136 – Circling the Drain, Part 3: 3 January 2025

I love walking and I love walking in Morialta Park.  This is me at First Falls Morialta on Sunday 5 June 2022.  The rain had been pouring down.  By this date, I was confident that I would not die in the near future and I had been able to resume my Park walks.

In April 2021, it was agony to walk anywhere.  My normal walks in Morialta were impossible and my imminent death seemed very close.  I continued to live because I refused to leave Margaret to deal with her cancer on her own.  She needed me so I refused to die.

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My health throughout April 2021 continued its steady and seemingly irreversible decline.

My weight continued its descent towards oblivion.  This Table summarises my weight loss in April.

April 2021
2 April 2021	76.3 kilograms
9 April 2021	76.8 kilograms
16 April 2021	75.6 kilograms
23 April 2021	74.8 kilograms
30 April 2021	73.2 kilograms

* 73.2 kilograms = 11 stone, 7 pounds, 7 ounces or 161 pounds, 7 ounces

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As my weight continued to plummet, my ability to do normal exercise became increasingly limited.  This Table identifies how my illness reduced my exercise program in April.

April 2021
Date	Scheduled Exercise	Actual Exercise
Sunday 4 April	3 ½ hours at Morialta	1 ½ hours at Morialta
Monday 12 April	1 hour walking at home, plus 30 minutes yoga	1 hour walking at home; yoga nil
Friday 16 April	1 hour walking at home, plus 30 minutes yoga	Nil
Sunday 18 April	3 ½ hours at Morialta	1 ½ hours at Morialta
Monday 19 April	1 hour walking at home, plus 30 minutes yoga	No genuine exercise, only 30 minutes “Perimeter Prowling” at home to suppress coughing
Tuesday 20 April	1 hour walking at home, plus 30 minutes yoga	1 hour walking at home; yoga nil
Friday 23 April	1 hour walking at home, plus 30 minutes yoga	No genuine exercise, only 30 minutes “Perimeter Prowling” at home to suppress coughing
Sunday 25 April	3 ½ hours at Morialta	1 ½ hours at Morialta
Tuesday 27 April	1 hour walking at home, plus 30 minutes yoga	No genuine exercise, only 30 minutes “Perimeter Prowling” at home to suppress coughing
Wednesday 28 April	1 ½ hours yoga in studio	1 ½ hours yoga in studio plus 30 minutes “Perimeter Prowling” at home to suppress coughing
Thursday 29 April	1 hour walking at home, plus 30 minutes yoga	No genuine exercise, only 30 minutes “Perimeter Prowling” at home to suppress coughing
Friday 30 April	1 hour walking at home, plus 30 minutes yoga	No exercise at all – admitted to hospital

 

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I kept losing weight because the bloating of my stomach made it nearly impossible to eat.

This Table identifies specific meals I was unable to eat during April 2021.

Date	Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner
Thursday 1 April		1 orange	Nil
Saturday 3 April		1 apple	4 gluten free crisps with goat cheese
Sunday 4 April		2 small apples with bowl gluten free ice cream
Monday 5 April		Bowl gluten free ice cream
Tuesday 6 April		2 apples
Sunday 11 April		1 apple and 1 orange
Monday 12 April		Nil
Thursday 15 April		Energy bar	Nil
Friday 16 April			1 corn on the cob
Saturday 17 April		Nil
Sunday 18 April		Nil
Monday 19 April		Bowl gluten free ice cream
Friday 23 April		Nil
Saturday 24 April		2 apples	Nil
Wednesday 28 April			Nil
Thursday 29 April		Nil
Friday 30 April		Not recorded, in hospital	Not recorded, in hospital

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This is a copy of my diary of symptoms for 28 and 30 April.  I was admitted to hospital in the morning on Friday 30 April 2021.  The hospital admission certainly saved my life.  Unfortunately, it did not provide me with a permanent cure for my symptoms.

 

