Whilst many of you have been worried and in hiding from COVID, I have had my own fight on my hands...and I still have it hanging over me, at least for a while. During a discussion online with an experienced nutritionist I asked her if she knew anything of my recently diagnosed health condition. She had, and having exchanged a few more words she encouraged me to write a book 'to help others' as there is very little guidance available...and its not an uncommon condition about which many hospitals merely throw up their hands and give up on understanding it or finding a real cure. Having received the encouragement to write about it I felt that I could share my journey now whilst still 'suffering' rather than wait for a book to be published and this series of articles could prove to help many people earlier than any published book (by me) could. This is my story...
Background to my health and life style, pre-condition.
During 19 years of a banking career I had only one day off work with sickness. It was a record of which I was pretty proud. Active, energetic, a sporty type of person. I'd grown up as a kid in the park opposite my family home, always playing tennis, riding a bike, kicking a football around or running between wickets of a cricket match. Later I became an avid and respectable single figure handicap golfer walking over 5 miles daily. In short I was fit. Even at the age of 36 I could literally run up 6 flights of stairs of the office to try to beat the elevator.
Towards the end of the 19 years I suffered from stress due to a number of collective family and work related issues which I was experiencing at the time, and it resulted in two periods of two weeks off work, on the instruction of the company nurse. So in total I had one month off work, resting and hitting golf balls (my way to relax at the time). At no time was medication prescribed for the stress and I wouldn't have taken it anyway as I'm a firm believer in natural body to heal itself, when treated right. The year was 1991. For the next twenty seven years I continued to be 'generally' fit and well. At 44 I joined a gym on a company membership (I'd put on a little weight I wished to shift) and yet I was told that I was fitter than some of the 28 year olds in the club. And even in my 40's I'd play an hour of tennis at 08.00 a.m. with my then domestic partner before we both started our day's work. (Incidentally, I discovered when helping my father write the eulogy for my mum's funeral that she had played tennis against, and beaten, thrice Grand Slam Champion, Dorothy Round, the first British lady to win Wimbledon [she won it twice 1934 & 1937 along with the Australian Open 1935] - I'd never known for all those years prior and never discovered the circumstances other than it was during the Inter-Counties Hard Court Tournament 1949 against a South Wales team which was held in Dudley, where my mother was in college.)
Between 1998 and 2009 I'd happily jet off on business trips to some far gotten clime and I'd eventually settle down to live abroad... for the fourth or fifth time.
Fast forward twenty seven years to 2018, and during August Bank Holiday I suffered a 'mild' heart attack. The 'mild' heart attack resulted in a quadruple heart bypass on 5th September and could have been considerably worse had I not recognised the fact whilst it was occurring. I was up and about on 6th September and out of hospital, home shortly thereafter. Upon leaving I was prescribed three forms of medication. Aspirin for blood thinning (I did suggest red wine had similar effects), Bisoprolol for regulating my heart, and Simvistatin for regulation of my cholesterol. These were to be taken daily...with which I religiously complied! I should add too that at this juncture that I was told that the cause was likely to be hereditary rather than an abuse of my body...but I don't know how true that was in the overall scheme of things, and straight after the operation my main objective was to get through the next 12 months, alive!
As for my 'lifestyle', and we are talking dining habits and exercise, it was typically British, commencing from when I returned in 2015. Little or no 'real' exercise (using the car to get anywhere of note) and eating a collection of foods from fresh home-made to processed shop bought snacks to the occasional body abuse of the odd pizza, shop bought breads, Danishes, and pastas. (By the way there's nothing wrong with any of those foods, in moderation, but a diet of just those can lead to health issues.) It was unusual for me to adopt a strict British diet as I had lived in many locations abroad and within a variety of culinary cultures and I was used to a wide variety of foods, and as a food publisher then I had a fair idea of the good and bad of foods. Indeed for much of my time abroad too I didn't bother with a car, preferring to walk (I'd walk many miles a day, including to the highest point of the village) or catch local public transport. (It's the only way to experience local life, believe me!) I was however during October 2015 to January 2018 caring for my elderly father who had only a taste for British culinary delights. At 93 years of age I reckon he'd earned the right to decide exactly what he wanted and it was always easier to cook two of the same dish rather than two different dishes. In the January 2018 my father passed away and I was left debating my future and finalising his estate when the heart attack struck.
Present day, my heart is strong, my heart structure is strong...and as long as I use some common sense then I'll be fine in that department. But that isn't the condition which proves to be the subject of this series of articles. The condition about which I have been asked to write is Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis. Or to the layman, 'a scarring of the lungs of an unknown cause'. If you do as I did and research it on the internet, it will tell you, it's irreversible, it's incurable and it's life shortening...i.e. most people with the condition die within 2-5 years. Basically there's nothing that can be done about it. I have been given circa two years from 22nd April 2021.
Join me in Part II, to find out how I am tackling Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis, how I found out I had this deadly condition, what my experiences were at the hospital, what I did about it, and how I found hope by remaining positive. As I go through this process, I am learning all sorts of information about diet, foods and nutrition and I'm going to willingly tell you what exercise I have now commenced, what I eat, and where necessary the recipes and how I maintain my motivation to beat this condition and prove the hospital consultants wrong. I can't stress enough that we are very different people merely with a common illness and we have shared the bad news about our futures. My dietary lifestyle change including numerous supplements has been devised for me only, my body, and my personal circumstances BUT if my experiences, can inspire you to try to seek help to improve (outside of the hospital medication) and not give up then I believe it is always effort worth taking. What works for me, literally works for me; it may not work for you, but you must explore what the correct solution is for you!
So, follow my progress from hereon in as I fight to stay alive and cause further havoc for my grown up kids in years to come.
Stay positive...I am!
P.S. I have deliberately switched the comments section off, so if you wish to give feedback in regard to this series of articles, then by all means do so through the Contact tab and I may well, with author's permission, publish some of the more inspirational comments. Negative comments will not be published. Nobody with a life shortening condition needs negativity in their lives!
