Dave’s journey from Sunday 14 June to Thursday 18 June

Following on from Paul, Chris & Vic’s epic last 2 days from Welshpool to Knighton & completing the Offa’s Dyke challenge, I record here my journey to seek help for an illness which forced me to abandon the walk & seek help for my feeling of weakness, breathlessness, high temperature & dehydration. I first of all booked an appointment on Sunday morning at the small Welshpool hospital. The surgery was manned by a ShropDoc service employing volunteer doctors who although paid agree to work unusual hours & weekends for out of hour emergencies. I was a very grateful recipient. The doctor examined me & after an ECG it didn’t take long for him to decide I had a serious heart condition together with a high temperature & a person looking a little worse for wear. An ambulance was called to take me to the larger Acute Services Hospital in Shrewsbury 40 minutes away, with a Medical Assessment & CCU (coronary care unit) Ward. However, much to my concern, the Ambulance broke down half way, & a second Ambulance finally got to Shrewsbury luckily or by God’s intervention only 10 minutes late. The consultants at Shrewsbury soon put me through many diagnostic tests & declared to me that I had suffered a heart attack, most likely on the 1st day of the walk & then continued to walk a total of 80 miles & equivalent of two Ben Nevis’s. No wonder I also had a high temperature, severe de-hydration, a chest infection & water infection. Since then I have received much medication, heart, blood pressure & temperature monitoring. Heart monitoring continually now for over 4 days & can report excellent progress, due to fantastic care from the doctors & nurses whose devotion & professionalism has been truly amazing; and not forgetting all the thoughts & prayers from friends & family, so I give Praise to God for my recovery so far, which is as follows:- My heart beat & regularity is virtually back to normal, my temperature is normal, & now fully hydrated. Unfortunately I still have a small chest infection & my water infection has worsened in that I had to have a catheter fitted this morning as I could not pass water. It is hoped original service will be resumed as soon as the infection clears. I am now on the waiting list for an angiogram to discover if the arteries around the heart are working as they should be. Shrewsbury Hospital had no angiogram unit so patients are shipped out to either Telford or Stoke so it is my hope & prayer that I will be taken to Stoke hospital tomorrow & have the angiogram carried out & for there to be no treatment required & that I will be home tomorrow evening. Is this too great a task for God, no, for the power which raised Christ from the dead is available to us now!! Please pray with me, I know you will! God Bless Dave 21-45 Thursday 18 June 2015 arrangementsSent from my iPhone