a mail out next week. Comment if you haven’t already and want one. $25 plus shipping.

25/06/2024

I’m thinking of doing a small run of DVD’s of Behind the Mask. They’ll be about $25 each (plus shipping). Like if you would be interested.

29/08/2023

Cr mid 90’s, stable. 10 weeks post op A couple of milestones this week.
Firstly my prednisone (steroids) were cut to 5mg per day - that’s maintenance and likely as low as the dose will go. Tacrolimas was also cut, from 3mg BD to 2mg BD as levels were a bit high. My neutrophil count was a bit low, so I may be a bit over immune suppressed - repeat bloods on Thursday, I’ve had quite a lot of nausea which may be the mycophenylate, I guess that’s the next one to cut. I went out with a friend today to have a trek around Dunedin’s op shops (I love op shops). A couple of nice finds, but the main achievement was that I managed a flight of stairs for the first time. It was the old stairs by the hospice shop on the one way south that used to connect to an overbridge. Even bigger thing - there was no railing, so I had a crutch hanging on my left arm and that hand on the wall, standard crutch position in my right hand, then crouch-good leg-bad leg. Only nearly fell once. Yay. Today’s pic is a cafeteria. A cafeteria deep underground in a cave system in (I think) Nevada.

15/08/2023

If you are a person who makes asparagus p*e - I.e., urine that smells unpleasant after eating asparagus. If you then donate a kidney to someone who doesn’t make asparagus p*e, will they subsequently start and why. I’ve done a little bit of research on this one, and it’s not as simple as you might think. Today’s pic is a sleeping dog, taken in Egypt.

14/08/2023

Eight weeks post op today. Creatinine done twice last week both in the 90’s. Steroids cut to 10mg a day. Creatinine a small bump from the 80’s the previous week, but to be expected post stent removal. Now having bloods just once a week and seeing specialist every second week. Managing well on the crutches as long as I don’t have to carry anything. Still feel a little off balance when I’m on them, especially on the slippery deck outside. Getting stronger every day - for the first time this morning I was able to consistently flex my knee against gravity. I know that doesn’t sound like much, but it means my hamstrings are getting stronger. Todays pic is taken in a Moscow metro station. All the central Moscow stations are very grand, full of art works, statues and spectacular design.

10/08/2023

Now only having bloods twice a week and seeing the Nephrologists once a week on a Monday to get results. Saw physio today who was really pleased and am trialling crutches, which is a big step (haha). Still mostly using the frame until I get my confidence up.

04/08/2023

Double J stent removed this morning. It’s called a double J stent because it has a curvy coiled bit at each end - one end sits in the pelvis of the kidney, the other in the bladder. It’s taken out by threading a video cystoscope up the urethra - with the help of some anaesthetic jelly - although I can tell you it doesn’t numb the prostate and passing the cystoscope through that made my eyes water a bit - now I know why the elderly gentlemen I catheterise for urinary retention get ‘that’ look on their faces as the catheter goes through 😂.

31/07/2023

Last week’s bloods were just reported as “Fine”, had an appointment with the specialist today and got the actual figures. Monday CR 84, Wednesday Cr 89, Saturday Cr 85. Wow! How amazing is that. Apparently they may go up a bit after I have the J stent removed on Friday. Something I didn’t know is that when they implant the ureter in to the bladder they don’t do anything special, they just poke a hole in the dome of the bladder and shove the ureter through and suture it in place on the outside. There is a little bit of ureter hanging loose in the inside of the bladder and because there is no valve you inevitably get a bit of reflux… what in me caused all the problems in the first place.
I had to get a prescription filled today, so took the time to call in at the after hours GP in Filleul St. It was lovely to see my colleagues there and show them that I’m still alive.
Today’s pic is a car racing past the KGB building in Moscow.

28/07/2023

Back in the wheelchair for the first time in a month to go to the FIFA women’s World Cup soccer Argentina vs South Africa. Wasn’t sure what access would be like, so played it safe. Turns out the wheelchair seats are some of the best in the house one layer up mid field. Not generally a big sport fan, but it was lovely to get some crowd energy and an exciting second half as SA started to tire and Argentina began pushing. Thanks Nina Molteno, Tess, Chris & Kate Bristow.

