Omega Owners Forum
Chat Area => General Discussion Area => Topic started by: Rods2 on 20 December 2015, 18:03:52
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Spent the last 3 months ill with it and now fingers crossed, hoping my immune system has finally defeated it. Doctors could see with my symptoms and blood tests what was happening and called it a 'slow virus', where my immune system ran out of reserves every time it tried to defeat it. The virus would then say 'happy days' and multiply like mad, with my immune system recovering and repeating the cycle. I've lost 10kg in weight and it's party trick was to infect both my eyes, which the 4 GPs on numerous and frequent visits as my eyesight deteriorated and got more painful insisted and treated it as conjunctivitis until I went blind in my left eye, with my right eye rapidly following it and ended up as an emergency case at the local hospital eye clinic. On looking at my left eye the eye doctor's comment was "unbelievably bad" followed by a more senior doctor's second opinion off "very bad", which was not the confidence boosting answers I was hoping for! They then measured my eye internal pressures which were 46 in left eye and 41 in right instead of a normal 12, which could have made me permanently blind at any instant. 5 hours of treatment later I was told my left eye should recover. Another 5 hours of treatment the following day I was given the good news that it would definitely recover. I was on anti-glaucoma tablets and eye drops twice a day, and two lots of anti-inflammatory drops, one at 2 hourly intervals, 5 time a day and the other at 1 hourly intervals 10 times a day.
My right eye has made an almost full recovery, but my left eye is not there yet and although it will never be as good as it was, I won't know for a few more weeks how close it will get to how it was. Both eyes still suffer from low level light rapid loss of detail, but this apparently takes the longest to recover.
I've also now lost partial use of my right-hand, GP thinks it is a trapped nerve due to rapid weight loss, I'm concerned it is one of the plethora of Guillain-Barry syndrome subtypes where my immune system has mistakenly attacked my nervous system. I'm keeping a close eye on this as after 2 weeks there is no expected improvement in my's hand's function, but fortunately it is not getting any worse as could happen with a Guillain-Barry type syndrome, as if that progresses it can be fatal.
Watching my eyesight disappear before my eyes is the most scary thing I've ever experienced and not an experience for the faint hearted! Both my eye problems and the partial disability of my right hand (fortunately, I'm left handed), make you realise how much more difficult even the most basic things are with these sorts of disabilities.
Losing 10kg every 3 months was not sustainable, which mean't I had to defeat the virus, so with a combination of immune system boosting foods of fruit, nuts, vegetables and red-meat and liver, plenty of sleep where it made me very tired, especially when my immune system was having a good go at the virus and the last thing I felt like, exercising to improve my fitness. My appetite and wellbeing is now improving.
These problems have highlighted to me the very best and very-worst of the NHS with my local GPs' complacency and masterly-inaction (where from what I can see they want all patient problems fixed as fast as possible in an appointment with a prescription, or any easy cop-out answer if you don't conform to this, I now being much more assertive on the outcome and follow-up I'm expecting from any appointment, with their standard lets leave it for a month to see what happen to my now lets not, lets discuss a plan of action!) to the eye-specialists at the hospital who were absolutely brilliant. It also highlighted the complete incompatibility and communications barrier of the hospital and GP systems, including hospital notes being paper and GP's electronic.
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sorry to hear this rods but good news you are on road to recovering, but you are correct the GP system is terrible but once in the hospital system something gets done..my uncle was going to GP with pains in his hip which they wrote off as old age...when he was passing pure looked into it further but by then way too late as it was cancer and it had spread and he lost his fight in october :'(
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Jesus, Rods, you poor man. This is a syndrome I've never heard of, but it sounds like a vicious little bastard. I hope you make a good recovery but, as with any virus, they are very good at 'hiding' and making an appearance when you are run down.
You will have to keep your immune system healthy and look after yourself as best you can. Good luck.
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Bloody hell :o Sounds like you dodged a bullet there... Hopefully you're well on the way to a strong recovery :y
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Crikey, that is like a horror film . Here's hoping you make as full a recovery as is possible.
Also wishing you the best Christmas possible :y
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Fingers crossed for a full recovery and I hope you have a good a Christmas as possible :y
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Really sorry to hear what you've been through and I hope you make a full and quick recovery.
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Good news that you now seem to be on the mend ...... despite the GPs ........ Hope for a speedy full recovery.
How has your employer been about it (assuming you're not self employed) I could just imagine our lot in anti-personnel would want you back at work ASAP ..... recovered or not
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Jesus mate, that sounds absolutely horrendous, hope it goes asap. :y
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sorry to hear that hope you recover soon, i do miss your political posts.
ps have the doctors checked for 210polonium? 8)
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Sorry to hear that Rods. Wishing you a speedy recovery :y
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Jeez what a nightmare! :o Anyway it's good news that it's being brought under control. :y
Hope you feel well enough to enjoy Christmas! :)
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I tend to tell my GP what I want from the appointment as soon as I sit down, had too many guesstimators and fobofferers in the past. I think they actually appreciate this approach more
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Glad you`re feeling better mate :y
I`ve seen this nasty bug with secondary infections in the eyes. It`s probably mutated since it layed me out during the summer. I had bad eyes & severe flu like symptoms with night sweats & my sense of smell went up the creek.
