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.

I have just had a visit from the Chest Professor and I think he is as puzzled as all the others regarding breathlessness. He listened and gave me a breath test which gave two reading of 330 l/min and one of 300. This is about the same as when I last saw him in the clinic.

So the plan now is to have the special CT scan (to be done at the Royal Surrey) in the next couple of weeks, also a full lung function test again. See the chest man in OP in 4 weeks and to bring the heart appointment for from the original 12 weeks to 6 weeks.

I should be at home later this afternoon.

I’ve just seen the doctors and as there was nothing untoward on the Angiogram, they want to get rid of me. They want to arrange the CT scan that they originally hummed and arred about now but it may take some weeks to do! Then to see me in the Outpatients clinic. This is exactly what I didn’t want to happen.

I have insisted on seeing the chest man before leaving but they have argued that I had a lung function test a month ago and things will not have changed. Well something has and if it’s not the heart then maybe it’s the lungs. Apparently the CT scan I had done two days ago covered that and it didn’t show a problem.

I am still insisting on seeing a chest person before I go.

I got taken off for, what I assumed to be, the ‘V’ of the VQ Scan. But the staff didn’t seem to know what I was on about when said tell me about the ‘V’ part of the scan. I was told I was down for an Angiogram. I asked for a sedative and initially they were reluctant to do this but before going in I saw the consultant (number 3) who said yes.

I first had a common one but can’t remember the name (I think Diazipan), then that was topped up to double the dose. Still in pain, so I then got Morphine, then that was doubled up, as well as with something else. If only they had listened and given it in the first place maybe I wouldn’t have been as tense and maybe not needed extra.

Anyway as a result I have some cholesterol build up but none of the arteries were blocked. They talked of treating this with drugs; I assume they mean statins (I’m a little dubious of these as I have heard so many bad stories of them). There appears to be no reason for the high BP around the lungs. Meaning, that they still don’t have an answer to my breathlessness.

I will hear tomorrow all of this and maybe pick up a bit more as I was under the influence today.