Hello all,
Before I start I apologise for the length of my post and please understand I in no way want to lecture anyone I just want to share my story.
Ive been a member here for some 4 years or so and as you can see I'm not a hectare. My point being that I don't post a great deal but I do come on here almost everyday to read the posts. I have been reading the post about an unkept plot and whilst I understand that the plot has had weeds etc for some 3 years and there are no health issues I would like to tell you about my story. The reason for doing so is inpart to give thanks to the friends and fellow plot holders who helped me keep my plot and to encourage anyone who has a plot to keep an eye out for your fellow plot holders and if you can spare some time to help someone out then I hope this post encourages you to do so because without the help we got we would have lost our plot. I used to make comments about unkept plots and I confess I never helped out any of my neighbours but my experience has opened my eyes and made me abit more compassionate. We have had our plot for about 5 years and through hard work we got it looking pretty good and very productive but then our nightmare began.
I will copy and paste my post from another forum about pancreatitis to save me typing.
I'm not one for posting on forums but I want to tell you all my story in the hope it may be of help to anyone going through what I and my family have been through. My OH turned to these forums for help and to understand the condition when I was admitted to hospital with acute pancreatitis around September 2008 and I hope this post will show anyone going through this that despite it being a truly horrible illness there is light at the end of the tunnel. My pancreatitus was caused by a gall stone. I have never consumed alcohol.
September 2008 I couldn't take the pain any more, after weeks of vomiting and feeling ill I finally couldn't cope and went to my locay A&E. 13 months later I finally left hospital. I cannot remember the events leading up to my going to hospital. I've lost all memory of the last month before I went into hospital. I went in on a Tuesday morning and by the next day I was on a level 1 ward ( I believe thats 1 ward below Intensive care) next day I went into intensive care and remained there for 5 months. I was on a life support machine for 4 1/2 months. In that time I had 4 necrosectomies. a spleenic arterial bleed which nearly killed me (and left a huge pool of blood all over the floor) and resulted in needing 20 units of blood, I also had a pseudo-cyst the size of a house brick which again almost resulted in my death. I also suffered kidney failure followed by multiple organ failure. All in all I had over 60 units of blood, my body was chilled when my temperatue spiked at 44c, I'm not sure of the name for this but I was hooked up to a machine that removed the blood from my body and chilled it then pumped it back into my body. I had to have electric shocks when I flatlined and my partner was called in twice in the early hours of the morning to say I wasn't going to survive the night. I was given a 1 in 10 chnce of surviving. 1 night she was called in and a surgeon ran past her to get to the operating theatre, it later turned out that the surgeon saved my life.
I had many many awful experiences in intensive care made a million times worse by the fact I had a young family who wanted to see me.
After the 5 months I was taken to a general ward. I was unable to move. My arms and legs had stopped working due to nerve damage and muscle wastage caused by my length of stay in intensive care and the medication I was on. I had loads of different procedures whilst on the general ward including another visit to intensive care. I stayed on the ward before being transferred to a rehabilitation hospital.
I arrived at rehab unable to walk or move whilst in bed. I now had use of my arms but not my legs. After 5 months of work and mental torture I finally left rehab in October 2009. I was determined to not leave in a wheelchair and thats what I achieved. I was also over 10 stone lighter. I am not diabetic due to being left with a small portion of my pancreas.
3 weeks ago I returned to hospital to have my gall bladder removed. This was removed openly instead of keyhole due to the scar tissue I had inside. I was told by my surgeon that I had more gall stones and sand. So I had a ticking time bomb.Last week I saw the nurse to have 52 clips removed from the opening. I'm still on cruthches and its a slow road to recovery. I owe my life to the surgeons who operated on me many times.
I have posted my story to help and show anyone going through this that there is hope even in the darkest days ( and there are many of those). There are loads of details I have left out because I have forgotten some of what went on, if I remember them I will add to this post. Its been a truly awful life changing experience and I wouldn't wish it on anyone. If anyone has any questions or just wants to know that the process is let my OH know and we will try and answer.
Thankyou all for the replies. As I said my aim of the post is to show the families of someone who is suffering this illness that hopefully and eventually there is hope. Sometimes the days can be amazingly dark and you feel and want to give up but you must, if you can soldier on. There is light at the end of the tunnel even if it that light seems to be a million miles off. I had days and times when I wanted to die as it would of been easier but somehow I and my family have come through this ordeal. I think its important for anyone going through this to understand that I was and am just an average man, in fact I had a very very deep fear of hospitals and needles, to the point where I didnt even have a tetanus. I've probaly had over a 1000 injections and 100's of blood tests and I now have no fear of needles. Some of the procedures I have had seem medieval. One memory is of the bags I used to have on my sides to drain the infections, I had these for at least 8 months and they would leak almost everyday, the smell and feeling was digusting not to mention not eating for over 8 months and vomiting many times a day for 8 months. I remember having my lungs drained whilst awake again this is something I will never forget. When I was on a life support machine I had a trachy which left me unable to speak for 5 months which was amazingly frustrating. These are just a few of the many things I went through, I tell you these things so the families going through this can understand the depth of the darkness, pain and dispare the patient is suffering. Sometimes I said and treated my OH in a way that ashames me but this experience is pretty much unimaginable to anyone except those who have suffered this illness. I would say without a doubt that although I suffered an unimaginable amount of pain and dispare nothing can ever compare to the pain of seeing my children when they visited and having to say goodbye to them when they left knowing they were going home and I just had to lay there in a hospital bed alone. That experience took me to the brink of losing my mind and it was relentless, so if you have a family member experiencing this illness please try and understand what they are going through, its not so much the physical pain but the mental pain.
I have read stories of people who have had various types of life threatening problems and have always thought if that was me I would give up and die and that the people who survive are super heroes, something I imagined I could never be. I always said if I got an illness that was life threatening I would just give up and die but I didnt. I can't explain why but if I as an average family man can get through this then you or your family member who is suffering the type of pancreatitus I had can also survive and get through the illness. I am and never have been no hero no brave man I just somehow got through it. Please believe that you can and will get through the dark dark days.
In answer to your question Jacob my surgeon wouldn't remove my gall bladder at the time of my initial stay in hospital because I was too weak and the op would kill me. I went in early Sept 2008 and left in Oct 2009. I then went to see the surgeon who said I had to have the gall bladder out which really scared me as I couldn't face another op. About 6 weeks ago I went to have my op on saturday morning but the surgeon who was due to perform the op took one look at my notes and refused to do the op as it was too complicated so I was sent home. 2 weeks later I was back in to have the gall bladder removed. All went well although the op took over 3 hours. I went in on a Tuesday and was home on Friday although I was very sore, unbelievably I spent a night on the same ward in the same bed as the one I spent 3 months in. Now nearly a month after my op Im still sore but as I said the clips are out and Im back home and getting my mobility back. I can't deny I wasnt scared but tell the person you are caring for that its a walk in the park compared to having another bout of pancreatitus.
Sorry for the length of the posts and please excuse any spelling mistakes but I just want to tell everyone that there is hope.
