Me

By David B9/5/2019 09:55Thu May 9 09:55:58 2019In response to Re: David B

Views: 2331

Hello everyone and thank you for your kind thoughts about me.

I was extraordinarily fortunate on 16 April, when I was persuaded to go to hospital (blue flashing lights and all from Mortimer Street to University College London Hospital at Warren Street) instead of the Middlesex Senior Cup Final (Brentford B v Harrow Borough) for the Non League Paper. To quote one of my doctors, “If you had gone to the game you would probably have died.” She then added “If you had not tried to go into work but slept in your armchair at home, you would almost certainly have failen asleep and never woken up.” This was followed by a fairly large gulp.

The diagnoses were the often fatal sepsis and the unpleasant (and ongoing) cellulitis. The former was treated immediately and the latter is continuing to receive treatment – as is my high blood pressure.

After five nights in the Acute Medical Unit and another eight in general medical ward, I was discharged on 29 April. I spent the rest of the week with my legs elevated. After six days spent mainly at home – I did three hours on the phone with Hospital Radio Barnet on the Saturday – I went to my first live sports event on Sunday, the One-Day match at Lords between Middlesex and Glamorgan, but I should probably have left before the end of the game because I was quite sore. After a day of rest on Bank Holiday Monday, I was back at work on Tuesday – as a freelance, the mantra is “No Show No Dough”, so I had lost three weeks of pay – and, once again, I spent about an hour too long in the office before going home.

Yesterday I returned to UCLH, but as an outpatient to see Professor Dave Moore, my consultant. He was very happy with my progress and has taken me off antibiotics. I had not been feeling particularly well, but he put it down to coming off very significant doses of antibiotics and a it was a natural reaction.

I am still not sleeping particularly well, because it is not the most comfortable position to be lying legs elevated, but I am going to have to get used to it. My cellulitis is much improved and I have lost quite a lot of weight (I can hear the “about time too” from around the ether). I am down to two pills a day (one for the high blood pressure) and two different creams for my legs.

If all goes well over the next two months, I hope to be back at SJP, sadly unable to stand behind the goal because I should sit with my legs elevated whenever possible, but I will be cheering on the Greens whenever I can.