MOT

We are back in Santiago, it is time for me to have my first set of checkups since the operation back in July. Have just been in to see Dr Montagne who plugged me into his fancy laptop and downloaded the info from the ICD. Apparently everything is OK, nothing wrong apart from the obvious!



I now have a cleanish bill of health for another six months.

The weather here is fantastic, sun shining and temps between high 20s low 30s, much better than the snow and ice we had on our last visit! We have had Debbie with us for these first couple of days, on her way to NZ.


Going to make the most of the sunshine for the next few days now... The weather at home is apparently utter crap so intend to get a suntan while I can!

Home again

We are now back at home after a pretty uneventful flight back from Santiago. The 04:15 start was a bit scary but other than that it was all fine.

We got back to be met by a welcoming party at the house and then discovered that last week the boiler had thrown a fit and flooded the attic! The ceiling in the sitting room had come down and there was a hell of a mess. Poor Nuala had walked in to check on the cat to be met by a wall of steam and water pouring out of the ceiling, she promptly called Debbie (god knows why!!)


Then the cavalry was called and a load of our friends turned up and fixed EVERYTHING... Corrinne and Dad took away all the linen which had been soaked in dirty water and washed the lot. Pecker, Paicey, Sam and Tom fixed the ceiling with Nuala, Corrinne, Larissa and Debs tidying up behind them (no mean task!). They managed to keep it a secret from us, so when we turned up on Saturday it was almost as if nothing had happened, a truly amazing achievement!



And this is what it looks like now!


A huge thank you to everyone involved, it was a herculean effort and I shudder to think how it would have felt to have been faced by that on our return! It's great to be back, the animals seemed to be very happy to see us.


Hoping to get back to some form of normality now...

Last night in Santiago

Well this is it, our last night in Santiago... We are off to have one last feed of steak, bit nervous actually as we are meeting up with Lisa again(she is passing through on her way back to FI), the last time I had a meal with Lisa I bloody nearly died shortly aferwards (see "what happened waaas")! Then it is a 5:10 pick up for the airport in the morning... urk....

It has actually been quite nice to get to know Santiago over the last couple of weeks and it has been good for Jenny and I to be able to try and come to terms with the changes all this will mean for us.

We went to pick up the last of the bits and pieces from the hospital this morning, I now have the letter I need to get through the airport scanners, there will be a proper ID at some stage but that takes a while to process. For anyone who is interested this is the actual ICD I had implanted.... I think I prefer the name EnTrust to Vitality AVT!

Woohoo!

Could this day get any better? Just after getting the all clear from the hospital we popped into a cinema we happened to be passing and wonder of wonders they had The Simpsons movie in English!!! So that was two hours taken care of.... WOOHOOO!

(Never forget the inner child.)

Fixed!

Just had my final XRay and the pneumothorax has completely gone so I am clear to fly this Saturday... Very relieved and can't wait to get home.

Going to kick back and enjoy the last few days now, without the threat of further delays looming over us.

Reminders of Home.

Jenny is now feeling fine again, the drugs the hospital sorted out for her seem to be doing the trick and she is almost back to normal, albeit a bit tender still.

Had a lovely meal out with Tom, Larissa, Laura (who was very quiet) and Rosie last night, went to a Mongolian restaurant (the type where the chef cooks on the table in front of you) which was fantastic. The chef took a real shine to Rosie, to the extent of making a special rice heart for her, not sure Rosie was so taken with him though, apparently his hands were too small whatever that means!



We went to a rather bizarre Falklands War exhibit in the military museum here in Santiago today. It had a neutral view of the sovereignty issue which was nice to see and they also had a copy of the 25th anniversary PN which pleased Jenny!!!



Then to top it all off we had our first home cooked meal in over a month, nice and simple...

In the blurb for this place it says the rooms are fitted with an "American" kitchen...... what the hell is that? Answers on a postcard, a free Häagen-Dazs pot to the first correct (or most imaginative) answer...

