Badly-behaved intestines and a recalcitrant liver

I've been at Kings today for my weekly clinic appointment. I've been quite anxious about it as despite having felt the diarrhoea was settled yesterday in the early hours and restarting normal eating, I had been finding that I was still needing to go to the loo once or twice an hour, although it was definitely not like the day before. That was accompanied by some cramping too. It continued through last night and interrupted my sleep a lot. I decided today to drive to my flat in Finchley Road first so that if need be I could rest and use the facilities there before continuing on. Fortunately the act of driving took my mind of it, and combined with having not had any breakfast or lunch apart from some nutrition drink, things began to settle.

The doctor today (not O'Grady this time) reassured me it was just my digestive system getting back out of the habit of having to work overtime, and that it would settle down. He noted that my Epstein-Barr virus (glanduar fever) and my Cyclo Megavirus levels had reduced significantly and he would consultant the senior surgeon on taking me off Acyclovir, which is a relief.

Of more concern was that my Liver enzyme levels (such as AST and Bilirubin) have not decreased at all in the last 2 weeks, and are still not at normal levels. They have plateued before of course, and seem to jump down suddenly, but it is disappointing that my liver is not completely settled. In fact my bilirubin has increased slightly from the low 20s to the high 20s, which I can see very slightly at the edge of my eyes (as a yellow tinge). They don't seem that concerned as these are still low levels compared to pre-transplant, but it is something they want to see resolved soon.

One possibility is to increase my immunosuppression drugs, but there are limitations about that if I stay on the drug-trial, so I have mixed feelings. I will see what they ring me to tell me over the next few days.

I returned from Kings to my flat by 5pm, had a haircut, and shopped at Waitrose for some food. I then prepared a rather nice but simple meal for my flatmate Sarah and my friend Jane who got back from work at 8pm ish, and we had a really really enjoyable evening. For the record it was a red and yellow tomato and spring onion salad with extra-virgin olive oil infused with garlic, and some ripped pieces of ciabatta bread mixed in (Gordon Ramsey idea). The main was a Japanese-style noodle vegetable broth (a la Nigella), followed by American style pancakes with lashings of Golden Syrup (Nigella again, hence the word 'lashings' - you can hear her say it can't you).

I picked up my suit from home too, as with a bit of luck I'm aiming to try and make an appearance at work one morning next week. Originally it had been for the funeral tomorrow (well, today as I'm up so late tonight), but owing to the need for regular toilet breaks I don't think I could manage either of the 2.5 hour drives so I'm reluctantly staying at home.

I'm hoping things settle down over the next couple of days so that I can go to Reading on Sunday late-afternoon/evening to watch a dance competition that lots of my friends are taking part in. It really is the dancing that is giving me the most determination to get well asap!