27/07/2023

Sinéad O'Connor R.I.P. (8 December 1966 – 26 July 2023)

27/07/2023

Cr “Fine”. I’m still having bloods three times a week, but only going to clinic on a Monday - the team will call me if there is a broblem or anything needing to be tweaked. Mobility continues to improve - have now graduated to a low walking frame.

24/07/2023

Cr 92. Five weeks post transplant. Dialysis machine heading out the door. Thanks Marvin and team for all your support over the past year. Mobility slowly improving, bloods stable, so not a lot else to report.

19/07/2023

Cr 91. Two trips out yesterday, one for bloods and shopping, the other to Mosgiel to have a go in the hydrotherapy pool at their shiny new swimming complex. It was lovely, warm, easy mobility access and the water let me try walking without a frame. Even managed an encore trip to an op shop, but so wiped out I’m only posting about it today.

15/07/2023

Cr 82. With my first transplant my Creatinine got down to 88 on one occasion but not any lower, so this is literally the best my kidney function has been. Ever. My bladder capacity is slowly improving from the 150ml it was just after the transplant, and I think I may be starting to concentrate urine at night so I’m needing to p*e less at night - something my last transplant never quite got the hang of, meaning I was up a couple of times a night most nights. ‘Learning to p*e again’. A shout out to my colleague and friend Jan, Who is having some pretty major neurosurgery in Christchurch this week.

13/07/2023

I have a slightly soft spot for cola, I don’t drink a huge amount - probably a bottle a week. Whilst I was on dialysis I wasn’t supposed to have it at all - it’s chock full of phosphate. I generally drink the diet versions with Aspartame as the sweetener. One thing I noticed as my transplant was starting to fade was that I would get a residual Aspartame taste (a sort of sweet but bitter taste) in my mouth for longer and longer after I had drunk it. While I was on dialysis it wouldn’t fade until the next session. Now I can drink it again with no residual taste. Not 100% sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.

12/07/2023

Scars are like tattoos, only with better stories. This one sure has some stories to tell.

12/07/2023

This is the gadget that does nerve conduction studies. The bit that looks like a taser is, basically a taser. It fires electric shocks through the skin via the electrodes or via a needle. I’m not a fan of electric shocks. I had lots of them. So, the results. I have a pressure injury high up on my sciatic nerve. Likely from lying on it on the operating table combined with pushing and pulling and retractors from the operation.
The good news is that it will get better and some of the muscles at the top of my leg are already improving (they can apparently tell this from the type of conduction happening). The bad news is that the more distal bits (my foot and ankle) have some actual nerve fibre damage and will take longer to settle possibly 1-2 years as the nerves have to grow back from scratch and only grow a mm per day. Hopefully the proximal muscles will be enough for me to walk and get back to stuff.

10/07/2023

https://theoatmeal.com/comics/plane?fbclid=IwAR2dxyaGnEiwf4omsfxEPiAUq_HXynZb10MFLrmqLrkZQvBqeDsMECBvdOM_aem_Ae_gk7yBjsHKsUH33kCZ858nUpw_oGGxiEzzeNIy1cKI3rVr18XdfDdhUqHma4SlLSg

This is a comic about a plane crash.

10/07/2023

Cr 94. A quiet weekend reading, watching TV and napping. I’m reading Bono’s U2 autobiography. He’s a good writer and full of philosophical contradictions which makes for an interesting read a step above “When we were recording The Joshua Tree we… it was hilarious, you had to be there”. Now mobilising out of the house on high gutter frame. Nerve conduction studies later in the week to get an idea of how long I’ll be lame for. Every now and then I find myself juggling dialysis days in my head before I realise I haven’t needed any for 3 weeks now 😀😃😄😁😆🥰