Back to the Clinica

We had a very long night last night, both went to bed about 8 o'clock feeling grotty and to cut a long story short I had to take Jenny to the A&E dept of the Clinica Alemana at 3:30 in the morning as she was suffering really bad stomach pains...



They whacked in a drip of some kind and carried out a quick scan, and she was home again with a full diagnosis and feeling much better by 7:30. A truly amazing service!

Jenny is still feeling a bit ropey but we met up with Tom, Larissa and Laura for lunch which kind of made up for everything, just wish we where flying with them tomorrow...

Independence day

We have now moved into a little apartment, quite a cute little place and it has a kitchen so at least it allows us to rustle up some of our own food.


Went for an XRay this morning and the pneumothorax has almost entirely gone, I will be having a, hopefully final, XRay on Tuesday to confirm that I will be OK to fly on Saturday 11th.

Still been taking it easy and trying to find things to pass the time up here. We went bowling with Rosie and Will (a friend of hers from teaching) this morning which was fun; my average is gradually creeping up, but still very poo! I just can't seem to pick up the spares...


Having an early night in our new casa - Jenny's not feeling 100% so good chance to recharge batteries. Tom, Larissa and Laura are due to arrive from Gibraltar tomorrow morning and we're looking forward to spending the day with them. Laura will be so different - we haven't seen her since the end of May!

Going native!

Just had a chest XRay to check out the status of the pnuemothorax, it has shrunk a lot but is still there so it is unlikely that I will be allowed to fly this weekend, boo. Got another XRay on Thursday to check the status but even if that is clear they will probably need to wait a week from then before I am allowed to fly.

We have decided to go native, we are moving to an apartment on Thursday and have bought Bip! cards for the metro and bus. Eating out and using taxis is all fine and dandy but was starting to get bloody expensive! It is going to be nice to be able to cook our own food.

Itching to get home now, but will just have to bide our time, got no choice really...

Viejo!

Had another quiet day, doing a bit of walking around to try and build up a tiny bit of fitness. It is amazing how weak the nearly 3 weeks in bed has left me. My leg muscles are stiff as boards this evening, feel like I have run a few miles instead of just bimbling around.

We went to watch the new Harry Potter film (great special effects etc but am I the only one who thinks that the actors playing Hermione and Ron are utter, utter crap?) and when we walked out I looked like an old man, I had stiffened up so much!

Gee gees...

Had a great couple of hours at the track, we stayed for about six races. Raymond had even bought a hat for the event!


My horse came in at 26:1, I had 2000 pesos on it so that was supper paid for.. Raymond and Heather had both bet on the same horse, Heather had 5000 running on it so had a really good win! That is the winning horse behind us.


Highlight/hariest moment of evening was Heather walking towards us waving her cash which resulted in us being mobbed by hordes of begging kids! Nancy soon got rid of them though with a few choice words in Spanish!

Said goodbye to Paicey today, it has been great to have him over here for the last week, a real morale booster, very sad to see him go...

Have just been for an X-Ray and the pneumothorax is still there but it has shrunk significantly, am booked in for another x-ray on Tuesday, fingers crossed for then.

Taking it easy.

Having another quietish day today, just mooching around Parque Arauco and enjoying being out and about in the sun. Went bowling this morning, that is about as energetic as I can get sports-wise at the moment!

The internet connection at our hotel is poo and very expensive so the updates will be a bit more infrequent from now on. Starbucks hot spot will probably be our connection of choice henceforth, why pay when you can get it free?

Off to see the gee gees with Heather and Snoozer, the Pooles and Rosie tonight. A bit of gentle gambling should be ok, have to watch the adrenalin though (Doctor's orders!)...

Sushi, steak and a virgin.

I am finally out and about and am my own boss again. Have made the most of it today, started off with a nice load of sushi...


