Kayak 4 Kidney: January 2010

Sunday 31 January 2010

Kayak session

Paddled out today did a couple of hours of continuous paddling, nice and calm, sun shining on the water, with a slight swell. Experiencing some spring and neap tides this week so further to pull the kayak, not a problem something I'll have to get used to with this leg.
Started to alter the insulin this week dropped the lantus last night to 16 which is only 2 units to start with; bit by bit.
Changed breakfast slightly, from eating weetabix to 100gms of Oatmeal along with the usual. I gave myself 5 units of Humolog which brought my BS to 9 from 6.8 2 hours later just before going into the water, I ate a flapjack and drank 200mls of lucoszade sport during session.
My hands were to cold to test my BS and would of been difficult to get any blood from my fingers.
Once I got back in my BS was 18 so this was obviously to much intake of food and not due to the liver pushing out Glycogen although it may of done if there was not enough insulin in my system. As the day went on I corrected this by injections.

One of the Beach huts was open when I got back to shore, with the smell of sausages and beefburgers cooking, that was welcoming on a cold day, but I didn't get any because I had no cash on me so had to settle for what I had in the car which was the healthy version, (dam).

Tuesday 26 January 2010

Went in the Bay today for some training, must try to get in as much as possible now, at least 4 times a week. spent the morning paddling up and down the bay getting the feel of the kayak and spending time with different maneuvers.
Its been a long road since leaving the hospital after transplants, to where I am now, and still a way to go to be able to complete this trip; but I will get there.
A number of things drive me on, one of them being that, so much can go wrong physically if I just sit back and do nothing, but that's pretty far down the list.

The sea today was slight with a NNE (14) wind, it was a bit cold around 2 or 3, I think, but when your paddling you keep warm, unless I fell in of course, and I don't really want to do that at the moment, not a good idea to get the plaster wet.

Coming inshore I got greeted by a small dog, it jumped up on the Kayak and started licking my face, was it glad to see me or was it the salt. a good end to a mornings paddle.

Monday 25 January 2010

Route Plan

South West Stage

The yellow markers are the start and end of each stage, the red markers are weypoints or landing points

Kidney (Hemodialysis) procedure

It can be very hard keeping your fluid intake down to 1/2 a litre over the course of two days, and you soon realise how little that is.

Hi thanks for visiting my Blog.

I've been a type 1 diabetic since 1978 after receiving a medical discharge from the royal Navy. Although on leaving the navy I was told, that career wise would I be limited to less strenuous work; I got a job as a plasterers labourer.

Apart from a break in the late 90's by going to university, studying Applied Psychology and Computing, this became my trade, and went on to cover venetian plastering and looking towards Buon Fresco and restoration.

In January 2007 I received a double organ transplant, Kidney/pancreas after spending 2 years on CAPD/Hemodialysis. Unfortunately the pancreas became infected while in hospital, this caused many other problems which almost proved fatal. One of these was a burst Aorta and I received an Aortic graft. After leaving hospital I fell done some stairs and fracture some bones in my left foot and now awaiting an operation.

I have ambition to complete a charity Kayak around the coast of the UK. I would like to show to the general public and other transplant patients that no matter what happens after your transplant you can go on to enjoy life being as active, as much as you like, and not to let people put restrictions on what you can and can't do. your in the driving seat put your foot down and always search for what makes you happy. Contributing as much as you can along the way.