Road Bump

Oh Dear! My health hit another bump in the road on Christmas Eve while we were in Sydney.

I was diagnosed by a sequence of doctors with a thrombosis (blood clot) in my left shoulder. This caused a rather visible swelling of my arm and hand. Fortunately, Doctor AbdullahOmari - a vascular specialist at the prestigious St Vincent's Private Hospital - thinks it's not threatening. Less fortunately, he put me on two more drugs, one a fairly powerful blood thinner. This supplements an existing blood thinner prescribed by specialist Dr James Leitch to help me adjust to the defibrillator. The two doctors are going to consult about this overlap when they can find each other - a downside to our extended Christmas / New Year holidays.

Worse still, he banned me from flying for at least two months! You've heard of deep-vein thrombosis suffered by some unfortunate airline passengers. He's worried that flying might shift my clot. Anyway, the treatment is working and my swelling is going down.

This means a few more train trips. We returned to Armidale last night after a 9 hour trip from Sydney. Two events made it rather longer than usual: track work along a 15k stretch of line near Sydney and what may have been a suicide attempt. The driver slammed on the brakes about 30 km south of Armidale because some woman was lying across the line. He stopped short, but had to summon the police to investigate and they took quite a while to travel the 15km to the remote site (no road nearby). Meanwhile family members removed her and presumably took her home - we saw them driving away.

Have a happy new year everyone.

AS

Feeling Groovy

Well, I'm still deluged by expressions of concern and sympathy coming in from all over the world. Only one of them had me dead!

I am steadily feeling stronger and should be able to travel to Sydney at the week-end the slow way. We're taking the train at Dot's insistence and are travelling first class, which is quite cheap with our 'seniors' discount. In fact, we get on free trip anywhere in NSW every year by being seniors, but we're holding that in reserve.

Meanwhile, my health continues to improve and I've gone back to playing bridge - successfully.

We wish readers a happy Christmas.

AS

Thanks to Well-Wishers

I would like to thank profusely all the people who have sent me get-well cards or encouraging messages by email. They are much appreciated and involve a large number of countries on four continents. It's nice that so many people care about me.

I send my own best wishes to everyone.

AS

Second Coming

Well, I'm back home after an addendum to my recently reported health problems.

After only one day back in Armidale, I experienced a large number of heart spasms. Each, only 5 minutes or less, was accompanied by strong chest pains which gradually disappeared. Alarmed, I went down to the out-patients department of the local hospital and I was promptly put in intensive care. After reading case notes, the presiding doctor sent me back to Newcastle by air ambulance and straight to the Lake Macquarie Private Hospital where my procedure occurred the previous week.

After scans, tests, and a review of the evidence, my doctor put me on several drugs. I did not have another chest pain after departing for Newcastle and the medicos concluded that I had plaque un an artery that was flaking and that drugs, rather than a stent or by-pass was the way to go. They gave me a stress test on Thursday, which went brilliantly, and I was allowed home immediately.

Dot, who has been at my side the whole time here and in Newcastle drove me home. The whole episode must have cost a fortune, but we are privately insured and the part of the bill we'll see is mininal.

Near Death Experience

For the record, I had a Cardiac Arrest a week before your message and I’d appreciate it if you let people know who might be interested. The events run as follows:

Monday 19th: arrive home c. 4.00pm by bike to go a do some campaign work for Tony Windsor (MHR, New England). By very good luck, my wife, Dot was close by as I collapsed in the garage, and she called an ambulance immediately. The second stroke of luck was that 3 ambulances arrived in 5 minutes. Had I been out of town on a property and the arrival time was 10 to 15 minutes, some of you would have already attended my funeral.

The third stroke of luck was that they were able to jump-start my heart. Cardiac arrest is potentially more serious than a stroke or heart attack. The latter impair the functioning of the brain, but usually don’t kill it. I was detained in the Armidale and New England Hospital for 1 wee while diagnostics guided the course of action. I cannot remember a single fact about this week or about the subsequent trip in an Air Ambulance to John Hunter Hospital in Newcastle. I can recall waking up in JHH and seeing Dot’s apparition, and I suppose this was on about Wednesday 28 November.

This was the fourth stroke of luck. Dot was able to help me though further batteries of tests and the utter boredom of hospital routine, but I must admit that the quality of care at JHH was very good – as I am told it was in ANE.

Then, on Monday this week, I moved to the Lake Macquarie Private Hospital for the ultimate operation. I’d heard of pace-makers, but not the machine I’m now tethered to for the rest of my life. This small all-singing, all-dancing contraption constantly monitors heart performance and can accelerate or depress beat speed AND/OR change the amplitude of the beat AND/OR the pattern of the beat.

I returned home yesterday by road and am now trying to regain normal life. I’ll start riding my bike in a week; bush-walking a little before that. My Newcastle based Psychologist and Speech Therapists found little wrong with my mental processes.

Sorry for rambling on a long time.