I Chose to Live…..With No Regrets

As most of you can tell I have been conspicuous by my absence on Linkedin since the beginning of December. All I can say is what a ride it has been. On Monday December 6th I was Covid-19 positive and on Saturday 11th December I was admitted to hospital. This is when this rollercoaster of a journey really began.

Having been covid + this then became Pneumonia which then ended up as Sepsis. A long story short the infection down the right ride of my body in the chest cavity caused my right lung to collapse. Lying in hospital in Worcester in a covid ward without my family being able to visit was not exactly the ideal situation to be in. Little did I know just how challenging things were about to become.

Specialists, Doctors, Consultants and Nurses worked around the clock to try and fix me. It soon became clear that I needed to be in a cardiovascular specialist hospital. It was decided to transfer me to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham the problem was there were no beds available in the covid wards. The only thing The Royal Worcester medical team could do was try and keep me stable until a bed became available. Unfortunately the sepsis infection had taken hold and my health continued to deteriorate to such an extent that around 9pm on the 23rd December I started to slip in and out of consciousness as a team of 5 doctors and nurses worked to try and save my life. The 24th and 25th December were days that are quite frankly a bit of a blur as I was pumped full of medication and on Christmas day I had 18 hours of blood transfusions. I can’t begin to thank those individuals who give blood enough for saving my life because that is exactly what your blood did. By the 26th December the brilliant medical team at Royal Worcester had managed to stabilise me. During this period my family was told by the medical team to expect the worst, not exactly the best Christmas message to receive.

On Friday 31st December I was finally transferred to the QE in Birmingham. Unfortunately there were still challenges ahead. On arrival I was assessed by the medical team and surgeons and a decision was made to operate on me to surgically remove the infection the following day. Blood tests were done and my INR (Blood Clotting) numbers were to high which risked a major bleed during surgery and therefore the surgery was postponed to Sunday. On Sunday it was postponed again due to the same issue but it was decided to insert a chest drain to try and release some of the pressure and drain some of the infection from the chest cavity. Having a LARGE chest drain inserted under local anaesthetic is not an experience I wish to repeat. Again a long story short they have to make an incision under the arm and through the cartilage between the ribs and then pretty much use their fingers to open a big enough hole to insert a tube into the chest cavity. Trust me they don’t always have enough local anaesthetic around the area they are working.

The surgery delays continued the whole week due to my blood clotting numbers not stabilising. Eventually the surgical haematologist suggested to my surgeon that they should operate anyway and that he would be in theatre as standby if I started to bleed during surgery. This was agreed by my surgical team. At 2.50pm Sunday 9th January approximately 10 minutes after I had been informed that my surgery had been postponed again until Monday the pre op team arrived in my room and told me I was heading to theatre. As you can imagine there was a bit of a scramble to get myself sorted as I needed to inform my family and make sure all my personal effects were packed as I was going to be in a critical care room in another ward after surgery. 3.10pm I was greeted in theatre by the anesthesiologist and her team. Approximately 10 minutes later I was asleep and at 8.45pm just over 5 hours later I woke in recovery. This was the start to recovery and a long road it has been and will continue to be.

Prior to surgery the surgical team told me they would do their best to try and complete the procedure via keyhole surgery. It turned out this was not the case and they had to make an incision of approx. 20cm from under my arm around my back in order to open up my entire chest through the ribs to be able to get to and remove the infection. They also needed to scrape away the layers of infection that had accumulated on the lung in order for it to be able to reinflate. Along with the main incision the surgeons needed to make small incisions for the camera and 2 additional chest drains to be inserted.

Bright and early Monday morning less than 12 hours after what the surgeons describe as one of the most invasive procedures anyone can have the physio team were literally dragging me out of bed and getting me moving, what a wonderful relentless team they are. Friday 14th January 5 weeks after having been admitted to hospital I was released with enough medication to sink a battleship to continue my recovery at home. I cannot tell you how emotional the reunion with my family was having not been able to see them for the entire time due to covid protocols. Recovery is slow and I have a number of challenges to overcome but I am ALIVE and so so grateful to both medical teams at The Royal Worcester & Queen Elizabeth Birmingham Hospitals, their dedication is inspirational.

My long winded story is not meant to be about sympathy it is about survival and perspective. My question to myself that plays repeatedly around in my head is “Why has it taken a near death experience for you to get so much clarity and perspective?” Whilst this following piece of advice is something most of us hear regularly most of us simply ignore it.

“LIVE – LIVE today as if it is your LAST. Show those that you love that your TRULY do love them, tell them and then tell them again. Get rid of those in your life who add NO value and only bring negativity, give everything every day to make your business and personal lives the ABSOLUTE best they can be – NO COMPROMISE.”

I have made these choices, I CHALLENGE you all to do the same. NO REGRETS