I went back to see the GP to get the spirometry results on Friday. Unfortunately on Tuesday I had started a sore throat. A really bad one and the only thing that helped was painkillers. I was also quite breathless from the Tiotropium, I had kept it going just to show the GP the effects it had on me (he was not involved in the last attempt).

He said to come off Tiotropium but if things had not improved within two days, to take the Erythromycin he was giving me. Late Saturday evening severe breathlessness started. It was a toss up from calling for an ambulance or trying the antibiotics. I choose the antibiotics, which did have some effect, but it was not a quick fix. A cough started as well.

On Thursday I went back and saw another GP after some discussion about how some drugs worked or did not. One of my cases is that Paracetamol has never worked for me and so I use Co-dydramol. I have found in the recent years that dis-solvable Paracetamol does work provided I've got time and the place to use it. After this chat it was decided to give me Erythromycin and Amoxicillin as liquids and dis-solvable Prednisolone. It maybe that I am not getting (and never have had) the full benefit of some of the drugs that I take. Previously they might have been slow to work but in the end did, but now with the Ileostmy it passes out quickly and only gets partially absorbed. It is a new look on things and will have to see how this progresses.

The breathing has improved a little and the cough is not as bad. A the moment I still do not hold much hope for working early in the next week. The Spirometry test was OK by the way.

Every since coming out of hospital I have had a cough and it won't go away. I have had antibiotic after antibiotic and nothing seems to cure it. The moment I stop taking them the cough gets worse again. This time I went back to the doctor before I finished the last course and got some more, different yet again.

He also put me back on Tiotropium, this cause me serious breathing problems when I last tried it. Previously it was a powder and I was taking other drugs which I discovered by accident, were also causing breathing problems. The accident was forgetting to pick up the prescription and totally running out of Flecainide. This was something given to control irregular heartbeat which had been fixed by an operation but the heart people did not want me to come off of it. I had been on it for several years even though I did not think that it was doing any good, but of course the doctor is always right (or supposed to be)

The Tiotropium this time is different, it is an aerosol inhaler. I suppose this has an advantage in that there is no powder carrier in it's make up. So far, about three days, I have had no breathing problems.

The other problem with the cough is that it is causing chest and stomach pains. As a consequence I am taking a lot of pain killers as well. I had a bit of a rest from them but have started again this morning.

I will have to see how this goes now, I have got appointments for BP test (but as they were so late yesterday I walked out), and a spirometry test.

It many months since I have added anything to my health blog but as I sit here in the medical assessment ward of St. Peters hospital, I thought I would add something to bring it up to date.

On Thursday (11/12/08) evening I started a chest infection and saw the GP on Friday lunchtime. I was given some antibiotics and told to go to A&E if it got any worse. I called the ambulance on Saturday afternoon and taken straight there. It was causing me serious breathing problems. As usual things did not show anything, listening to the chest showed that it was clear, as did the X-Ray. But I was put on IV and oral antibiotics, a nebuliser and oxygen. I think the tests (mainly blood) showed that there was an infection, these seem to have gone well, I shall be out later on today.

Earlier in the year I had a follow up (from my operation) CT scan of my heart. Every subsequent appointment I went too did not refer to this but a previous abdominal one. Eventually in August, I got a letter saying that my heart consultant had emigrated that day to Australia and they would be appointing someone else. A couple of days later I got another letter saying that there had been a 'technical fault' on the CT scan and none of the heart veins could be seen. Eventually I saw a new consultant and told him that the CT scan must be repeated as soon as possible. This was done on a Tuesday evening and by Thursday I went to the GP with serious bruising, off to St. Peters A&E and another overnight stay in hospital. They were worried that femoral artery had been nicked but an ultrasound scan showed that it was OK and it was just serious bruising. This scan did show that the veins were all OK and that there had been no narrowing due to scaring.

I have also had appointments with the lung clinic, again follow ups from the heart OP due to the breathing problems I had had after it. They put me on a drug called Tiotropium. All this managed to do was to make my breathing worse. Finally they diagnosed COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disorder) and been signed off by them. I have also found that another drug Flecainide may have been causing some bad symptoms, so I stopped taking those.

I later discussed this with the GP, who said I must talk to heart people about this drug. Two days later I got a letter from the heart people, saying as my breathing had improved they were signing me off.

So here I now sit in the discharge lounge waiting for drugs then I can go home. My breathing is still bad but slightly better. I am going out with two different types of antibiotics a liquid form of Amoxicillian and Clarithromycin also some steroids Prednisolone. The pharmacist has been very good checking on the types of drug I have been given. Spotting that I should have not had the coated type of Prednisolone but the plain sort so I will be starting a new course from the beginning. The Amoxicillian I had on the ward was intravenous so I am just continuing with the liquid type (not the usual capsules)

I had a forty eight hour heart monitor fitted on Friday. All other monitors that I have had fitted have only been twenty four hours. This time the pads where plastered over so that they would not work loose.