Symptom	Wednesday 28 April 2021	Friday 30 April 2021
Asthma	Moderate breath shortage from 1:00 am until 3:00 am; easier breathing from 7:00 am onwards; extreme breath shortage from 12:30 to 5:00 pm; only slight relief from Ventolin and deep breathing; severe breathing difficulty still present at 9:00 pm	Severe breath shortage at 6:00 am – Ventolin and deep breathing; only moderate breath shortage by 9:00 am; Asthma controlled by medication after admission to hospital
Persistent Cough	Severe coughing from 1:00 am to 3:00 am requiring “perimeter prowling” for 30 minutes; moderate to severe coughing from 7:00 am to 9:00 am suppressed by mixture; moderate coughing in afternoon and evening suppressed only by mixture	My wife Margaret reports I has a severe and extended coughing attack from 1:00 am onwards; Margaret thought the coughing would certainly wake me up, but I slept through the coughing; moderate coughing at 6:00 am Coughing controlled by medication after admission to hospital
Reflux	No change	No change
Sinus/ Hay Fever	Constant nasal discharge from 1:00 am to 3:00 am; constant nasal discharge from 12:30 pm to 3:30 pm	No sneeze attacks or nasal discharge from 6:00 am until 9:00 am. Sneezing and nasal discharge controlled by medication after admission to hospital
Sleep Disorders	Napped on sofa from 10:00 pm to 12:30 am Thursday; woken by severe coughing; had to do “perimeter prowling” from 2:30 am to 3:00 am; napped on sofa from 3:30 am to 7:00 am;	Slept in hospital after given sleeping pill
Gluten Intolerance	Avoided food with gluten	Avoided food with gluten
Lots of Bloating and Flatulence	Mild bloat in morning; severe bloat from 1:00 pm onwards; still there at 9:00 pm	Moderate bloat from 6:00 am onwards; ability to eat food and drink coffee very acute. Bloating controlled by medication after admission to hospital
Hiccups		No hiccups in morning between 6:00 am and 9:00 am Hiccups controlled by medication after admission to hospital
Optical Migraines	Nil	Optical migraine at 6:00 am
Sense of Smell	Unable to smell since mid December 2020	Unable to smell since mid December 2020
Miscellaneous		(1) Slept from 10:30 pm to 5:50 am Friday – but only because of strong sleeping pill (see note re coughing) (2) Able to eat only reduced breakfast of 2 slices of dry toast with 1 mug of coffee (3) Able to eat after admission to hospital

 

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By the end of April 2021, my circling of the Death Drain had drawn me very close to the drain exit.  While Margaret seemingly had been granted a reprieve from her terminal cancer, I was now on Death Row.

I could think of no solution apart from refusing to die, so I adamantly refused to die.

 

135 – Circling the Drain, Part 2: 2 January 2025

This is Margaret on the balcony of our holiday house at Robe on Sunday 15 November 2020.  The woman on the right of the photo is Anne Ryan.  Anne Ryan and Sue Chapman both went with us to Robe. In November 2020, Margaret had been given a terminal cancer diagnosis and still thought Anne and Sue were her friends.  So did I.

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I took this photo at Beachport on Tuesday 17 November 2020.  The short trip to Beachport was the final genuine holiday that Margaret and I had together.  The weather was excellent and her health was still stable even though we knew she was dying

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I took this photo of a seagull landing in the bushes on Wednesday 18 November 2020 while we were at Robe.

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As my body continued its circling of the death drain in February and March 2021, I took an allergy test on 11 March 2021 to see if there was an easy answer to my deterioration.  The written report on the test listed in red, those foods, drinks and products which the test confirmed I was now allergic to.  The plan was simple.  If I avoided the products I was allergic to, my symptoms would ease.  

This is the list if items that the test confirmed I was now allergic to. 

Green Vegetables	Fruit	Berries
Beans	Banana	Strawberries
Silverbeet/ Spinach	Cherry	Nuts
Capsicum	Kiwifruit	Cashews
Onion	Passionfruit	Dairy Products
Tomato	Oils and Fats	All cow cheese
Meats	Sunflower oil	All margarine
Beef	Seafood	Milk A2
Chicken	Shellfish	Milk full cream
Duck	Tuna	Milk skim
Lactose Free Products	Milk Alternative	Milk Carnation
Butter coconut	Rice milk	Yoghurt cow, Greek and plain
LF Milk Zymil	Beverages	Herbs Dried and Fresh
Sauces	Tea – all black tea	coriander
Soy Coconut amino non	Stock/ Gravy	Spice/ Condiment
Tomato Paste (All)	Chicken Stock Campbell	Ginger
Sugars/ Sweeteners	Gravox (All)	Mixed spice
Sugar white	Pasta/ Pastry	Cracker/ Crispbread
Syrup Maple	Pasta (Durum wheat)	Mary's Gone crackers GF
Breakfast Cereals	Wheat Noodle	Sao
Cornflakes (All)	Breads Supermarket	Rice crackers
Just Right	White	Vita Weat original
Vita Brits	Wholemeal	Sourdough Bread
Weet Bix	Grain Bread	Bill's Org 100% Spelt SD
Crunchola Apple &Blue	AG Vital bread	Healthybake FH Rye
Free & Low Muesli	Burgen Soy-Lin	Zeally Bay Sourdough
Spelt Bread	Macro Ancient grains sprouted	Gluten Free Bread
Alpine Spelt &Sprout grain	Multigrain bread	Abbots Mixed Seeds GF
Ancient Grain Tigris Spelt	Rye Bread	Bodhi's GF Chia Linseed
Bakers Delight Spelt bread	Burgen Rye bread	Bodhi's GF Yeast free
Bodhi's Dinkle wholegrain	Helgas Light Rye	Naturis GF rice loaf
Healhtybake WM Spelt	Flours	Wraps/ Bases
Kamut bread	Flour Amaranth	Corn tortilla
Chocolate/ Sweeteners	Flour Wheat Plain& Self Raising	GF wraps
Chocolate (Cadbury)	Health Shop Products	Plain wheat wraps
Chocolate (Haigs SA)	Bean Kidney	Common Supplements
Chocolate (Nestle)	Cous Cous	Psyllium
Natural Home Products	Goji Berries	Bath Chemicals
Jojoba oil	Hair Fibres	Shaving Foam Gillette
Kitchen Products	Mixed Feathers	Shaving Gel Nivea
Insect Spray (All	Petrochemicals	Talcum Powder
Miscellaneous	Cigarette Smoke
Heinz Baked Beans Tom Sauce
SPC Baked Beans Tom Sauce