An older guy at my place of work caught it & ended up in intensive care.
As soon as my left eye went blood red & swelled up I dragged myself to A&E and after a 5 hour wait; I got anti-inflammortory eye drops. The junior doctor on duty said he`d dealt with a number of similar cases & put a line into my arm & dosed me up with a strong anti-biotic. It took me another 10 days before I felt right.
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Sounds like you've been to hell and (most of the way) back Rods. Glad your on the mend. :y
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Hope you have a speedy recovery :y There's some nasty bugs around , my mother has been bed ridden for the past 2 weeks with some sort of flu virus even though she's had the flu jab :(
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Sounds horrible. What was the actual diagnosis? Something doesnt add up and the eyes and muscle weakness are very odd. Have you had tests for the reason behind the weakness? Depending on your age and risk factors you may need further tests, preferably with a physician.
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Sounds horrible. What was the actual diagnosis? Something doesnt add up and the eyes and muscle weakness are very odd. Have you had tests for the reason behind the weakness? Depending on your age and risk factors you may need further tests, preferably with a physician.
Thanks for everybody's support it is much appreciated. The eye clinic have put in a yellow notice in as an adverse flu jab reaction and I'm going to do the same. I had the chance to have a bit a chat about what had happened with an eye doctor, who confirmed that a double viral eye infection is very, very rare, but most commonly occurs after an adverse reaction to a vaccination. All of the symptoms which I've had with a severe stomach upset with bright yellow poo to being a 'slow virus' which was difficult for my system to beat are consistent with the a probable adverse reaction for 1 in 100,000 that have the flu jab. For 1 in 1,000,000 to 2,000,000 an adverse reaction to a flu jab are life changing mainly through Guillain Barry syndrome. My GP thinks muscle shrinkage may be due to 10 weeks of little use of my arms.
I had already made my mind up to have no more flu jabs as I can't risk a repeat of this and my GP has said the same, which is a shame as influenza is of all the common illnesses the one I hate the most and statistically it is much, much more dangerous than the flu jab. Hopefully, this new vaccination in development to cover all flu for 5 years, where it works in a different way from the current vaccine will be more compatible with me, but it is still quite a few years away from being fully tested and approved.
One of the things that my regular blood tests has highlighted is a low red blood cell count and anemia which is consistent with blood loss, so today I had an Endoscopy. The cameras found that my duodenum was slightly inflamed but not bleeding and I had a polyp on the junction between the large and small intestine which has been removed and a sample has gone for a biopsy. Next they want to do a CT scan of my chest and pelvis. I've also got my GP to sort out a PSA blood test, where my brother had recently as the result of a requested PSA test was diagnosed with medium speed growing (estimated 7 years to live without treatment) prostate cancer. His request for this at quite a young age, where the cancer is still contained, has prevented, if it had been left undiagnosed, a potentially much more challenging scenario in a few years time.
My radial nerve palsy hasn't improved, so I'm awaiting a CT scan and further tests on this, but 85% of people do fully recover, but being slow growing nerves, it can take up to 4 to 5 months, so I'm probably in for the long haul on this one, as it is almost 6 weeks since it happened.
Another day at Frimley Park hospital, where again the treatment has been first class. :y :y :y
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Funny thing I was thinking that you hadn't been on for a while again today and hoped you were OK! ::)
Glad to hear you're getting good treatment and that they're being thorough! The NHS at it's best! :y
All the best Rods! :y :y :y
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Get well soon, Mr Rods.
As a qualified doctor I can tell you that your problem is caused by lusting after women half your age. ;)
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Yep all the best Rods.
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Get well soon, Mr Rods.
As a qualified doctor I can tell you that your problem is caused by lusting after women half your age. ;)
You must be well acquainted with the symptoms then M'lud, operating as the OOF doctor. Sadly you seem to have caught a bad case of laptopthrowus, with regular expensive painful symptoms. :P :P :P
Of course I wasn't concentrating on the three lovely young nurses assisting the doctor, so I didn't notice the discomfort of the camera, oh no, not me. ::) ::) ::)
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All the best for a full recovery Rods, my wife has Hashimoto's AID, and your story of GP's inability to recognise and deal with the problem is very familiar to us.
Best wishes. :y
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All the best for a full recovery Rods, my wife has Hashimoto's AID, and your story of GP's inability to recognise and deal with the problem is very familiar to us.
Best wishes. :y
Having just read what Hashimoto's AID is, like many overactive immune system problems, it looks like it causes some very nasty side effects. I hope your wife is now getting appropriate treatment to minimise any day-to-day problems.
