Not so Superman

'Superman Syndrome' : Effectively this is where the transplant patient feels so damn good after their new kidney/heart/insert as appropirate has been popped in to their body that they literally feel as though they could take on the world.. forgetting that they are still a normal human being and will get tired and ill the same as everyone else.

In the past few weeks I have been producing a short film entitled 'Finding Sol', and it has literally taken up every second of my life during that time. I found myself working 13 days in a row, and still feeling absolutely great. It was around day 15 in a row I started to feel pretty rotton, and one morning I woke up and my eyes looked a little swollen. Alarms started to immeditately go off as as kidney patients will know swollen body parts are a sign of fluid retention. Straight away I called the hospital in a panic and explained what had happened and after downing 2 litres of water I started to feel better. The hospital weren't worried but said to make me feel better I could pop in the following morning. Worried sick that my cretinine had taken a sky high jump I could barely sit still in the waiting room. Butterflies were practicly coming out of my mouth I was that nervous.

After seeing the consultant and explaining what I  had been up to in the past two weeks he looked at me with that head titled side ways wise doctor look. 

"So you've been working flat out for 2 weeks, and now you feel tired?" (bored doctory voice after my 5 minute rant)

"Yes! And I'm terrified that my kidney is rejecting!!" (High squeaky panic voice)

"Er no...you're just tired. It's what normal people feel after working lots with little rest. Go home an have an early night." (wise doctory voice)

"oh...ahem...will do.." (quieter voice, less squeaky)

Needless to say an early night and a good nights sleep did the trick and I felt much better 24 hours later. 

I have just returned from the 4 day shoot of Finding Sol - 4 days of  0530 - 2200 of running around, sorting out lots of problems and making sure the shoot was running smoothly. Apart from the emotional exhaustion I felt great all the way through. I even wrote off this morning in my diary so I could have a long lie in but my body insisted on waking up at 8am as normal...it's amazing how different I feel since the arrival of Kasper the kidney, I would have never been able to cope with this a year ago...I was explaining to my friend how I feel like I have a brand new body yesterday - it's not just my kidney function that has improved, all my organs, bones and muscles have too. 

And for my Superman Syndrome - I have hung my cape up for now.