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.. :(

Nil by mouth again!

Just waiting to go for my MRI scan. I've been on nil by mouth for 13 hours now and starting to feel the pinch!!

Just had a visit from a doc who has explained what they are going to do today. The MRI scan will be conducted at another hospital so they are going to take me there in an ambulance shortly. The MRI scan itself last about 45 minutes then it should be straight back here.

After (a non-existent) lunch they will be carrying out an electro physiological study of my heart. This is another cathode from the groin up to the heart, all done under local anaesthetic. They are basically going to try and electrically stimulate certain parts of the heart to try and bring on the arrythmia again. Sounds rather like clearing a minefield by stamping around in it to me but I am sure they know what they are doing!! Hopefully once they have done these two things we will know what is wrong.

Next on the list for me will be a huge feed!!!

Another day in paradise.

It's Monday, a public holiday in Chile and it's raining.... So unsuprisingly there is not a hell of a lot to report. A Doc has just been in to check how things are and is sure I will be getting my MRI scan tomorrow at 11am, hope it is worth the wait


Still connected up to monitors and am not allowed to get out of bed without a nurse present. It is getting rather tiresome having to ring the bell everytime I need a pee and I haven't seen outside my room since Saturday morning...

It has been great to receive all the emails and comments, it really helps to relieve the boredom and it is nice to know people are thinking of us.

Oh and apparently there was a small explosion outside the British Embassy here last night. Nothing to do with me chey, I was in here all along!

Sunday Lunch

Every cloud has a silver lining, just had Sunday lunch... A rather nice piece of beef:

Then straight after a pretty little nurse came to take my blood pressure.... Who says being ill is no fun!!

CASEVAC!!!

Right, A roundup of what happened after the eventful Friday night. Woke up, feeling OK thinking "righto... will be able to go home soon and might even get the Kitchen door painted on Sunday". This illusion was rapidly shattered by the arrival of Dr Bex who filled me in on the seriousness of the situation. Her initial thought was five days bed rest then a flight to Santiago on Saturday for tests - this was confirmed later in the day by a Cardiologist in the UK. Bugger it, no work on the extension this weekend then! [This is Philomel Hill on Saturday morning.]



The situation pretty much remained the same for the next couple of days - ie, five days bed rest with view to Santiago on Saturday. Bex decided it would be sensible to treat me for heart disease - ie aspirin etc - as this could do no harm and, if I did have early heart disease, it could only help. The real downside to this was that I had to have injections in my stomach twice a day and it made me wish I was carrying a bit of extra lard - if you have a bit of flab it doesn't hurt too badly but I found them effing painful. I was constantly connected up to a monitor and had regular ECGs. The nurses were great and very tolerant of my interference with the monitors - I had them sussed within hours and worked out how to silence the incessant bloody beeps.

On Monday, Bex came to say that the hospital were trying to organise an aeromed for an ill Russian sailor and were looking into the possibility of me being chucked in the back and flown up to Santiago. (Jenny wasn't going to be able to come as there wouldn't be room for her so we started organising for her to fly out on Lan on Saturday.)

After an apparently bad night, in which my blood pressure and pulse weren't satisfactory, the hospital decided on Tuesday morning that I was becoming the priority for the aeromed. The doctors - Bex, Jacqueline (Bennebroek) and Richard (Davies) seemed to think it was better to be cautious and get the tests started asap.

The aeromed contractor, Air Cardal, were not happy to carry both me and the Russian in the same aircraft so it was decided to request two separate flights - the first was soon on its way and Jenny was able to come with me. We got in the ambulance to head to FIGAS (the MPA road was covered in snow and ice and it was deemed safer to fly us to the airport on the Islander). Just as we were at the cemetery (!) we learned that the aircraft had encountered bad weather 150 miles out and had diverted to Comodoro Rivadavia (ironically, the place I was born!) So, back to the hospital to see what happened next. Everyone was brilliant, Paicey brought in his XBox but unfortunately as soon as I grabbed a controller my monitor went berserk so it was cards only! Paicey and Corrinne and Sam came in every night and spent most of Tuesday with Jenny and I which made life much more bearable, plus phone calls galore all of which really helped to keep my mind off things.......



We finally got away from the Islands around 2pm on Wednesday, aboard an Air Cardal Lear Jet. I had a nurse and doctor on board and was hooked up to monitors before take off. The flight was uneventful; three and a half hours (straight over Argentina) was quite something, instead of the 6+ hours normally involved but, with all the necessary equipment, the plane was fairly cramped so it was a relief to get to Santiago. At the airport I was taken off the aircraft and straight into an ambulance - no mucking about - and on to the Clinica Alemana (lights but no sirens!).

