My Richard suffered with Diabetes although it was kept under control, he was also diagnosed a couple of years ago with COPD and was sent to a COPD exercise class where after the few weeks he carried on with the follow up classes, he would attend once a week, he also intentionally lost a couple of stone of weight, all this when he was on a lot of medications that worried me but his attitude was " they are probably keeping me alive " so he was fine in himself in taking them even if my attitude was more towards " yes, some maybe but, some could also be killing you, I thought he was taking too much plus his inhaler…" well that was the way I was seeing it but he wouldn’t have it, just done what the medics told him…So in hindsight Richard believed he was doing all the right things in keeping his illnesses at bay, yet in hindsight I am now wondering if indeed he never had COPD, more so now it was just before Christmas that he had a hospital test that told him he would need open heart surgery once they rectified his anaemia-his iron…This operation never took place because my Richard passed away at home 11th April…It just goes to show that if it is going to happen, it will happen, this is what I often had said to Richard but, he thought as many think, if they follow the Dr’s-medics orders they are doing right for themselves and wont have the need to question it…Sadly this was not to be for Richard, and today I am suffering the fact he is not here with me to spend the rest of our lives together, will should still be having a future together…I wish I could tell Richard I was right all along, that when our time is up, it is up, even if we are doing all the right things…I know both of us was never expecting what was to take place on that morning of 11th April, it started off like any other morning-of what should have been just another average day, the same as the day before, and the day before that…
Jackie…
My partner Simon also was diabetic since 1996. He took lots of tablets for different things. He eventually had nerve problems in his feet and hands, his eyesight was going and problems with his kidneys. His mum also had it and passed away on 5th November 2015 and Simon passed away on 3rd November 2018. Diabetes is a terrible condition. He got fluid on his lungs and then pneumonia and his body couldn’t fight it anymore. I believe when it’s your time, it’s your time. It doesn’t help the people left behind though. We used to joke about having a tandem mobility scooter when we got older as I was 10 years older than him. Now I don’t see anything ahead. I miss him so much. Unfortunately I have got a hospital appointment on the 28th which I’m dreading, as it will all come back that he passed away there. I have an autoimmune condition called sjorgrens which I have to get checked as my symptoms have got worse due to stress. Normally Simon would be with me too. We spent a lot of time up there with his illness. Take care. Janet x
Jackie I am so interested in what you have had to say.
Brian was first diagnosed with Cancer ten years before he died. It had spread, so they said and no treatment was offered. Natural Therapy had always interested me so, with nothing to lose we went for it. I studied the subject and put Brian on an intensive diet and lifestyle routine. Poor lad thought I was trying to kill him off at first but we soon got into it and it became our way of life, he had another ten years of life instead of the months first mentioned and I was told I had performed a miracle… Then around a year before he died a blood test (he hadn’t had one for about a year) wasn’t good. He started going to the hospital every four months for a check. They had him, that is how I see it and unknown to me he started taking medication. I found empty packets hidden away all over the place after he died. Now, how I see it. Without their help he had lived about 9 years a fit and healthy man but with their medication he was dead within the year. He had chosen their way over mine. His GP told me that Brian wanted to do it his way in the end and I don’t really know what he meant. I didn’t want to talk about. What was done was done.
How I wish I could ask Brian why he abandoned our way, why I didn’t even know and if I had what could I have done about it. Too many questions so I have put this all behind me now.
Pat xx
Patti…
…my Richard would have followed our GPs orders, he would have never tried anything holistic or natural, it just wasn’t him…your story just brings it on home that there is something to say about defying the normal medication system…Yes I hated all the things the medication Richard was putting into his body, the eyes drops, his inhaler, his medications, there was a large carrier bag full of them when I handed it over to one of my neighbours to take back to the chemist so they can destroy it safely…if there is any consolation at all, at least Richard doesn’t have to go through the rigmarole of this any more…nor face his cataract surgery which would have taken place on one eye a feww weeks back not face his open heart surgery that at some time he would have been called in for…although if he hadn’t been anaemic it might have been done and he may have been here now with me…We were only told about this open heart surgery just before Christmas, this came to both of us as a complete shock…
Jackie…
Janet…
…yes there will always be a date we will never ever forget, the dates of your mother-in-law and your hubbies…same with me, the same date 11th April I lost one of my dogs to cancer 10 years ago, the same date 4 years ago I was diagnosed with PPMS, and the same date 6 weeks ago my Richard died in his armchair at home with me…I will forever remember this date for all the sad reasons…
Janet I too would joke to Richard that if ever he needs a walking stick-a cane, there is one in the cupboard with his name on it, it is too high for me, I use another adjustable hiking cane, he would laugh as I said it but I meant it, it was not a joke, of course he never needed it…
I wish you all the best on your coming hospital appointment…just remember your Simon will be right there along side of you…
Jackie…
The old subject of medication comes up often. We have to ask, are we making scapegoats of the medical profession? Medicine is about the study of the human body and medication is all doctors know. They are trained that way and drugs are a stock in trade. How do we know that if someone was taking medication they would die sooner? If a person is in extreme pain do you watch the suffering and refuse medication? If someone is lying in the road in severe shock after an accident do you deny plasma? Or a calming medication? It’s a very tricky subject. I can only say that my doctor has been very sympathetic and helpful, and always discusses with me choices. I am on minimum medication, and, I hope, will not need it forever. But it relieves the pain, or at least takes the edge off it and allows me to do things I used to do, then why not? I hear this so often and I feel we do an injustice to the doctors and nurses who dedicate their lives to the relief of pain in the only way they know.
I think they prescribe medications too easily, another thing after my Richard being sent for a hospital test, procedure just before Christmas was that he had a hiatus hernia, well I have a hiatus hernia, told that 17 odd years ago and I am fully aware of it but Richard had no symptoms at all, I even said to him, I had my doubts all the same, he was prescribed another medication ( lansoprazole or omeprazole, cant remember which ) for this, which he took but I was prescribed it at the time 17 years ago and it worked a treat but they never kept me on it, just for a couple of weeks along with medication to sort my helicobacter-pylori, Richard was also told he had this…all this was news to us as he had to symptoms apart from the proof of when the camera went down him, which obviously doesn’t lie…Just another medical issue neither of us was aware of…I did not feel comfortable with so many medications my Richard was on, at some times he was even taken off of one or two, then added another for something else…Richard never complained, as I mentioned his words to me was, " these medicines could be saving my life…"