Yawn Yawn Wakey Wakey 2024

He has a highly technical job, so good on him for being able to get back to it so quickly - also shows his skill level and how well respected he is that his colleagues wanted him back for the broadcast.

My story started with a neurologist getting things very, very wrong and putting me on drugs that knackered my immune system. I subsequently got flu and then sepsis. Initially taken into St Peters in Ashford, in multiple organ failure and was given that moment to 'say goodbye' to my family. A few days later, now deep in a coma and apparently swollen beyond all recognition, I was transferred to St Thomas' in Westminster and put onto ECMO as well as dialysis and haemo-filtration, had a tracheostomy to put me on mechanical ventilation, had a couple of strokes, had DVT and clots galore, and remained at St Thomas' for three months; soon after waking up, I was transferred back to St Peters and told that I would be on dialysis for life and in a wheelchair for life.

After a discussion with a consultant about the dialysis, he agreed to stop doing the dialysis for a trial period of time - my argument was that they were drying me out like a prune on the dialysis and therefore my kidneys had no impetus to restart, so he agreed to lay off on the basis that I was already in hospital and in the right place if things went wrong. Sure enough, a couple of days later, I pee'd - - sounds daft, but I have never been so happy to have a pee. My kidneys still don't operate on Western time (I can drink a couple of pints and nothing happens for hours) but they work.

After a bit of a battle, I got home, with a hospital bed in the living room and Mrs C looking after me. Physio came out and asked what I wanted to achieve from the physio, so I told her that my bed and my bathroom were upstairs. At first she thought I was joking... weeks later, I managed the first climb upstairs.

I still walk with a stick, can't walk far, tire easily, have knackered lungs (94-95% saturation is great for me), am left with facial disfigurement, nerve damage/peripheral neuropathy in my legs and left arm, and no peripheral pulse on my left side.

2022 saw me have another attempt at meeting my maker, when I collapsed at the top of the stairs and once again got a free ride in the blue-light passion-wagon... this time it was multiple pulmonary embolism - I suspect they should never have stopped the blood thinners I was on when I left hospital the first time around. Consultant told me that I had been very lucky - if the clot that made me collapse hadn't chosen that moment to block things, when people were around at home, and I had gone to bed that night, there is no way I would have woken back up the following morning. So, I add blood-thinners to the armoury of tablets I take daily.

I am slower than I once was, but I still work full time, although had to let my PCV licence lapse sadly, and I get up each day able to do something, which is a bonus.

The support that I had from the gang here was absolutely incredible - you can only imagine just how much that meant to me, and will never, ever, be forgotten.

 

Aye, but made of good stuff, so still here.

I sadly missed a visit from @CanadianLori in 2018 too - one day, we will hopefully rectify that though!

 

I am nothing to be in awe of in all honesty - just very lucky to be here to share your company. I am a bit of a stubborn (some would say grumpy) sort and do not like giving up, so yes there is a degree of determination. I sincerely hope you post more too - much as you are more than welcome to lurk, we love a natter around here.

 

No, never!!