142 – Moving Away from the Drain, Part 1: 9 January 2025

This was me on Tuesday 9 September 2019 in Ireland, two months before I started losing weight under the supervision of a dietician.  Note the size of my stomach.  I weighed at least 105 kilograms then – 30 kilograms more than I weighed when I went into hospital in July 2021.

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My Third and Final Hospitalisation - July 2021

My final hospital admission took place on Saturday 3 July.  I had rung the rooms of my lung specialist on Thursday 1 July asking for an urgent consultation with Dr Aiyappan.  Dr Aiyappan was on holidays, but the rooms promised to tell him about my plight. 

Dr Aiyappan rang me no more than 2 hours later and promised to find me a hospital bed.  Dr Aiyappan persuaded the hospital to admit me once again, this time on the Saturday morning. 

I was in extremely bad health when admitted and Dr Aiyappan saw me in the hospital even though he was on leave.  Under his orders, a lung function test took place later that day.  This test involves the patient blowing air into various tubes to measure how much air the lungs are processing.  My lung function test said that my lungs had only 42% of the capacity of “normal” lungs.  I am certain my breathing during the test was actually better than my breathing had been in the 3 weeks since my June 2021 hospital admission.  I desperately wanted to get a "good" result and I tried hard to produce a “good” result; I was actually trying much harder during the test than I was normally able to do outside the test environment. 

I am certain my actual capacity was significantly less than the 42% measured in the test.

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My weight was regularly measured while I was in hospital and I wrote down the results.

Between the morning of Friday 2 and Sunday 4 July, I dropped 1.3 kilograms in weight.  This Table outlines my weight in July 2021.

July 2021
Date	Weight
Friday 2 July	75.0 kilograms
Sunday 4 July	73.7 kilograms
Sunday 11 July	76.1 kilograms
Friday 16 July	76.6 kilograms
Friday 23 July	76.4 kilograms
Friday 30 July	77.2 kilograms

 

In the three weeks and five days between Sunday 4 July and Friday 30 July, I gained 3.5 kilograms (7 pounds, 11.46 ounces).  The weight increase shows the success of this final period of hospitalisation – especially when compared to the June 2021 period of hospitalisation.

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Before my July hospital admission, I had a prearranged appointment with my cardiac specialist Dr Goh on Monday 5 July.  Even though I was still an admitted hospital patient, I took a taxi to the appointment with Dr Goh.  I gave him the medication list I had already given to the hospital staff.  Dr Goh immediately said that the combination of Amitriptyline Alphapharm with Aspirin was dangerous and that I must not continue to take the Aspirin.  Dr Goh then gave me a handwritten a note in a sealed envelope and told me to give it to the hospital staff immediately I returned to hospital.

As well as giving me the note, Dr Goh ordered that I be given an Echocardiogram (Echo) test as soon as possible after I got back to hospital.  It was obvious to me that Dr Goh was very concerned that my hospital treatment was ignoring my known and documented heart disease.

I delivered the note from Dr Goh to the nursing station when I returned to hospital and stressed Dr Goh’s insistence that I must not be given any further Aspirin.  The Echo test on my heart was carried out later on that same Monday.  Nothing of significance was uncovered by the Echo test.

The note by Dr Goh initiated the treatment changes which led to my diagnosis and correct treatment, but the only noticeable immediate changes he brought about were the stopping of the Aspirin and the Echo test.

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Dr Aiyappan did a bronchoscopy on Wednesday 8 July 2021.  It revealed no abnormalities.

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Although I had been admitted to hospital by Dr Aiyappan, I had been placed under the care of Dr Dinesh Kannusamy, who had been my hospital doctor during my June hospitalisation.  Dr Kannusamy saw me again in the morning of Tuesday 6 July and prescribed a new medication on top of the Amitriptyline Alphapharm he had prescribed in June.  I cannot now remember the name of this additional medication, but I am now certain it was another anti depressant.  I reluctantly took the additional pill as instructed by Dr Kannusamy on Tuesday 6 and Wednesday 7 July.  The nursing staff may also have given me this additional anti depressant on Thursday 8 July.  

I had never suffered from depression and had never been diagnosed as suffering from depression.

Dr Aiyappan visited me in hospital in the early morning of Thursday 8 July and I told him I did not want to take the new medication and asked him if he could terminate it.  My intention was to first get rid of the new anti depressant and then ask to have the Amitriptyline Alphapharm terminated as well.  Dr Aiyappan said that he would see what he could do.

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Shortly after Dr Aiyappan left my room– perhaps ten or fifteen minutes later – a new doctor whom I had never seen before, entered my room.  I cannot now remember his name but my health insurance claims history tells me I was treated on 9 July by Dr Boey, so the new doctor was probably Dr Boey.  Dr Boey (if he was in fact the new doctor) was wonderful.

The doctor confirmed that I did indeed want to terminate the new medication and then immediately gave instructions to staff to do that.  My hospital treatment changed noticeably after the visit by Dr Boey.

In my room, there was a small whiteboard where the name of my treating doctor was written at the top.  Dr Kannusamy’s name was written on this whiteboard.  Later, on that Thursday, Dr Aiyappan’s name was written immediately under Dr Kannusamy’s name.  Although Dr Kannusamy’s name remained on the whiteboard, I never saw him again. 

On Friday 10 July, Dr Boey visited me again and recommended discontinuation of the Amitriptyline Alphapharm.  He said Amitriptyline Alphapharm was a “very old fashioned” medication and that it was “highly addictive”.  I agreed and he had the Amitriptyline Alphapharm discontinued over the next three days.

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I did not know it then, but my health was about to improve quickly now that I was in compassionate and competent medical care.

I was about to have a miracle cure.