Hi
I have had heart issues for many years, woke up 23 years ago on my 50th after an emergency quadruple bypass.
I had had mobility issues for over a decade before that following an injury at work, 7 years on crutches and a full length leg brace.
The injury caused a lot of circulatory problems as well, blood clots damaging my lungs etc.
I also lost 95% of the vision in my right eye and had bits of things in the right side of my skull and brain.
I was injecting myself in my stomach daily for all those years.
That is the back story.
Fast forward, things went wrong with my heart, it was to be expected, Heart Grafts only last about 10 years at that time, mine lasted 20 years, with a very active lifestyle.
I have known I have heart failure for some time.
The first I knew about was just pre Covid, not the best of times, clinics etc were stopped.
It was not serious, but over 2 years ago, I found out that my condition had deteriorated to such an extent that I was awarded full attendance allowance under the Special Rules, I was not expected to last a year, and the award had been backdated.
Lasted 2 years longer than expected until earlier this week.
Emergency Admission, nearest available ambulance was over 40 miles away, and this was for me being unable to breath properly and gasping for breath.
The other ambulances were stacked up waiting outside A&E waiting for their patients to be let into the Hospitals.
The Ambulance Crew had never been to Shrewsbury before, or the Hospital.
The two ladies were very good, got me stabilised and an extremely quick drive to the Hospital.
There are building works going on, so took 10 minutes to find the Ambulance Admission.
They did not have the Code for the doors, nobody answered the bell for 10 minutes, so stuck outside all that time., getting worse.
Once in, a long detour because of the building works to get to the Ambulance Reception Zone, kept on the Ambulance Trolley.
Transferred after nearly 2 hours to a Hospital Trolley, the Ambulance being inoperative all that time.
It goes on and on.
Many hours later transferred to a Hospital Bed on a Ward.
Diagnosed with Decompensated Heart Failure and a lower respiratory tract infection, oedema to both lower legs and also affecting major organs.
An Acute transition to life changing and life threatening illness.
I am starting a new journey in my life and will sharing it on the Forum.
Thanks for reading this.
but your grasp of international affairs is always impressive.