Went up Cerro San Cristobal and had a look at the statue of the Virgin Mary up there (Paicey went up the last bit by himself... see if you can spot him!)

Met up with Bettsie in the evening and had the best steak I have had in ages... truly amazing...

It has been a big day and I feel quite exhausted. Really looking forward to a night in a bed with no wires or tubes attached now...

I'm free

Well that's it; I'm out. After 20 days in hospital I am finally 'de Alta' as the Chileans so foppishly call it. Just having a last coffee with Celia in the hospital before we go.


I cannot praise the hospital here enough, they have been simply amazing and I know I have already said it but thanks again to everyone at KEMH for looking after me so well when I was there. I am now marking time until my lung reinflates properly, I am allowed to lead a normalish life while here, no bloody skiing though and need to keep the alcohol intake well below normal Benny levels....

Forgot to mention that Jenny stayed the night in the hospital on Tuesday night, they have sofa beds in the rooms and are happy for family to stay, so that was a nice. I was still hooked up to a heart monitor though so no funny stuff!


And this has to be a good sign, I put on my usual random day of the week socks, and would you believe it they are the right ones for today!


Sushi time!

Mañana chey.

Just heard from Dr Montagna; I am going to be discharged tomorrow. He is coming in first thing to check the settings and so on with my ICD again then I should be out and about by about 10... Bloody marvelous!

That will have been 20 days in hospital, without beer or wine...... good God!

Under starter's orders.

I had a visit from Dr Montagna this morning who confirmed the worst, ie the air 'bubble' has not shrunk at all over the last 24 hours; he referred me to a pulmonary specialist, Dr Caviedes, who has just been to see me. Dr Montanga said that if I lived in Santiago he would be happy to release me... so we decided later to ask if I could become an outpatient - there's only so much television a man can watch.

Dr Caviedes had seen my xrays and listened to my chest and said that while he was happy for me to leave hospital, I can't leave Chile. The good news is that the air pocket is very small. But the bad news is that the lung that is partially deflated has to be completely re-inflated for at least week before I am allowed to fly (the re-inflation could take anything from 1 - 7 days.) So, we are hoping to be home a week on Saturday... best case scenario. Dr Caviedes is a great guy, really friendly; turns out he is a sailor so we spent ages talking about sailing and looking at photographs of the Falklands.

We asked him about me becoming an outpatient and he seemed happy about this but we need to run it by Dr Montanga... so keeping fingers crossed I'll get that steak tonight...

SITREP.

Thought I would give a bit more detail on what these bubbles are all about. I have a small pneumothorax, this means I have air in the chest cavity and my (in this case left) lung is not inflating completely. It is really a very small bubble but of course I cannot fly or leave hospital until it has gone. I am still on Oxygen because this apparently helps the air to absorb naturally and the breathing exercises and physio is all supposed to help as well so fingers crossed.


Had another X-Ray this morning and am waiting to hear from the Doc....

I feel fine now, even the ICD is starting to get comfortable. I had the dressing changed today and it is all healing up very nicely.

The Harry Potter book was excellent...

More of the same.

Well I am stuck in hospital for at least another day and probably until Friday. The air bubble has still not been absorbed and they cannot let me go until it has. Having more physio and doing breathing exercises, also on Oxygen now to help it get absorbed... At least I have got Señor Potter and his compañeros to pass the time.


There goes the steak and sushi. To cap it all I didn't get any breakfast this morning because I was away getting an X-Ray... This isn't funny anymore!

Let's get physical!

Been down to the gym here this afternoon, an amazing facility. They wanted to check out my BP and heart rate while I did some really minor phys. So they hooked me up to a wireless monitor and off we went.

Never had to have any sort of physio before so this may be normal, but I was very impressed with how they took my blood pressure manually while I was still cycling/walking... clever stuff!

It was all at a very leisurely pace, fastish walk and gentle cycle, a bit frustrating and, having been on my back for the best part of two weeks, it was very tempting to crank up the pace a bit and crack on!! They weighed me at the end and it turns out I have lost nearly 5kg since I got to Santiago... 4 days of ayuno to thank for that!

