Today has seemed very, very long. We all lost an hours sleep during the night but Freddie doesn’t seem to care. We were both awake and downstairs watching Match of the Day in our pyjamas with our drinks (milk for him, tea for me) at 4:55am. That’s far too early, I’m sure even milkmen are still sleeping at that hour! And after a morning of helping Rickie play with his toys and an afternoon of celebrating my sister-in-law’s 21st birthday, it’s a relief to have both children in bed and the opportunity to relax in front of the telly before I go up for an early night.

Yesterday’s dialysis left me feeling better than before I went on the machine. While in some ways that does make sense, to me there’s also something a little odd about that. Yes my insides are being ‘cleaned’, but having over 80 litres of your own blood taken out of you, pumped through a machine and shot back into your veins over the space of four hours shouldn’t make you feel good, should it? In the past, dialysis would leave me feeling a bit ‘washed-out’. But there was no lack of energy in the middle of the afternoon, no onset of a headache and no need to nip upstairs for a quick nap. Watching my beloved Tottenham earn a point at Chelsea when I got home might have helped; had the result been any different then my mood and general well-being may have altered, but yesterday was a good day and gives me a sense of positivity about forthcoming dialysis sessions.

I’m not having any fluid taken off me during dialysis at the moment, so that may be a reason why I feel OK after each session. Usually renal patients have to have excess fluid removed from their blood via ultra-filtration, as little or no urine is produced. This is a very important part of the treatment as having too much fluid on the body can cause various other health problems, such as high-blood pressure as a result of the heart generally having to work harder, pumping fluid around the body. This is why it’s important for renal patients to stick to a fluid intake restriction, so as to not overload the body with too much liquid in between dialysis. At the moment I’m still weeing a pretty decent amount so I don’t have to stick to much of a fluid restriction, something I’m taking advantage of while I still can.

It’s back to work tomorrow for me after a great, relaxing week off with the family. Fortunately I’m not due in until 2pm as I’m directing the BBC Look East late bulletin (10:25pm, BBC One, Sky Ch981) and so I’ll get to enjoy a lay in tomorrow morning. That’s one of the advantages of getting up with the kids at 5am – the knowledge that it’s my turn to stay in bed for a while the following day. And while it’s great to get to spend the morning at home (sleeping, in bed), the only real downside to working that shift is not getting back to the house until around 11pm. For some reason the BBC are yet to agree to my request for an 11-3:30 job.

Spoilsports.

This coming week is set to be a bit of a test for Hollie and I, we’re going to find out exactly how this dialysis business is going to fit into our lives. Two kids, a full-time job and 12 hours of treatment to fit into the next seven days seems quite a daunting prospect. We’ll cope, I know we’ll be absolutely fine as we always are. But it’s going to be an insight into what our future is going to be like.

Until that phone call comes anyway…