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