Hi All,
I'm BACK - with apologies to everyone who I should have kept in touch with and didn't! You all know who you are & I do humbly apologise.
It seems like the last 18months or so has been nothing but calling 999 on a regular basis and the only outings we've had have been to the doctor or hospital. Poor Carl has gone through the hoop. We thought initially it was his trapped Ulna nerve that was sending him into the symptoms of having a heart attack and making him black out frequently. It was contributing but unfortunately after he had the op. we found out it wasn't the only contributing factor. Medication was causing some of the blacking out as he couldn't tolerate one of the drugs he was on. THEN he started having terrific pains in his chest, went white/blue & clammy. OMG that went on for many months but every time we phoned 999 they kept him in a day or two & said he hadn't had a heart attack. Every time (too many to count) he went into hospital he ended up with infections ranging from chest infections to sickness bugs. Our doctor was really concerned as he had one of these "attacks" in front of him. He was told bed rest until he saw a cardiologist.
Saw the cardiologist who said he needed an angiogram. While waiting for this he had another attack, went into hospital for over a week & they gave him the option of staying in hospital for approx 3 weeks before he went down to Cardiff or going home. Not knowing ‘the system' he opted to come home & wait - with yet another infection! We found out later that he should have stayed in as coming home put him right to the back of the list. The cardiologist told him to phone 999 as soon as he had another & to stay in hospital this time no matter how long it took. It took 3.5weeks to get to Cardiff for the angiogram. They finally found out what was happening with him - he has ‘sticky blood syndrome' which neither of us had ever heard of, where the platelets clump together & stick themselves to the artery walls, more clumps come along & stick to them until finally another clump comes along & can't get through - hence the pains. It's like multiple blood clots & apparently is often the reason so many people die suddenly at an early age. It's only been discovered recently. Carl is now on tablets to control it & I'm getting my hubby back slowly. He started cardio rehab last week - he needed it as he has been confined to bed for nearly 6 months with this problem & all the infections he caught. He seems to be doing really well now & so finally I can relax and think about other things.
Apart from worrying non stop about Carl I had really bad arthritis in my shoulders so was finding it difficult to do anything. Typing on the computer was something I just couldn't do. I did look in here but not very often if truth be told. 3-4 weeks ago I had steroid injections in both rotator cuffs and with physio. I'm getting back to ‘normal' - whatever that is! I also couldn't see properly at one stage (diabetes way out of control) and lost my hearing.
OMG - we sound like wrecks!
It seems so long we were last out there - November 2009 - when so many of you were just so wonderful & kind to us, beyond anything we ever could have expected. I just feel so bad for not being in touch BUT I honestly thought I was going to lose Carl on numerous occasions & I just couldn't bear to answer any questions.
OK - as you can see I'm back. I may not pop in as regularly as I used to BUT I'm back.
I just want to say SORRY once again to everyone who I should have kept in touch with. We both really appreciated all the help we received & felt awful that we hadn't kept in touch.