They've got me on a breathing machine to try and help absorb the air bubbles in my chest as well. Basically I have to breath in as hard as I can (till my lungs pop) 10 times in a row.


Paicey and Jenny are drilling me mercilessly on it; they have both sworn not to have any steak 'till I get out and I think they are starting to suffer.

Blowing bubbles.

Well, I am stuck in hospital for another day. Unfortunately I still have a little bubble of air in the chest cavity left over from the operation. This is not really serious but they want to make sure that it is all gone before they let me go. Been getting X-Rays every morning to check on it so fingers crossed for the one tomorrow morning.

The good news is that Paicey has just tracked down an English language copy of the latest Harry Potter book so that is this evening taken care of.

Steak or sushi... not sure which to go for tomorrow, I reckon sushi for lunch and steak for supper......

Testing, testing......

Just had The Doc in to check out the programming of the ICD thingy, all went well. Fascinating technology! He explained a few more things to me as well which all helps to put my mind at rest, mobile phones, microwave ovens etc are fine, there are two things I will never be able to do again:

1.go through airport metal detectors, I will be given a special card to get around them
2.have any kind of MRI scan, I can't say I am overly upset about that, one of them is quite enough in a lifetime!



Been for a walk around again this morning with the physio, I am really starting to feel like normal again now, can hardly feel the implant.

I just finished Sunday lunch which was excellent, the food here really isn't too bad, although it can get a bit samey. At least I am getting it now!

Paice maker!

Bloody hell nearly broke my ticker this morning, was just flicking through the channels trying to find the Grand Prix (I failed) when who should walk in but Paicey! Turns out he has come up for a week to keep Jenny and I company, Somehow he managed to keep it all secret from us, a really nice suprise..... V Well done Corrinne!



P.S. Nuala: Rosie has the boots don't worry.

Oh happy day.

The sun is shining in Santiago and joy of joys I have just been allowed to have a proper shower. By myself. My first proper wash for 12 days!

Happy happy happy!

It was a slow day.

A nice quiet day today, spent most of the day waiting to move out of the coronary unit and into a normal room. Had a couple of walks around with a physio called Maria Theresa who will be familiar to a lot of people back home.



Finally moved to my new room during supper and was gobsmacked, it is like a hotel! The toilet alone would put lot of hotels I have stayed in to shame, mind you I am not sure I would like to be paying the day rate here! (thanks FIG!).




It's been a very wet day here and there is snow lying really low down on the mountains. Jenny got absolutely soaked waiting for a taxi, as typically today was the day she had to change hotels. Apparently most of the hotels are full of Brazilian skiers at the moment, I wonder when the Brazilian volleyball team gets here.....

One small step.

Woohoo, I have finally been allowed out of bed and have been walking around. The nurses came in this afternoon to remove the dressing from my shoulder.



And this is what it looks like, the circle on my right is a burn from the defibrillator pads. (Paicey this pic is for you, sorry the scar is not longer!)



Immediately after that Dr Montagne came to see me again to check out the damage then got a physio to take me for a walk around for 10 minutes, it felt amazing to be properly on my feet again. Two weeks is a bloody long time to be lying down. We only did a few laps of the ward but it was great to see a different view as well. It would appear that I am the youngest in here by about 30 years! Check out the stylish footwear, will post a close up at a later date for the foot fetishists out there!



Most importantly of all I was allowed to take supper sitting down....in a chair!

The morning after

Well it is done, I have now joined the ranks of people who have to tick yes to those 'dicky ticker' options on those medical forms you see. The operation took quite a lot longer than they had hoped for some reason, I think they had a problem getting the ICD (as those of us in the know refer to it) to bed down properly. As Jenny has already said, I am fine but pretty bloody stiff and it does feel strange having an extra bit in your chest. You can just about make out the lump in this pic.


