Notes

MY MEDICAL ENIGMA,
Back a few years before retirement at work in a plastic component factory a hopper material drier fell several feet and landed on my head. It was heavy and did hurt i stood solid and hardly flinched, went to Good Hope hospital where they put in stitches i then returned back to work. I was employed as night shift foreman so spent rest of that night delegating work and keeping myself quiet. I mention this because i feel it could've been the beginning.
The company i worked for had good safety procedures and all the safety equipment that you may require but during my 33 years working there i had seen some nasty accidents and near misses,so as retirement came closer i found myself being more and more careful with what i did and delegated the more dangerous jobs that i could of been doing to others.
The latter months not realizing that i may have had a problem inspectors of components would come to me with components asking if the cosmetic defects were okay, i would reply often that they were because i could see nothing wrong this was probably the first chance of realizing that i had the start of a problem.
Retirement come and went on 28/2/14.
I returned to the factory on 22/5/14 to see changes and workmates, on this visit i noted
That i had a problem with the lighting which was orange and yellow lighting’ and had never bothered me before. Returning home had trouble reading road signs and got lost and frustrated but still not registered a problem.
Summer time, we are out shopping we shop in one supermarket fill up car then cross road to another supermarket using their shopping trolley bring back that shop to car in !st car park on way back have to stop, unable to walk and gasping for air. I put this down to being too hot and pushing too heavy a load and my youthful years disappearing. Spent several minutes resting by nice flowing stream then carried on and forgot about it.
Several days after this my partner booked me in for an eye test. No positive reason for doing so. I went for the test and they discovered i had no peripheral vision and oblivious to bright light amazing i did not have a clue. Three hours later i had received phone call from Kidderminster hospital and was undergoing tests followed up later by a brain scan at Q E Hospital. These tests showed i had a tumour pressing down on the pituitary gland under the brain. A meeting was arranged with Mrs. Mitchell and an operation was agreed to be the best option.
It was whilst waiting for this operation i first noticed how bad my eyes had been.I believe my brain had been filling in the gaps if i looked at a bright light i would not see it but at the same time i would not see that it was not there. Also three people could be walking towards me and i would only see two but my brain seemed capable of filling in the whole picture so i did not notice.
Before operation i had teeth removed and tidied up my mouth best that dentist could do knowing that i was due a brain operation but since have lost several more some broken or gone bad quickly waiting to see what can be done when we are ready and growth problem settles..
During the time waiting for operation my health deteriorated i was unable to eat my meals the textures seemed all wrong i lost weight quickly my partner would cook meal after meal and get mad with me but i would say i am alright not to worry i will get better but it did not. I suffered occasional sickness one day went to bed and saw a grey silky leather glove come around the door reaching out, i am sure if i had reached out i would of been on my way to heaven. My partner would let the doctor’s know how ill i was, but they seemed not to believe her.The doctor took notice tried to fatten me up on very sweet drinks and medication Eventually it was decided to get on with my operation i was quite ill at the time. I believe i was ill whilst on the table coughing and sickness i did not expect to be around afterwards.i had been on the table for seven hours i believe and woke up quite well in aftercare ward. Taken upstairs where i did my best to walk up and down the wards look after myself best i could and started to eat my meals and enjoy them. Walked to canteens and back took a walking stick off one of the patients but did not realy need it. My eyesight was better than it had been since my younger years. I felt fully cured and so pleased that we would be able to continue with our plans for retirement.
Doctor’s ward rounds i found to be Quite amusing most would come on there own or as a pair but when Mrs Mitchell came she bought along a coach load that would fill the ward and she was obviously in charge of the party. My sex life had finished at about retirement date i asked if she could do anything for me. She took it in her stride and said she was sure someone could sort it soon. I believe it was Mrs Mitchell that arranged for a chest Xray from which it was discovered i may have cancer. Further scans confirmed this to be the case.
After the operation which was through the nose breathing became an ongoing problem due to the nose airways being rerouted and also my blood pressure started to rise and my doctor’s knew not what to do. They phoned hospital who told them to put me on beta blockers.
