Neil, saw your note this morning in my inbox, no idea where the others went and for some reason I am not getting notice that there has been a message for me so I will look into that now, meanwhile…..
As you are all aware, I have had some quite debilitating health issues which, nearly two weeks ago now, I had overcome. Ably assisted by my colleague Reece, we then made up a couple of dozen bundles ready to get off, I had even personally delivered quite a bit and everything was looking great.
Now, the next part I was keeping to myself – a couple of people on here I consider close friends knew what had happened but they have kept it to themselves, I am grateful for that.
I am not making excuses here – I am going to do what I am going to do irrespective but I value my friends greatly and sometimes I just forget my own issues to help others out. I am trying very, very hard not to be dramatic but this was as bad as it gets.
You know when you jokingly say to your friend/partner/wife/children – "If I ever get like that, turn the machine off!"? Well, there I was ten days ago. It wasn't a pleasant experience and not one I would wish to repeat.
I had received a 'phone call from a very close friend's wife. It is always bad when your friends wife calls To cut a very long story short: David had been admitted to hospital just over two weeks ago with extreme headaches – He was first taken to North Tees Hospital, despite South Cleveland being closer and kept overnight with a "viral infection" and on an antibiotic drip. They believe it was this that added the complication of C-Diff to his troubles. Next morning he was transferred to the Neurological unit at South Cleveland for assessment. It was here that he had a major seizure and Anurism. He was taken down for surgery which should have taken between three to five hours and lasted nine.
I have since spoken to the surgeon and in my opinion – not being a medical professional myself so take this with a pinch of salt – He couldn't possibly have received better care anywhere in the world. Firstly, I didn't know they had that many machines they could hook up to you! He has a dedicated nurse at his bedside 24 hours a day and everything possible has been done. Last Monday I travelled up the A19 to go to the hospital with Sally to turn the life support off. It was a very, very long journey, I hadn't slept the night before.
We sat at David's house for a good few hours before we plucked up the courage to go to the hospital and when we arrived in the ICU – his bed was missing. This was met by pure panic on both our parts until a nurse informed us that he "was down for another scan"! What? You scan people before death? Really? I didn't say it but I thought it! Apparently as they were bringing him out of the coma – he opened his eyes so they immediately induced the coma again. It turns out – to cut a long story short – that the surgery appears to have been a success. There are no guarantees but the difference in the man in over a week has been amazing. They are slowly reducing the sedation now and day by day he is showing more improvement. The prognosis is good, but give it six months say the experts. I just live in hope. Yesterday was better than the last visit which was better than the one before and so on.
Now, I have met a good number of you on this forum and you have all been great genuine people and if anything, this thread will now be puctuated with genuine, heartfelt wishes from you all.
I don't want you to do that. I want you instead to write out on a sheet of paper what you REALLY want to happen when you die. (cheerful huh) Because believe me, it is very, very hard for the people around you to know what to do, they all care far too much about you to make rational decisions sometimes, far better you do it yourself and then everyone will have a script to work from!
There is much, much more to this saga, I won't bore you all. I have the bundles ready to go, they will go Friday, then I think I am just doing the difficult(awkward) ones
Back soon,
graham.