Category: Uncategorized

Like most people, the first part of 2020 was spent working from home while the world faced the global coronavirus pandemic. I was also recovering from a rotator cuff operation in December 2019.

This meant that by may/June 2020 I found myself getting really out of shape and told my self I needed to start exercising again. I’d not really done anything other than dog walks and a few bike rides in 6 months and I was feeling it.

In the middle of July 2020 I developed an annoying tickly cough. My first though was coronavirus! Lucky the NHS testing process was well developed and I had a test at 7.30 the next day, a Saturday morning.

I had to tell people I had a test as we’d been meeting people and I did screw up the plans of some friends and family but luckily I got the all clear that evening. 12 hours from test to results via text, fair play NHS.

So what have I got then? I had an e-consult with the Dr and we established I was coughing more in the morning and evenings so came to the conclusion it was seasonal asthma, probably triggered with pollen morning and evenings. Take a brown puffer and see if that helps.

It didn’t. By mid August I noticed that I was getting out of breath just taking the rubbish out to the bins, going up the stairs. I didn’t believe this was all down to fitness. Another e-consult and the Dr asked me to get some blood tests done to check what’s going on.

The tests showed that everything was normal apart from low vitamin D and high iron. He asked for a second set of tests to drill into these two things. Unfortunately things took a turn for the worst before the results came back.

Lots of people are asking me for updates, want to know how my treatment is going and generally interested in how we’re dealing with my illness

One of the things I found out straight away is that as soon as you have a major illness you lose all dignity. Doctors and nurses want to ask all sorts of personal questions and are very interested in bodily functions.

Men don’t like to talk about this stuff but it’s important. So I decided to share all the stages of my treatment, warts and all.

I’ll show the ups and downs with all the emotional twists and turns. I’ll also try and do it with a bit of humour. I’m happy to talk and laugh about my illness. It’s possible this may come as a surprise to some but you have to laugh some times.

I’m also setting the dates on the posts to be the actual date of an event. So don’t be surprised to see posts from the past until I catch up.