Nicola's Posts

Well i never thought this day wouid come, but here it is. Year to the day of my life changing surgery. I have seen my heart consultant amd a team from St Thomas', , in March, amd they are very happy with how my heart is functioning especially after the problems following surgery. They are also saddened by the fact that i will never reap the benefits of the improved function due to my throat/breathing issues caused in Icu. Im back to see the ENT again this month for more videos of my throat to check if it hasnt become worse. Im praying that it is the same as i really dont want to lose my speech altogether and have to go through the trauma of another tracheostomy and surgery to suport ny windpipe. How would i shout at my husband to bring me up.a cup of tea? 🤣 Im feeling the same so im sure it will be ok. Still waiting on work to officially exit me from the company so I'm in limbo really. Still attending the Critcal Care meetings which have been a huge help. Well i hope i sleep well tinight. My mind has been going crazy all day, going over it bit by bit, up until speaking to some doctors in tbe side room, just before they wheeled me through the door under the lights, that i could see behind them...... and then nothing. There wont be any celebration of this suregry as i will be celebrating when i left icu three weeks later. This is the day i got ny life back.

Well what can I say. I'm obviously in for the long haul of bad news. Breezed into the hospital for what I thought would be a quick routine scan of my kidneys. I have suffered with kidney disease since at least 2000. It could be longer but that was the first time it had been flagged up to me. My tests have been so stable since then that the consultant passed me over to my Dr to do the yearly tests. So the scan goes ahead due to acute kidney injury in ICU and being on dialisysis. The tests my Dr preformed before Christmas were all petty much back to pre surgery so I wasn't expecting anything wrong to show. The scan showed that my right kidney has shrunk and basically given up working. My left kidney is not functioning to its full capacity. There are also 5 water filled cysts on my kidneys. The good news is that there was no nasty tumours or cancer showing. So now I sit and wait to see my Dr regarding the report the hospital send out. Thank goodness I'm going away for a couple of weeks. I don't think I can cope with any more bad news! And if they request to look at my lungs I'm running away and hiding!

I walked into the appointment on my own under the asumption, that the ent consultant i saw back on August had basically told me that my right vocal chord was paralysed, and that this was supposed to be finding out which method of help would be best for me to help my speech. Unfortunately this wasn't the case. The diagnosis was completely diffetent and far worse. Both my vocal chords are working...which is good. But at the top, it's been so severely damaged, it's healed but so tight that my chords won't close, hence the speech/sound issue, and they don't open fully which makes my breathing hard as only have half my airway open. This is mainly what is restricting me from walking up any gradient or stairs. Cold weather, dry heat all makes it worse. And trying to sing or even hum sounds terrible and get out of breathe. I thought making my chords work harder they might work better but apparently it won't. I'm glad that I now know but on the other hand it's not what I wanted to hear. They could try and laser it but it comes with a huge risk of it healing from that and being even tighter. That would cause complete block of airways and would have to have another trachy. I really don't want to go down that route again. That would also mean further surgery to my windpipe to support it and most likely no voice/speech at all. It might work but it's a risk right now I'm not prepared to take. I'm seeing him again in 4 months and will have another chat and see how it is. He said if I get a sore throat and breathing gets worse, go straight to hospital for steroids and a nebuliser. Great. Another thing I need to add to my ever growing travel medical insurance! Apparently it's quite rare to happen and I'm special. Shame special doesn't make it better though 😣😣😣😣 I attended a return to work meeting and had just told them my new diagnosis, and they made a decision there and then. They are not taking me back. Goodness knows who will employ me now but im sure i will find something else eventually. Pretty rough week all in all 😣 But hey, onwards and upwards and not having to go to work is a good thing. More time to spend doing what I like 😊