With the first few hours the pads were starting to itch. This hasn't happened before. After the forty eight hours were up, when the pads were removed, there were red marks where the plasters were. This stopped where the pads were, only where the plasters were.

If I have one fitted again I will have to make sure the either no plasters are applies or a type that does not cause a reaction.

It is too soon to have any results from it yet.

I've been very slack at at writing lately but here is a delayed update. The Arse doctor had ordered a chest and abdomen CT scan. Which has now been done but as usual there was great deal of trouble finding a suitable vein to put a line into.

As an aside to this the Heart man had also ordered a CT scan when I was last in hospital. This was a special one called a 64 bit CT scan. There was only two places that could be done one was at the Royal Surrey in Guildford and the other at a private clinic in Weybridge. It was booked at Guildford.

It was due on a Monday morning and late on Friday I was rung to say that the specialist had gone sick and it could not go ahead, a new appointment would be booked. After a week and a half I had not heard from them and so chased the Heart man's secretary. It took her over a week and still did could not find out what was going on from the CT dept. but later managed to get an answer from a different contact there. Result was they were not doing any scans at that moment.

In the end, an appointment was booked at the Weybridge clinic. This happened about three weeks ago, the doctor even found a vein that worked, on top of my foot. It worked so well that lots of blood ended up on the floor after it had gone in and they were trying to put the plug in and also when they removed it after the job had been done.

I had a follow up Heart appointment last Wednesday. Unfortunately the scan results had not reached him. All he could do was to apologise and say that he did notr kn ow the answer to my breathlessness.

An hour before that appointment I had made one to see the Stoma Nurse as I had a sore around the stoma that had developed after a long drive to Germany a two weeks before. I did say to her that I had driven 1000 miles just to make this appointment. This was true as I had just driven down to Italy and back.

There was no real solution to the sore but did make the bag cutout slightly larger. She gave me a different sort of paste to help with sealing with does go set as hard and does not sting. I was also to stop using the silver nitrate to stop the bleeding.

The sore has improved a bit but not as fast as I was expecting. I am still getting leaks around it as the sore which is part of the problem because as it is open it produces liquid which stops the sealing. A bit of a losing battle until it heals completely.

I had a follow up appointment with the arse doctor on Wednesday. It was the head honcho that did the operation. He sat down with my notes and now I removed your spleen didn't I? NO, oh it was...? NO, oh, he reads the notes, Oh yes three years ago rectal cancer. Correct, it gives you a lot of confidence doesn't it.

We had a chat about how things were going and discussed the possible reversal of the stoma, when I retire. I got the usual finger up the bum.

Everything seems to be ok and I left with a blood form and told to book a CT scan.

I did my first work on the 7th (made a mistake and said 14th), I took a bit too much on and overdid it. So since then I have been taking very easy. At the same time work has been quite slack which has been quite useful. On Monday I shifted six boxes of flowers from Hayes to Feltham. Now these are not run of the mill type of boxes of flowers that are delivered by the Interflora people, there are about four foot long and eight inches square (usually strapped together in pairs). I had no problem carrying (only half of it) into the delivery point.

So it looks like I am well on the way to be well and fit again.

I went for another walk today, with Colin and the dog to the Semaphore Tower on Wisley Common. I stormed up the hill with virtually no problems. I was a little puffed when I got to the top unlike Colin who was shattered. This was unusual, as he is the one that used to hang around waiting for me to catch my breath.

So I am now getting very keen on my new found energy levels. I’m looking forward to getting back to work now. Tomorrow I am off to the hospital for the anticoagulation clinic. I have phoned them to say that I have been through this and only need a blood test for my INR levels. I have been told that as I have had an ‘incident’, they need to review everything.

I decided to walk down to the chemist to pickup my prescription. Taking the dog with me, we had a very good walk. I got the prescription and walked home.

Mum was a bit concerned that I would ring her up and she would have to come and collect me. As it was she was very surprised that I was back so quickly.

I got only slightly puffed but otherwise I felt really good.

Just as I left the ward yesterday afternoon, one of the nurses said 'You know about your appointment tomorrow', No, 'You have an appointment at 11:00 in nuclear medicine.'

Now this turned out to be the 'V' part of the VQ scan. I had the same girl and mentioned that I had got mixed up, and she said the the Angiogram people had rung her just to check, before doing the Angiogram. The 'V' stands for ventilation, this part of the test I had to breath a medical gas with some radioactive isotope added to it for five minutes. This is where it was very confusing as I had been told this part of the test had to be done by a specialist coming from Guildford!, but there you go.

After the breathing I went into the same room as before and had very similar pictures taken with the same machine.

On a good note I did walk into the hospital from the bottom of the hill and did not have to much of breathing problem, so things are looking up. I have also just popped into the surgery with a prescription. I thought I had everything when I left the hospital but these I had forgotten that I had run out of.