Medical Update

Apologies for the long gap between postings, but I've had rather too much Excitement over the last week to be able to publish anything.

 

It all started two Wednesdays ago when I went to get my hair cut.

The barber is only about 200 yards from our front door, but that's quite a long walk for an Old Crock. I counted my paces (350) and then had to negotiate 3 steep flights of stairs down to the basement. When I relaxed into the barber's chair, I was therefore exhausted and when I tried to say "I'll have a Mohican please" or "Give me a full Afro", pure gobbledegook came out! I simply couldn't form any words and sounded as if I had an extremely severe case of cerebral palsy. As you may imagine, this was a bit scary. It lasted for 3 or 4 minutes, during which time the poor barber, who didn't speak much English and probably thought the problem was his lack of sufficient vocab rather than a speech-impaired client, dashed upstairs to get his colleague to interpret. Eventually my powers of speech returned and I settled for a short back and sides.

 

However, when this loss of speech, preceded again by a dizzy spell, recurred that evening, Julia took me to A&E at St Thomas's hospital. Which was the start of a Nightmare night, involving umpteen tests, hours of waiting on extremely uncomfortable chairs in hospital waiting rooms and a transfer to King's Camberwell in the early hours before I was finally given a bed at about 6 am the following morning. More tests followed that day: multiple scans, X-rays and blood tests. The only thing confirmed by all these tests was that I had suffered a series of mini-strokes or TIAs (Transient Ischaemic Attacks) as revealed by the MRI scan, so I was kept in the Stroke Unit at King's for observation.

 

I was kept in over the weekend too because I had a few more dizzy spells followed by temporary loss of speech. However, once I recognised the advance symptoms, and sat down as soon as I felt dizzy, I always recovered quickly and avoided the speech problems which were the most worrying issue. But the Big Question remained unanswered, namely Why were these spells occurring?

 

And it remains unanswered yet, although the Major Suspect is Low Blood Pressure because the spells occur when I get up quickly. I suspect this has been exacerbated by a prolonged period on a cocktail of drugs, but there's no easy way to change this because other aspects of my condition necessitate their use, and the cocktail has now been increased by drugs for dealing with low blood pressure! To encourage the blood to keep flowing, I'm back in Surgical Stockings too - very fetching. But at least there is no evidence of anything more serious such as roving blood clots.

 

The only other abnormality revealed by the battery of tests was a high cholesterol level, which has been blamed on my ice-cream-rich diet, given that it's the only normal food I've been able to tolerate. So I've had to give that up for the time being as well. Disappointing, but perhaps not too fundamental a loss, at least temporarily.

 

And now I'm back at home again, which is always good for the spirits, having been released from King's on Tuesday evening after 48 hours without a dizzy spell. I am taking it easy and doing what I can to keep the blood going round, such as getting up (carefully!) and moving about every hour or so. Not too exacting a regime, I'm sure you'll agree.

 

Apart from that, I'm fine.

Oh, apart from my eyes as well of course, which are still very sore and don't work very well.  Otherwise, I'm fine.

Oh, apart from my mouth, which is still bone dry and means I have to eat via the NG tube up my nose overnight, instead of orally and by day like a normal Human Bean. Otherwise, I'm fine.

Oh, apart from the fact that the slightest exertion, such as turning over in bed, leaves me exhausted and breathless. Otherwise, I'm fine.
Oh, apart from the constant itchiness all over.  Otherwise, I'm fine.
Oh, apart from having to cut my nails down to the quick and file them smooth because they are so brittle that they split very easily, then catch and tear......ouch!  Otherwise, I'm fine.
Oh, apart from the frequent muscle spasms in my back, triggered by any sort of movement.  Otherwise, I'm fine.

Oh, apart from my general weakness and lack of energy......

Enough! I'm fine, ok?!