Yesterday was a pretty weird day, I was feeling quite apprehensive about the operation anyway and then suddenly the eyesight in my left eye went blurry. An opthamologist was called and he immediately started muttering about embolisms and "muy suerte" etc. Needless to say I found that pretty bloody worrying. Anyway my eyesight came back shortly afterwards and the eye chap had a good old look around (after putting some drops in which blinded me for about two hours!), declared all was well and disappeared. I am taking that as a good sign!

Shortly after that I was wheeled into theatre for the implant, it was done under local but I was pretty heavily sedated so most of it passed me by. I do remember a hell of a lot of pulling and pushing on my chest while they put the ICD in place but other than that was pretty painless and anyway I had a pretty nurse to look at. (One of the nurses later explained that because I'm skinny they didn't have anything to hide the ICD under and it was a bit of a job to get it in place.)

The rest is pretty much as Jenny has described it below, the leg shaking thing freaked me out a fair bit but apparently it is fairly normal.

My consultant Dr Montagne came around for a chat in the evening after I was feeling a bit more with it. That enormous folder contains my notes from the past 7 days!



And that was followed by a bloody good feed as promised, still hanging out for a decent steak and a glass of wine though.



This morning I have been for an X-ray to check the ICD is in the right place (went in a wheel chair, made a huge change from being wheeled everywhere in my bed), this is the first time I have not been plugged into a machine since I left the Falklands.



I then had another sponge bath from the nutty nurse who insisted that I would be unable to wash myself despite being able to get up and go to the toilet (or "pee pee" as she so fetchingly calls it).


Hoping that I am going to be moved to a new room this aftenoon, away from the "close observation" rooms I am in now. Which is nice.

Only when I breathe...

Jenny again... Adam is sitting up (carefully) and talking but not quite enough up to doing this entry.

Just thought I'd post this picture as proof for those who are worried about how he's doing - better by the minute he says. It doesn't hurt to laugh, just to breathe...hmm...

Here he is reading a message from FIDF PSI Steve Tooby... the content is far too obscene to share!

Shhhh...

Jenny here... Adam has had the op and is sleeping at the moment. I saw the doctor for a few minutes afterwards and he said everything is fine. Adam's chest looks quite bruised at first glance so he might be bit sore for the next few days.

A couple of minutes after they brought him back to the room his legs started moving a lot, as though he was trying to scratch. I asked him if they were itchy and he said that it wasn't him moving them... the anaesthetist said this involuntary movement is a common thing after surgery and asked Richard and I to leave the room while they sorted him out.

This they duly did and after a while he was left to sleep with me on patient watch. He sat up once, looking a bit startled, checked his legs were still attached(I guess they are a bit numb from the relaxant they gave him) and when I reassured him they were, he went back to sleep.

Will write more when he's awake. Thanks for all the emails and messages... it makes the wobbly moments much less wobbly.

The end is nigh....

The light is back on.

Just been visited by my consultant who outlined the seriousness of the problem I have, a VERY scary discussion. Arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia it is known as, first thing he said was it is extremely rare and most common in Italians, not sure what to make of that! Apparently these sudden deaths you hear about in sportspeople - just dropping dead on the pitch - are frequently caused by this problem. This startling news made me feel very lucky to be alive. He also said I was very very lucky to have been in the KEMH as they gave me exactly the right treatment and almost certainly saved my life.....Thanks guys!

He said it cannot be reliably treated with drugs and the only real solution (other than just hoping I am near a hospital if it happens again) is the implant I wrote about before.

The upshot of it all is the op is on for Midday tomorrow (Thursday), with a view to being out and about on Monday but we will just wait and see.

Once again it has been great to get all the messages and comments, thanks. Great to have a visit from Ian Betts who arrived from the UK (and Bisley) this morning.

P.S. This week I 'ave mostly been eatin' bread and ham (and a LOT of water!!) ! Bring on the steak!

