Escape plan works
15 Aug 2012
I am out! All that digging and tunnelling finally paid off as I emerged, blinking into the natural air and light off the outside world beyond the perimeter wire of Kingston Hospital.
After 7 nights and 8 days, it was such a relief to be going home. I know I needed to be there but I never feel quite safe in hospitals and there is so much there that is unsatisfactory and,frankly, bad for your health. Having said that, I am very grateful for the medical care and attention I received, particularly the essential draining of getting on for four litres of fluid from my lung.
This involved ultrasound to work out where to fix the drain and then the insertion through the ribs of the drain itself (quite painful) and the switching on of a tap. It gushed like an oil strike - and about as dark and horrible looking. I had to have a bucket attached to me for several days which, when full, was pretty heavy. I felt like a prisoner with ball and chain. But the relief of pressure on my port scrunched up lung was enormous. Luckily it didn't stay collapsed (a risk in these cases) but reinflated.
Three and a half bucket fulls later and l could hardly believe I'd been carrying that lot around, especially on my sponsored bike ride in Wales. Then I had a pleurodesis procedure that involves sticking the lung walls together to try to prevent fluid building up again. This was very painful - the doctor had said it could be 'excruciating' which I'm not sure I wanted to hear in advance. But thanks to morphine I am coping -- and relaxing!
I'm now pretty much bed bound but AT HOME! Recuperation will take a while.
I want to write more about the whole hospital experience and my next phase of treatment but will leave that for later.
Thanks for all the posts and messages of support - all greatly appreciated.
More soon.
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Marc Rowland - 15 Aug 2012
Welcome home
Well done Mike! It must be great to be home. Can you re-post your sponsorship link please? You deserve some extra sponsorship for carrying the extra load!
Marc
Aled - 15 Aug 2012
No I don't like to hear the frank reports you get from medics nowadays but it beats the alternative. I remember being told by an English surgeon in the States that recovery accelerates once you get home to the care of your loved ones and the food that suits you. He was right in my case and I am sure you will benefit too.
Many of the Olympic athletes said they responded to the cheers from the crowd. I hope you respond to the virtual cheers on here. Good luck to you.
Aled
Aled - 15 Aug 2012
No I don't like to hear the frank reports you get from medics nowadays but it beats the alternative. I remember being told by an English surgeon in the States that recovery accelerates once you get home to the care of your loved ones and the food that suits you. He was right in my case and I am sure you will benefit too.
Many of the Olympic athletes said they responded to the cheers from the crowd. I hope you respond to the virtual cheers on here. Good luck to you.
Aled
Cathy Grieve - 15 Aug 2012
Keep your spirits up
Mike
good to hear you are out of hospital and take it easy at home. I've spent months in and out of hospital too recently so I know how it is... keep the spirits up. Cathy
Laurie Robathan - 15 Aug 2012
Flipping heck Mike, I went light-headed just reading that! Really impressive that you pushed through it so resoloutley. Look forward to seeing you soon. Laurie
Andy Bryan - 15 Aug 2012
Well done for endurance, Mike. My mum had the same but was in The Brompton, many years ago. Enjoy being home. Andy x
Anne Kealy - 15 Aug 2012
The Great Escape
Glad you escaped and are in one piece, but what an ordeal for you! We're looking forward to seeing you back in Somerset when you are up to it.
Warmest Wishes
Anne xxx
Rebecca Hanson - 15 Aug 2012
Excellent!
Well done - top effort.
Now your challenge is to try and organise how your medical needs can be met a home. Many have been told that they can't, but simply asking other people often leads to a different response and you have all of us to ask! :-)
Steve Taylor - 15 Aug 2012
So glad you are home
Mike, so glad you are out and home, Deb and I are thinking of you and praying for you. Keep up with your amazing positive attitude, you are such an inspiration to us all. We are really proud of all you do and write.
stevie pattison-dick - 15 Aug 2012
glad you are home
I am so glad you are home. I hope the Kingston team looked after you - I will wait to hear what you say with your next blog with interest!
Four litres is such an awful lot - just imagining what four litres of gin looks like!
Aled's right - just listen out for the virtual cheers - especially this month in exam results season when a collective cheer for you is in the offing.
all the best
stevie
Rebecca Hanson - 15 Aug 2012
Ofspare part 2
In celebration of your escape I have published Ofspare part 2.
http://mathseducationandallthat.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/ofspare-decades-of-attrition.html
I'm part way through writing part 3 and am determined to ensure that part 4 is a much happier chapter. I do hope you'll stay around to hear the end of the saga Mike! Suggestions as to how it should go are very welcome.
