The State of my Health – Updated 19th May 2022

It seems as though a number of my early posts are about Sharing a little bit of info about me, so in this post I’m going to share a little about the state of my physical and mental health. I haven’t been overly lucky in recent years as far as my health is concerned, but hey, things could be worse, I’m still waking up each day 😁

Legacy Problems.

Let’s start with some legacy issues I have. Since an accident many, many years ago I have been left with a touch of Arthritis at the base of my spine. This means I sometimes get backaches, generally from draughts or straining my back in some way (incorrect lifting or twisting), it isn’t an always on situation but troubles me from time to time. Some years ago I also started to suffer Mental Health issues, namely Depression and Anxiety, it got really bad for a time, deep depression and anxiety attacks. I suffered like this for a few years. But through help and counselling I gradually improved. Not that it’s gone away altogether, I can occasionally still slip into depression or become overly anxious about something (or nothing), but its happily nowhere near as severe as it once was 😊

Heart Condition.

On the 13th of February 2018, while walking home from work I began to feel unwell and suddenly fell to the ground, the next thing I remembered was waking up in hospital surrounded by medical people, I was told I had had a major heart attack, I have to tell you this came as somewhat of a shock 😮 I was sent to Blackpool hospital and on the 26th I underwent Triple Bypass surgery which has left me with a lovely scar stretching down my chest.

I was released from hospital a week or so later, can’t really remember exactly how long that was. After a good long recuperation period I returned to work on the 4th of June 2018, but I wasn’t happy at work and didn’t feel like carrying on any more. So on the 25th of September 2018 (my 62nd Birthday) I retired from work for good and began my life as a retired old man of leisure 😊👍 So I now have a serious heart condition.

Oh and as a little aside, I was told they found scarring on my brain caused by a Stroke at some point in the past, believe it or not I don’t remember ever having had a stroke, but damage on my brain could explain quite a bit 😁

Kidney Failure.

Now we get more up to date, after an illness of a few weeks, having problems eating, drinking and having not urinated in a while my son phoned for an ambulance to come and check me out (to be honest this had almost certainly been slowly building for ages but I stupidly chose to ignore it untill it had got really bad). The Paramedics checked me out and performed an ECG following which they took me straight to Furness General Hospital. After a longish wait in A&E a doctor said my Kidneys had failed and I was inducted as a patient.

It turned out that both my Kidneys had failed and were both operating at only 2%, YIKES 😮 and I had ridiculously high creatinine levels (whatever that means), over the following days a couple of doctors told me if I had waited a day or so more I would have died, thank you for calling that ambulance son 🙏💖

The next day I was moved into the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), to begin with I was in a very bad way, I was even delusional, didn’t know where I was and was very confused 😜 I was fitted with a Catheter straight away and immediately expelled 1.5 litres of urine, I didn’t know the bladder could hold that much. While in the ICU I underwent Dialysis during which all of the crap was filtered from my blood and my recovery began 😊

Eventually I was moved into an ordinary ward, during my stay in hospital I had a Blood transfusion, I received various drips and was given all the scans you could imagine, blood was taken from me at least once a day and I was on lots of meds.

I was released from hospital in time for Christmas I’m happy to say 😊🎄

Since my release I have had plenty of appointments at the hospital, I’ve had a number of checkups at the ACU, I’ve had a Cystoscopy (which is a camera into your Bladder via your Urinary Tract 😮), I’ve been to see the Nephrologist (the Kidney expert) and have had two Ferinject Iron Infusion treatments, that’s a drip for introducing iron into your bloodstream when your blood is lacking it.

All of this has left me with severely damaged Kidneys which in turn has caused Anaemia. I have brittle nails, probably from the Anaemia, I am prone to tiredness and fatigue, also the Anaemia 🤨

I also have a Bladder that doesn’t work properly, due to interference from my enlarged Prostate I believe, for this I have a permanent Catheter. The Catheter needs changing every twelve weeks by the district nurses.

Ooh nearly forgot my intermittent blood pressure problem, which I think is the anaemia although I’m not altogether sure. This causes dizziness and wobbles which to begin with meant me using a stick all the time, but it’s much improved now, it’s very intermittent and I rarely need to use my stick, although it’s usually nearby.

Despite all of this I think I do OK 😊👍 I must also thank all the staff at Furness General Hospital and Blackpool Hospital and the District Nurses for all of the care I have received and for saving my life at least a couple of times, what would we do without the NHS, I dread to think 😊🙏💕

The Medication.

So due to mental health issues, a serious heart condition, badly damaged kidneys, intermittent blood pressure and anaemia I have a list of medications, some of the meds I had following my heart attack were discontinued after my kidney failure and new tablets added, the up to date list is below…

Sertraline – for depression and anxiety – taken daily

Atorvastatin – for lowering bad cholesterol – taken daily

Bisoprolol – for the blood pressure – taken daily

Aspirin – for thinning the blood – taken daily

Lansoprazole – to reduce acid in the stomach – taken daily

Finasteride – to decrease prostate size – taken daily

Folic Acid – helps make red blood cells – taken daily

Colecalciferol – for vitamin D deficiency – taken once a week (Friday)

UPDATE :- On Tuesday the 17th of May I had a consultation with the Nephrology team, my Kidneys are now up to 17% efficiency and I am no longer Anaemic, at least for the time being, things are looking up 😊

So that’s my health situation, all that’s left now is for me to wish you to Be Well, Be Safe, Be Happy 😊🙏💕