06/07/2023

Cr 106. Wow, what great support we’ve had from Dunedin Hospital today. After camping in the MRI machine for a week yesterday (I nearly pitched a tent I was in there so long) I was keen to get the results. There was only a provisional report, but looked ok. An hour after I get home John (Nephrologist) calls me with the final report - significant oedema of the R buttock and a narrowing of the femoral notch. A little bit of fluid around the kidney (common) and a bit of blood clot deeper in the pelvis. So nothing sinister from either the kidney or the nerve point of view. Plan: Wait it out, should get better. Then this afternoon Emma, the community physiotherapist came to see me. Had the most thorough exam yet of my leg and she gave me a bunch of exercises to start strengthening it up again. It may take a few months to get better, but signs are positive - hyper aesthetic, some movement, fasciculation of muscles are all good.
Finally, after drinking heaps yesterday my creatinine is back down again. Suspect I was getting a bit dry and the new super-efficient kidney was choking slightly. Phew. Upwards and onwards (after I’ve done my exercises of course).
Today’s pic is (I think) the ceiling of an expo centre in Moscow in the 80’s. It was the space hall - basically a huge room full of derelict bits of satellite.

05/07/2023

Cr 119. A fairly long day at the hospital today. First my creatinine was up a bit at 119. Various theories as to why, most likely is the Tacrolimas. Tac is a drug with its own in built irony. Not only is it one of the best immune supressants out there, but it is also toxic to kidneys. The levels were a bit high last week, and this may be a result of that. Another possibility is that I’m a bit dry. Transitioning from fluid restricted to a good wash through in a matter of days is a bit of a shock to the system and I’ve been having trouble keeping up. Newly transplanted kidneys are particularly responsive to falls in fluid volume. In a normal kidney it just works a bit harder and makes more concentrated urine. A newly transplanted kidney has a bit of Acute Tubular Necrosis and can’t do that so well, so coughs and splutters a bit and the creatinine goes up. Rejection is also a possibility, easily treatable. So, back to daily bloods.
Next, my leg has stalled, so I had a nephrologists neurological exam, a discussion with a neurologist and a repeat MRI looking at the whole nerve tract from L5/S1 through the pelvis and on to the limbo sacral nerve plexus. 2h in an MRI scanner with bonus views of the transplant. Good job I don’t get claustrophobic. Should get results tomorrow, but signs suggest a diffuse injury.
Today’s pic is sunset over the Mediterranean.

03/07/2023

Cr 95. When I was a junior doctor I did quite a lot of looking after post op patients, and I developed this theory that excluding day 1, the odd numbered days post op are the worst, especially Day 3. of course most of my patients went home at about day 5, so I’m reevaluating it - it should probably be prime numbered days 3,5,7,11,13 etc. Today is a pretty good day - now down to three times a week bloods and prednisone dose cut from 30mg a day to 25mg a day. Hopefully that will reduce the tremor a bit. You will have noticed that Creatinine is up a sniff. Don’t worry, it is within the error of the test, which has a Standard Deviation of 7 (Hmmm two mathematics comments in one post - that’s a concern). Also I’m a little dry and learning to drink more again and newly transplanted kidneys are super responsive to fluid volume. Today’s pic, a fluke from Florence.

02/07/2023

One or two of you may remember me discovering one of my favourite novels, Jonathan Carrol’s first novel The Land of Laughs after my first transplant. When I discovered that his 20th novel was coming out this year I decided to save it to read around my new transplant. It was as complex, enigmatic and as beautifully written as any of his novels, and in a lovely circularity obliquely referred to characters from The Land of Laughs and some of his other novels.

01/07/2023

You don’t realise how easy mobility is until some part of that complicated cascade falls over and you can’t do it anymore. A squashed nerve root on the operating table and a partially weak and numb leg has in an instant tipped me in to a maze of wheelchair transfers, ramps and high gutter frame walkers. Because I can’t safely stand without the frame there is almost nothing I can’t do without help. To make mattest worse, the steroids have kicked in, giving me a tremor, muscle weakness and this weird vibraty feeling at my core - like I don’t just have a bruit, but I am a bruit. On a more positive note, I have some movement in my toes and some fuelling in my foot, and Kate reckons she could see tension in my right gluteus where there was none a few days ago, so I guess my career as a stripper may not be over after all. Todays pic was taken in the Mediterranean and is called A New Life or Birth of a Cloud.