Melanie Sibthorp - 15 Aug 2012
Good to be Home
Blimey Mike, that does sound really horrible. Well done for putting up with it all. It must be such a relief to be home, now you can work on getting back your strength.
Lots of love to you all from the Sibs xx
Stephen Heppell - 15 Aug 2012
Blimey
Blimey Mike - having had what i thought was a part torrid, part ecstatic couple of weeks as i variously attended Olympic events (HUGE fun and uplifting) mixed with painting the boat (50' of grey Oyster Smack is just a vast never-ending, Forth Road Bridge like task) I was feeling a bit knackered to be honest. Joy AND white spirit are hard work. And then i read your blog and it cheered me up no end in the painting bit. Excruciating sounds a lot worse than exhausting! Hang in there matey, and I'm glad they finally sprung you from Ward 101
sue emmett - 15 Aug 2012
Best wishes
Hi Mike, I was very sorry to hear that you were in hospital - but now it's great news to hear that you are out. Getting rid of those buckets is bound to make you feel better and it makes your cycling feats look positively Herculean.
Just to say that I find your blogs to be so positive and thoughtful - just like the person that you are. Keep it up.
With very best wishes, Sue (Emmett)xx
Naomi Rose - 15 Aug 2012
Mike and the pleurodesis
Well done for getting through it. When George had his done, I remember waiting days for the fluid output to reduce enough for them to let him out, and considered getting the A Team in to spring him, as it dragged on. Thankfully after a week he was discharged. Carrying that bucket around is not a great fashion statement I recall - but now you are home hooray. Love Naomi
Lesley Killin - 15 Aug 2012
Welcome Home
That sounded like a pretty nasty but necessary ordeal. Now you are back at home I am sure you will recover much more quickly. Thinking of you and sending our very best wishes.
Lesley and boys xxx
Katie Francis - 15 Aug 2012
VIRTUAL CHEERS
Lots more virtual cheers from here...and fantastically well done for cycling with all that fluid on board.
Katie (Finigan)
Charles Woodroffe - 16 Aug 2012
Escape
Well done escaping! I used to guard Kingston Hospital and, despite the lovely staff, felt like a prisoner. The treatment sounded like torture so I hope it was effective and that you are much more commfortable now. Hope you were still able to watch the London Olympics on TV, which has been considered a wonderful success in Australia.
Chris Husbands - 16 Aug 2012
Escape
Delighted to hear you are out Mike. Treatment sounds grim but necessary. Recuperation is ALWAYS quicker and easier at home. iPlayer Olympics to help....
Priya - 16 Aug 2012
Happy to know that you are back home and feeling better. Take care.
Ian Nash - 16 Aug 2012
A fluid situation
After reading this, Mike, I will never complain about the pain of having wax syringed from my ears again!
penny - 17 Aug 2012
from John O Groats to Sud de la France!
Hello Mike, Carl and I are just back from another epic journey, although this time by car, up to Edinburgh for some festival and then down to Arles for some photography festival and now back in Lille but back to Hull now for hospital appointments on Monday! So just about 4000 kilometres in the last fortnight! We saw some strong work and although tired, stimulated by all we saw and heard. You're absolutely right, there is such danger in being in hospital that however pleased we are with the quality of medical care received within, it is more than a relief to get home and feel safe. Imagine how you easily you will whizz up those hills in the Auvergne and in les Alpes du Sud next year on our Lille to Marseille ride! Thinking of you and sending our warmest wishes to you and Chrissie. We have done a very rough first edit of images from the ride. Would you like some? Penny and Carl x x
Estelle - 18 Aug 2012
There's no place like home ...
Hi Mike,
Reading your blog from afar and watching your progress. I'm in Ireland with the family just now - and heading back via Holyhead in the next few weeks. Will be thinking of you on your bike waiting for the green light! I've only taken the cross country route across Wales once - in preference to the A55 - and was so car sick I have refused to do it since. I am in awe of you, taking a far harder route.
My mum is with me here and as a cancer survivor - sends her best regards. One day at a time, she says - forget the bad ones and remember the good ones. She's a fan of St Peregrine - patron saint of cancer sufferers. You probably won't have heard of him but she's a fan and will be adding you to her list. Hope that's ok!
Lots of love,
Estelle
Gareth Pritchard - 20 Aug 2012
No words to add ...
... But just wanted you to know that people from the other side of the world are also trying to help push you forward. Very best wishes, Gareth
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