Thank God It's Friday

Hi everyone,

As you know, this time last week I was on top of the world and just a few days later it all changed again. On a couple of occasions in the past couple of weeks I had experienced chest pains but put it down to indigestion. However, on Sunday, 1st October, I had two quite severe episodes, one sometime after breakfast and the other about an hour after lunch, each lasting about 25 minutes.

Paul happened by during the second attack and, fearing heart problems, I asked him to contact Prince Charles Hospital. Fortunately Dr Peter Hopkins was on duty and he suggested I go to the Gold Coast Hospital. So I phoned Janyne, who had taken the golf buggy to the supermarket, and home she came to again take me off to hospital (and she thought she was over those calls).

Peter had phoned ahead and I was immediately admitted into emergency and a host of tests were performed. Had a magnificent doctor "Steve" looking after me and whilst I can't complain about the service, the Gold Coast Hospital needs some major attention. I'll talk more about that later.

Anyway, I checked myself out deciding I'd rather go back to the excellent care at Prince Charles. Poor Janyne gets woken up at 2.00 am to pick me up. A few hours sleep and I phoned Prince Charles Hospital only to be told to come in. Here we go again, back to my second home.

Anyway, an ECG showed some irregularities so a huge number of tests were done over the next four days including a CT Scan, Angiogram, Ultrasound, Endoscopy, numerous blood tests etc. They really are thorough at Prince Charles and I am in awe at the care and attention they showed.

To cut a long story short, my cardiovascular system and lungs are in great condition so they are not the cause of these chest pains which I continued to experience a couple of times whilst in hospital. So essentially that leaves either reflux or gall bladder as the probable cause and I am having an abdominal scan on Monday to see what the gall bladder looks like. If that's not the answer, then I will undergo a reflux test which involves putting a tube down the oesophogus for 24 hours and seeing what it collects. (Reflux can be a problem as food gets into the lungs and this can cause infection). It's a simple procedure (apparently) and will determine whether reflux is the culprit (even though the endoscopy produced a negative result).

Anyway, after a magnificent lunch at Baguettes in Racecourse Rd. Ascot (sounds good doesn't it? It was!!! Mind you I had four salads in four days and lost 5 kilos so I needed a big lunch), I came home today given my condition is not life threatening and hope to be back in a couple of weeks for a normal clinic session barring any urgent treatment needed in the meantime.

This is one problem that every lung transplantee experiences. The uncertainty of the future. It's a huge emotional burden which both the transplantee and his/her partner, loved one, carer or whoever has to live with. At anytime things can go wrong due either to complications with the new lungs but more commonly to reactions to the very medications designed to keep one alive. Two of my fellow transplantees coincidentally are experiencing problems at this very moment. One has a cyst on a kidney and an enlarged gall bladder and the other has an abcess on the bowel which could be life threatening. For both it is over four years since tranplant.

As Dr Peter Hopkins said the other day, lung transplants aren't easy.

To be honest, it is hard to be positive at times and both Janyne and I need a break from it all. Hopefully we can have a bit of a holiday soon and just relax. The good news of course is that my main organs are in great condition which I wouldn't have known but for these tests so there is a bonus in every situation. Don't worry, we'll feel better and more positive tomorrow.

Anyway, with the week stuffed, I haven't been able to do anything further about establishing that transplantee group I've spoken about before. I know a week is nothing in the whole scheme of things but to someone who has been given a second life, it's a week lost and that's not good. I simply didn't have the emotional will to do anything else until I'd ruled out serious illness. Hey, I'm human after all.

However, verbal response to date from transplantees has been very positive. I'll get onto it next week.

Received an email this week from Jean in Perth, Western Australia, who stated that a lung transplant group was established there about 18 months ago. Jean, please email me again (benbrian@iprimus.com.au) including your email address. When anyone responds to my postings as per the comments option below, your email is shown at my end as anonymous and I cannot respond as I don't have an address to respond to. So all of you out there, please send me your email address if you want me to contact you and keep in touch. Rebecca, still thinking of you and hope things are OK.

It is a bit late so I'm off to bed but I'll give you my Gold Coast Hospital story tomorrow. I am sure it will make interesting reading. In the meantime take care.

Kind regards,

Ben