Blood pressure has been a problem on and off since then to present date, also breathing problems i occasionally use a douche or a hot wet flannel on top of nose. Hard to clear throat. Again from then till present date.
The cancer operation was arranged to take place at Heartlands Hospital, Birmingham
Two nights before operation was due we had a phone call from Q.E.Hospital to say that at some point i had had an heart attack. THANKS. I was booked in the night before the operation for overnight observation due to my blood pressure. In the morning the anaesthetist come round with black felt pen, drew lines on my body and told me this would be where i would be cut open. My blood pressure just went up and up. It just was not going to happen. I was told to go home and wait to see what would happen next.
Since the operation i have been piling on the pounds getting bigger and bigger. Sandie my partner has fed me a proper diet to the best of our knowledge plus drinks of spinach,beetroot,kale,mixed with lime tumeric and other would be super foods. After our night meal a bowl of juiced berries with yogurt also when available juiced cannabis leaves as a daily drink to help fight cancer and toughen me up. My weight ballooned from 12 stone 5 pounds when i was well before all of this to 19 stone 3 pounds in no time at all. A few months.
Another ongoing problem has been lack of sleep due to possible sleep apnea and waking at 90 minute intervals to empty a not very full bladder.Also ongoing aches and pains due to growth and lack of exercise due to the pains. The pains mainly lower back pain,leg pains and lower rear skull pains general other aches
About this time i started getting depressed we had so many plans for the future and i wanted so much to thank my partner for the previous years of our life which really had been the start of mine since being together, and up to that date. We had planned an allotment, long holidays plus a general good retirement together..It now seemed a million miles away. I could accept everything as it was but was so disappointed for my partner. She was still a rock as we went through it all.
Next, a good time or a bad time, Twenty days course of radiotherapy, during this time i met some amazing lovely people and also some bitter ones. We met an amazing lovely trainee cancer nurse so caring wanting to learn her job and so helpful at the same time a know it all nurse and a doctor i could not get on with..Children with cancer that had not been around long enough to deserve it. Patients that were probably not going to see much more earth time. Also a work associate who had not known he had a brain tumour whom later i learnt passed on. All sorts and all ages.
I used to lie on the bed and once positioned did not budge in case the radiation should hit a wrong spot some patients were incapable of keeping still and never done the course. The young ones amazed me.. Well up to yet i have been lucky but it is a belief of mine once cancer is in the body it is going to come back eventually I hope i am wrong and i will keep on taking the medicine and fight it the best i can.
Many scans and doctor visits later i learnt i had a twist in the bottom of my heart. The brain scan had been quite successful, my lungs were a bit miss shapen but growing out and filling up I had put on a lot of weight and was in pain with my back carrying the extra weight about it was time to learn that i had acromegaly and all that goes with it.
I was told by my doctor that i had type 2 diabetes and due to my condition would have to inject myself 3 times a day in the stomach. THANKS. Due to how my partner looked after me i would not accept this and eventually proved this to be true that i was borderline diabetic and could control it.
Up to now it has been like winning the good and the bad lottery without buying a ticket but we have entered a complete new game now. One of three in seven million get acromegaly. Cannot say i enjoy being one of them.
It makes me feel ugly,depressed,in pain,lethargic,it seems to interfere with my brain functions,i have skin tags, itchy scalp, itchy feet,cannot reach to wipe my own bum.cannot sleep get very agitated with different problems.The worse would be bad body cramps that attack you when you are not expecting which makes the pain and shock worse. Have ran out of breath and sat on the floor and wet myself this being at times when my bladder has been virtually empty.
Headaches appear to occur due to increase of growth in lower rear skull. I have sweaty periods at anytime hot or cold. Erectile problems which luckily my partner has never pressured me about.
Acromegaly i am trying to come to terms with but as yet there seems to be no black and white cures or fixes i do get quite irritable with things at times but try to take it as it is.