More Waiting

Well the bad news is my op is not happening tonight now.. There has been some sort of "administrative" hold up. Not sure what it is yet or even whether I am going to get the op at all. Should know more later today..

The light at the end of the tunnel has been switched off!

Bionic Man.

Following on from last night's information, the Doctor has just been in to confirm (KEMH willing) that they are going to be fitting an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator this evening. Basically it is a device a bit like a pacemaker which monitors the heart and zaps it if it starts misbehaving. When they put it in they are going to test that it works by doing what they did yesterday again and seeing if it stops the problem. This is all going to be done under General Aneathestic (thank God!!)

This is what one of the doofers looks like:



The op isn't until this evening so managed to get a breakfast in this morning, just as well as I was bloody starving again! In the end I went 22 hours without food yesterday and was not looking forward to doing it again today...

Feel a bit violated following a bed bath by the scariest nurse I have ever met... My boundaries of decency have been stretched to the limits after she decided to carry out the whole procedure with the door wide open, to cap it all the mad old bird muttered to herself the whole time as well!

Recce by fire!

Woah… what a day.

Got quite excited about the MRI – finally, an end to the waiting, time to get things sorted out. Was picked up by an ambulance crew and wheeled out to my carriage (lights but no sirens again) and drove the 15-odd minutes to the University hospital. The best part of the day was the short period between the hospital and the ambulance when I was in the lovely sunshine, even though it was only for a few seconds it felt bloody marvelous!



I had been told the MRI would involve lying still with my body in a tube for about 45 minutes but it turned out to be double that time. Jenny was able to come with me and sat in the room with the doctor.(I have now seen far more of my husband than I ever thought possible – down to his spine, lungs, heart etc. Nor have I ever seen him so still… When we passed the hour mark I actually thought he would spontaneously combust! - Jenny)



Eventually it was all over and again we were back in the ambulance for the trip back to the Clinica Alemana. On the way, the doctor and ambulance crew gave us a bit of a city tour and, given my god awful hunger, by the time we got back we had the names of some good restaurants to try when I’m released. The lovely nursies plugged me into a liquid lunch drip which took the edge off my hunger but certainly didn't fill my belly.



I had only been back in my room about an hour when they took me away for an electrophysiological study. The idea was to try and provoke my heart to go wrong again so they could find what part was causing the arrhythmia. They succeeded.

Everything is pretty hazy from the procedure… they inserted the electrodes and played around with the rhythm of my heart for a while (I was awake, with a local anaesthetic), they manually made my heart speed up to around 150 odd bpm then dropped it back to 50.. All very surreal. Then they hit the jackpot, I knew they had it because I suddenly felt very strange and my heart rate roared up to 240 – basically what I had on Friday 6th. Things moved pretty quickly from this point, the nurse banged in a sedative sharpish and the next thing I knew, I was back in my room, trying to figure out what had happened.

All I can say is I’m glad I had had a few drinks when I had this before in KEMH because it was bloody scary when they did it this time with me sober!!

After a siesta, a doctor came in and explained that they had found what seems to have caused the problem…. Basically it looks like I have a piece of my heart that doesn’t work as it should; Jenny’s nagging about the amount of butter I eat has clearly been wasted as the doc says it’s something I was born with.

They are still examining the results of the MRI and the study from today but one option is to put a wire into my heart, connected to a battery which would shock my heart back into its proper rhythm, should the arrhythmia happen again. As the doc said, it would mean that if it went mad while we were out in the middle of nowhere, the electrical pulse would make it return to its proper beat.

It’s a relatively straightforward thing to do but the hospital here will have to contact our hospital and make sure they are happy for it to happen. …So that’s pretty much it for now.

A long day with no food but once again I hit the jackpot with two meals in quick succession so feel pretty human again now... BTW I learnt a new word... Ayuno means nil by mouth and once again I will be having that on my door again tomorrow.. :(