30/06/2023

My last external line (dialysis tunnelled line) came out this morning, leaving me a mass of bruises, scabs and sticky dot residue.
Peripheral lines - check
Art line - check
Triple lumen central line - check
Vascath dialysis line - check
Urinary catheter - check (sorry no pictures)
You can also see my old shut down dialysis fistula from when I was a kid on dialysis in the 80’s in the left picture.
I have a serious bruise on my abdomen,but it’s hard to photograph myself without standing on my head and I’m not quite up to that yet.
There is still one thing remaining - a J stent, this goes from inside the bladder and up in to the new ureter protecting the anastomosis, it is taken out by a urologist at 6 weeks.
Now we start in to our new regime. Instead of dialysis 3x a week overnight, it’s blood tests and appointments every day at 830 in the morning, with a bonus mid stream urine spec on Mondays. Everything has gone swimmingly this week so they’ve given me the weekend off - apparently acute rejection episodes are down from 30% in the first year to 7% on Basiliximab. Hoping to be good enough to see Nick Mason’s Saucerful of Secrets in Melbourne in September and The Chicks in Christchurch.

27/06/2023

Home safe, although must admit to being a little emotional, although that’s probably the high dose steroids currently at 30mg a day. Donor has done some maths and has worked out that their weight has gone down by 3Kg. My weight has gone up by a similar amount. Allowing half a kilo for fluid shifts that means it’s a massive decakidney weighing about 2.5Kg 🤣. First Dunedin clinic tomorrow at 830am. Got at least a month of daily bloods and appointments, then gradually reducing. Give us a few days to sort things out, then will be open for short visits.

26/06/2023

Creatinine 89
Still dropping

25/06/2023

Discharge today, but it’s going to be a slow day with lots of waiting. For those of you who like words limaceous means snail-like, so it’ll be a limaceous day. Kim going to a motel in Christchurch for a night or two to give them a chance to organise mobility aids for me at home - a shower chair, a wheel chair and a high gutter frame. So first we have utopia wait for the OT to organise that stuff, and find out how long it will take so we know when we can head home - it would be a real pain to get home without them as I’d have no way to get in to the house. Foot and key still very weak, but getting little showers of pins and needles which I hope is nerves starting to work again. MRI showed exacerbation of existing L5/S1 (at the top of the sacrum) nerve root (where the nerves leave the spine) compression by swelling. The nurse noticed today that I had bruising on my sc***um - which is apparently quite common in men, but less so in women. It might be contributing. Anyway, it should all settle with time as the swelling goes down. Also waiting for prescriptions - I am temporarily taking insulin to counter the sugar raising effects of the Tacrolimus and the prednisone. And finally, my last tube - my dialysis line, will come out today. They are a bit of a fiddle to take out as they have a gore-tex cuff that your tissues grow in to to seal them in. But after all that, I’m out today. Today’s pic is a snail at Ephesus in Turkey taken on what my kids call The Big Trip. The Big Trip 2.0 is already in the works.

24/06/2023

Creatinine 96. My donor was discharged from hospital today, still pretty sore, but doing ok. I would have been going too if my leg hadn’t been olaying up. In the lead up to the surgeries we were both convinced that something would go wrong and delayed or even cancelled things. For example could have mistakenly ticked the box on their surgical consent form that said “Tick this box if you would like to have your tissues returned to you after the surgery”. Oops as they hand them a brown paper bag on discharge. Not quite sure why that box is on a transplant consent form. Lol. I have to say, that I still don’t quite believe we got there. I will be grateful for this amazing gift for the rest of my life. After all they did something they didn’t have to do with very little personal gain and a lot of probable pain, whereas the potential gain for me is massive. That takes a huge amount of commitment and Aroha. Today’s pic is a multiple exposure of Lake Wanaka at sunset. It’s one of the first pictures I took that I still really like.