I was wheeled up to the cardiology ward where my first nurses were waiting, changed into the fetching nightie you see me sporting now, hooked up to monitors, a saline drip etc... let the ticker testing commence!

Ironically Dad is in Santiago at the moment as well, undergoing treatment for...... heart arrhythmia! Although it is a completely different syndrome to mine it is really rather a coincidence, a useful one though as he is an out patient so is able to help Jenny out with things...

The hospital has free WiFi which is brilliant, hence how I am able to keep this blog up to date and email etc etc, this is me today....



That pretty much covers it all... Are there any questions? ;)

New Room!

Woo hoo, been moved to a new room with a view and a load more space.....

The view is stunning and it is great to see the sun again!

So far I don't really know a hell of a lot more, had a long chat with a doc yesterday about what was going on. Basically it looks like I have some sort of electrical defect in the right ventricle. The MRI scan on Tuesday should confirm things and then we will know a bit more about the way forward. The old ticker isn't really working 100% still having quite a few blips although nothing really serious. The really annoying thing is that every time something out of the ordinary happens my monitor beeps, not too bad during the day but annoys the hell out of me at night!

From Jenny: As you can see, the patient is getting a little frustrated (Day 9 in bed) but he is in much better spirits than I would be in his shoes (or nightie)... perhaps the endless supply of pretty nurses is the key.
Debs, Nuala et al were here last week so it was good to be able to have some time out of the hospital with them and with Rosie living in Santiago I have somewhere else to go other than my hotel room. Once the MRI is done we'll know so much more about what's going on... until then it's a waiting game, trying to help Adam avoid going mad through boredom. Hopefully only two days till that's done!

What happened waaas.......

Right, what the hell happened on Friday night? So far this is what we have managed to piece together.....

Bit of background first of all; went out for supper in the Brasserie with Sam, Jenny and I, John F (I blame him entirely for this, he is the responsible adult!), Dan, Nuala, Paicey and Corrinne, Frank J and Lisa (sorry I forgot you chey!!!). Had a great meal, and then went sleighing as is our wont on a snowy night.

On the inaugural run I was zapping down Philomel Hill behind Frank (wearing John's best coat and boots!!) the next thing I remember I woke up with my head in Frank's lap feeling very very odd! It seems I had been out cold for about 5 minutes and an ambulance had been called. (I actually made the Police news on the radio later in the week, nothing in the paper though must have a chat with the editor!) [This pic is from a previous sleighing expedition - a few weeks earlier.]



I was shipped off to hospital with a suspected head injury and met in Casualty by the formidable team of Dr Bex and Nurse Janice (who, for those who don't know, is Frank's sister. Small world the Falklands!).

To cut a long story a bit shorter (mainly because my memory of this is v hazy) Bex checked my noggin out and found nothing really wrong then they noticed my heart was going berco. Pulse rate went up to around 240 bpm and stayed there!

Needless to say this caused some consternation; I was blissfully unaware of the seriousness of the situation and kept insisting Jenny went home to bed but Janice kept insisting she stay (a common reaction among women when I am in my cups, I have come to notice!!). Pulse stayed around 240-250 and Bex decided that the only safe option was to shock it back into its proper rhythm.

I was duly knocked out and the procedure carried out. When I was awake again (covered in electrodes and things!) Bex explained a bit more of what had been going on, basically my heart was vibrating instead of beating, BP was getting low and erratic and if I sat up I would feel faint. The was because the heart was not actually pumping blood properly. They gave me two shocks, the first 50J shock put my heart into VF for about a while (the printout from the ECG is awesome! will try and get a scanned copy for the blog) then the second 360J shock got things sorted out again.



That is the story of Friday night, will add a bit more about the rest of my week, including how we got to Santiago, soon.

Visitors

Been having loads of visitors, I think there might be more Bennies in Santiago than the Falklands at the moment. It has been great to see everyone, don't think I have ever had this many chicks in my bed.

Mind the heart FFS!

Long Wait

Oh dear, the hospital MRI scanners are both broken and they had been hoping to get me into another hospital for a scan.. Just heard that they have not been able to so now the next chance is Tuesday! :( They cannot send me out to the hotel because they do not know what caused my "bad turn".... Looks like a long weekend of bed rest......

Fortunately I heard just in time to get a feed in before they came round with afternoon tea, so get two loads of chow in row, every cloud has a silver lining..

Must go, here they come with the food!! :)

In Santiago

In Clinica Alemana, have had angiogram, echocardiogram, multiple ECGs, brain scan, blood tests. Angiogram was all clear, echo showed possible problem, am now waiting for an MRI scanner to be free. Will post a load more detail later....

All is good, but am on nil by mouth so effing hungry. Got an electric bed though so that makes up for it!