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All the best for a full recovery Rods, my wife has Hashimoto's AID, and your story of GP's inability to recognise and deal with the problem is very familiar to us.
Best wishes. :y
TBH, Chris, I'm not sure many non-specialists would recognise rare syndromes. It's a scary fact that you have to develop serious, specific symptoms before a diagnosis can be made, usually at a hospital.
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Thanks, fortunately I diagnosed her problem, and she is getting some reasonable care - from me! :y
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All the best for a full recovery Rods, my wife has Hashimoto's AID, and your story of GP's inability to recognise and deal with the problem is very familiar to us.
Best wishes. :y
TBH, Chris, I'm not sure many non-specialists would recognise rare syndromes. It's a scary fact that you have to develop serious, specific symptoms before a diagnosis can be made, usually at a hospital.
My experience is that my local hospital and their doctors and staff are very, very good and that the GP services are complacent, poor and very amateurish. For most appointments there are two cop-outs, a prescription after minimal examination, to get rid of you and the next patient in or come back in a month's time to see how it is, to get rid of you.
My allocated GP is one of the better ones where she is more though and old school than most. she was not happy with my eyes using a old poor eye-light to look inside my eyes on two examinations and she did realise on the second emergency visit very late in the day the problem and got me into the local hospital eye clinic as an emergency patient very quickly, which may well have saved me from permanent blindness in one or both eyes. The other three GPs involved didn't bother with proper examinations with a fob off ineffective prescription, where they didn't through a lack of proper examination understand and never could of, the problem. From my extensive engineering fault finding where all my career has been in R&D, i recognise in hindsight how dangerous their stupid, complacent and sloppy their fault finding was and I'm much more assertive and proactive now as a result on all GP visits. With all fault finding you can never make ANY assumptions on the cause, when you do 9 times out of 10 it will bite you in the bum. With earlier diagnosis and intervention I would not have suffered from most of the permanent and irreversible damage to my left eye. The amateurish advice was to visit my local quick fit fitter opticians as they maybe able to see more (very doubtful and more likely not) on what the problem was!!! They are not geared up to diagnose viral eye infections, where their cameras as a result cannot actually see into an opaque eye!
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All the best for a full recovery Rods, my wife has Hashimoto's AID, and your story of GP's inability to recognise and deal with the problem is very familiar to us.
Best wishes. :y
TBH, Chris, I'm not sure many non-specialists would recognise rare syndromes. It's a scary fact that you have to develop serious, specific symptoms before a diagnosis can be made, usually at a hospital.
My experience is that my local hospital and their doctors and staff are very, very good and that the GP services are complacent, poor and very amateurish. For most appointments there are two cop-outs, a prescription after minimal examination, to get rid of you and the next patient in or come back in a month's time to see how it is, to get rid of you.
My allocated GP is one of the better ones where she is more though and old school than most. she was not happy with my eyes using a old poor eye-light to look inside my eyes on two examinations and she did realise on the second emergency visit very late in the day the problem and got me into the local hospital eye clinic as an emergency patient very quickly, which may well have saved me from permanent blindness in one or both eyes. The other three GPs involved didn't bother with proper examinations with a fob off ineffective prescription, where they didn't through a lack of proper examination understand and never could of, the problem. From my extensive engineering fault finding where all my career has been in R&D, i recognise in hindsight how dangerous their stupid, complacent and sloppy their fault finding was and I'm much more assertive and proactive now as a result on all GP visits. With all fault finding you can never make ANY assumptions on the cause, when you do 9 times out of 10 it will bite you in the bum. With earlier diagnosis and intervention I would not have suffered from most of the permanent and irreversible damage to my left eye. The amateurish advice was to visit my local quick fit fitter opticians as they maybe able to see more (very doubtful and more likely not) on what the problem was!!! They are not geared up to diagnose viral eye infections, where their cameras as a result cannot actually see into an opaque eye!
That sounds about right. Having said that, I do have sympathy with the fact that a) They allot 10 mins per patient, and b) In many cases - as in my wife's hypothyroidism, resulting from her Hashimoto's - there is only one prescribed treatment allowed by the NHS, which in our case, resulted in my wife becoming more and more ill. Hence my having to research the condition and obtaining private treatment, involving obtaining medication from the USA. Fortunately she is now back to 90% health due to this treatment, which is not available on the NHS.
Best wishes for a full recovery Rods. :y
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Personally I find the NHS / patient relationship very odd and difficult, where you pay in advance and live in hope that you will be treated. The French approach where it is actually a fund seems to be by outcome much more effective as no treatment means no payment to the doctor or hospital, whereas here it saves the doctor or hospital budget for another day and in France a growing area for treatment automatically attracts additional funds and resources, whereas with the NHS it will automatically run out of both without management / political / ministerial intervention.