Reports of my demise have been exagerated!

The last few weeks are probably best as being described as challenging!

It all started at work when were were all dragged into a meeting to be told the finance team is being restructured and there will be redundancies. To say this was a shock to everyone was a bit of an understatement and the following day was not the easiest or most comfortable I had ever experienced - but reasons for that were way outside the realms of my work place!

On the Friday as I was leaving the Finance Director had a chat as she was worried about how ill I looked! I promised to use the lift etc and look after myself, thankfully we had a few days to get the forms of what we wanted (redundancy) filled in. I went into my meeting early as I was feeling terrible and I booked an appointment with my GP for lunchtime.  He signed me off for a week (just walking into the surgery left me out of breath) and sent me to the hospital for some blood tests. He also gave me a print out about my heart as he is addicted to people never leaving without handfuls of paper. When I arrived at the hospital I was told I was supposed to make am appointment - but as they weren't busy they just took the blood! I was tired so I headed home - thankfully not to bruised! Mikey and I headed to Nanny and Grandad on the Friday, I had a very embarrassing experience...one of my 'signs' of something being wrong is that I've retained an awful lot of fluid, my GP wasn't bothered, gave me some water tablets that did nothing and I was trying to cope. We went to Hempstead Valley for much - I got into the seat attached to the table, didn't eat much as my appetite is still hit and miss, but trying to get out was nearly impossible. Then halfway up the walkway I just ran out of energy - I couldn't walk any further. I made it back to the car and pretty much collapsed into there and once were were back Mum and Dad sent me home via my Drs. I couldn't get an appointment when I went in, but the Dr called me back and gave me an appointment - I messaged Andy to meet me there.

I had been told on Thursday that the GP who sent me for the blood tests wanted to go through the results with me himself - so I was given an appointment on 11th September (this was at the end of August) The Dr I saw on the Friday said he was sending me straight to hospital! Thankfully I was allowed home to get a bag packed and then arrived at A&E but was sent directly to CDU. I think that worried Andy more than me as I have little recollection of my time there in 2008! I stayed on CDU until late afternoon on Saturday when I was moved to Cambridge K Ward - a cardiac ward as it turned out I was in heart failure. Bit of a shock as it appears I'd been ill for a while and have probably actually had a heart attack at some point...I think my trips up and down the M20 have been lucky for me and everyone on there with me!

The first task for me and my medical team was to get rid of the sheer amount of fluid I was dragging around with me - basically putting extra strain on my heart, The water tablet dosage was fiddled with and I was weighed every morning to make sure I was peeing it all out! I was also limited on my total liquid intake a day! So far, up to today, I have lost 19kg or 2.99 stones in 2 weeks! This has helped me feel better, but I'm still feeling very tired and have a limited amount of energy available at the moment, but it is getting better every day. I'm still an out patient and my kidney function is closely monitored as it the sheer amount of medication I'm currently taking! I'm seeing the Cardiac team on Thursday and my Cardiac Nurse is coming to see me on Wednesday, I feel lucky and very well looked after. My consultant, Dr Ann Fisher, is lovely and my first reaction on meeting her was that I couldn't remember her name, but I liked and trusted her. Andy has since googled her and she is decidedly impressive! An Oxford Medical degree and trained at John Radcliffe, well published and an expert on the type of help I need.