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Craig A. Booth bayce@optusnet.com.au Gold Coast Australia Married to Margie age 39 2 children: Nikita, age 11 and Bayce, age 3 |
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I had always been a pretty active guy - enjoying rugby, soccer, basketball, badminton, ten-pin bowling, boat racing, Moto-X, trail riding and mountain biking - in the earlier stages of my life. Recently my interests have been somewhat less physical: computers, music, the Internet, DVDs, movies, reading, writing (poems generally) and basically lazing around. I still dream of the day when I can get back on a dirt bike and pound through the forest. I still do enjoy boating and get out in my little runabout as often as possible.
I was recently diagnosed with IDCM (idiopathic dilated cadiomyopathy, with heart enlargement and heart weakness of unknown cause. I had been having a huge amount of trouble sleeping, breathing, exercising, anything at all that involved activity! I was having sleep apnea attacks and I couldn't breathe.
I went to a doctor and he made me have all these tests - chest x-ray, cholesterol, blood, asthma, lung capacity, etc. Even after he got all the results back all he said was, "Lose weight. mate." Great help (not) he was. It got so bad I went to another doctor. He told me I'd need some tests and set up appointments for the same barrage of tests I'd had with the first doc six months earlier, but it wasn't to be. I ended up getting so bad (didn't sleep for 5 nights straight) that my wife and father-in-law rushed me to the hospital.
There they discovered I had pneumonia, a lung infection, a chest infection, 11 kilos of fluid retention, and cardiomyopathy. I was then placed in the CCU (Cardiac Care Unit) ward for a week. I was on oxygen and had all the tests again. The nurses were awesome to me in that hospital (Gold Coast Hospital) and I was very well looked after.
I am okay now in as much as my pneumonia, chest infection, lung infection and the fluid have gone. I am just learning to cope with the fact that CHF is what I have.
| 40mg furosemide | BID |
| 25mg spironolactone | Daily |
| 25mg Coreg | BID |
| 5mg Ramipril | BID |
| 150mg aspirin | Daily |
Since I am only a few weeks into being home from my initial hospital stay, I am still trying to come to grips with what I actually have, and how it will affect me and my life from this point on. I have really gone through some emotional changes and have been very touched by many of the things I have read here - Thank you, Jon's Place! Some of the stories are really amazing. It makes me wonder sometimes why I get so upset at the thought of my condition when I read what some of you other brave people are going through or have been through.
I think my medications are affecting me a bit because I have most of the classic symptoms that "throw" me a bit. I just can't get used to how emotional I get. The slightest thing gets me going! Big tough guy, eh?
My wife left me a few weeks ago after I came home from the hospital with heart failure. I would very much like to talk to people because I am understandably "down." Feel free to e-mail me at bayce@optusnet.com.au.
The Search
Heaving mountains, spewing rock
Working People, devoted to the clock
Crashing oceans and thunderous skies
Politicians with enormous lies
The general population, hoping to discover
An enigmatic force - The same as a mother
A being of intelligence, a body of strength
Encasing the whole planet
From width to length
Looking outward but inward too
Seeking something wonderful but new
A search that will discover, a search that will find
The answers for Man and all Woman-kind
It lies within, this secret we seek
It is for the strong, it is for the weak
Discover yourself and you will soon know
That on the longest journey
You'll not have to go.
Copyright © Craig Booth 2002
Craig Booth - April 22, 2002
All information on this site is opinion only. All concepts, explanations, trials, and studies have been re-written in plain English and may contain errors. No one here is a doctor. No information on this page should be used by any person to affect their medical, legal, educational, social, or psychological treatment in any way. This web site and all its pages copyright © 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 Jon C.