 

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After living a lifetime of never being allergic to anything, my body had now become allergic to a vast array of foods and other products that I had used all of my life.

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I started writing a daily diary of my symptoms on Wednesday 24 March.  I kept writing the diary until Tuesday 18 May.  This is an unedited copy of my diary entries for 24, 26 and 29 March.  Wherever possible, I made the diary entries as the events happened.

Life in March 2021 was brutally hard.

Symptom	Wednesday 24 March 2021	Friday 26 March 2021	Monday 29 March 2021
Asthma	Ventolin puffer used at about 6:00 pm	Ventolin puffer used at about 12:50 am Friday 26 March 2021 and again later in the afternoon that day	No breathing difficulties in morning; breath constriction in early afternoon requiring Ventolin inhaler; noticeable breath restriction from about 7:00 pm onward
Persistent Cough	Persistent all day – suppressed by cough mixture	Horrible – unable to sleep from 12:50 am to about 3:30 am because of the cough; cough continued throughout the day	Severe cough in early morning and afternoon requiring cough mixture; cough persisted throughout afternoon and evening
Reflux	No change	No change	No change
Sinus/ Hay Fever	Constant sneezing/ running nose throughout day	Moderate sneezing and runny nose throughout the afternoon and evening	Sneezing attack at 6:30 am; more sneezing at 8:00 am; took Loratadine pill; symptoms continued but muted by antihistamine
Sleep Disorders	Slept until 12:10 am Thursday 25 March, did 30 minutes of perimeter prowls, then slept 3:00 am to 6:15 am Thursday	Took sleeping pill at about 10:20 pm and dozed on sofa until 3:30 am Saturday 27 March 2021; then slept in bed until 7:00 am Saturday	Dozed on sofa from 8:30 pm to 11:00 pm; slept without sleeping pill from 11:15 pm to 7:30 am on Tuesday 30 March
Gluten Intolerance	Avoided food with gluten	Avoided food with gluten	Avoided food with gluten
Bloating and Flatulence	Moderate level of bloat all day	Horrible bloating from 12:00 noon with very acute pain; moderated after 3 hours from acute to “merely” very painful	Minimal bloating in morning; able to eat breakfast, lunch; severe bloating from 2:30 pm onwards and no further food; still present at 9:00 pm; eased by 11:00 pm
Hiccups	Moderate	Hiccups started about 6:45 pm and continued all evening	No hiccups in morning; severe hiccups from 2:30 pm to about 11:30 pm
Optical Migraines	Nil	Nil	Nil
Sense of Smell	Unable to smell since mid December 2020	Unable to smell since mid December 2020	Unable to smell since mid December 2020
Miscellaneous	Nil	(1) Severe diarrhoea commencing about 1:00 pm; lasted until late evening (2) Worst bloating pain I have ever had - truly awful and nearly went to A & E (3) Unable to eat anything at all after breakfast (4) Unable to do my usual morning walk, yoga or hour of meditation (5) If there are many repeats of days like this, my body will completely collapse	(1) Able to do 1 hour 30 minute yoga in morning without difficulty.  (2) After about 2:30 pm, the day became a complete write off. (3) Unable to meditate or do anything else constructive

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I avoided all of the products that the test had shown I was now allergic to.  It made no difference.  I circled ever closer to the death drain.