The last time I drove a car on the public road was a year ago yesterday, on my way home from the MOT in Ballymena.
To celebrate, I had a piece of my birthday cake when I got home, and promptly choked on it.
Life was a lot simpler in 2024. As far as I knew, the only things wrong with me were high blood pressure and a bit of hay fever (and to this day, these are my only regular medications), although I was recovering from that terrible flu which saw me go to bed after church on Christmas Day and not really resurface for several days. More on that later.
When I collapsed, I managed to bang my head off a cupboard door handle, and my wife found me in the kitchen, not breathing. That I am writing this post tells you that I survived.
Jo’s friend was able to roll me over (I am not as light as I was 25 years ago) and the next thing I was conscious of was sitting on the sofa in our living room, changing bits of clothing because when I collapsed from one of the stools in the kitchen, I managed to knock over and get soaked by the dogs’ water bowls. Apparently I had been awake for some time but talking nonsense. Some might ask how they would be able to tell the difference, but once I was fully alert, the only thing I couldn’t remember was whether I had asked for leave to take the car to the MOT (I had.)
Jo had dialled 999, and the rapid response paramedic soon had an Andy no longer in need of resuscitation hooked me up to an ECG (which showed up Premature Ventricular Contractions (PVCs)), and called a full ambulance to take me to the Royal ED (queue shorter than the Ulster!). Of course, being fully alert by then meant I was not an emergency when I was checked into the ED. A very good thing for my health, but not so good for waiting.
Nursing staff sent me off for MRI and X-rays as required, but I was in the ED for 20 hours altogether before a doctor was able to see me in person with the bad news that I could no longer drive and let me go home.
My shopping list when I left the ED included referrals to ENT to examine my swallow and cardiology for the fact that I’d fainted. Looking at the queues, I went to Benenden for a cardiologist (the appointment was actually within days of when the Health Service appointment would have been), and was referred to a doctor who remains my NHS cardiologist.
The NI Health Service does move quickly when it needs to. Around this time, I talked to my GP because the cough from that flu in late 2024 had never gone away (thank goodness I didn’t get it this Christmas!) and he referred me for an x-ray which revealed something displacing my windpipe, but he couldn’t see what. Back to ENT, who arranged for a CT scan which picked up a goitre. I saw the ENT doctor one day and got an ultrasound the next, thankfully one that didn’t require the technician to get out a biopsy needle, and it’s small enough for them to leave me alone until it gets big enough to affect my breathing.
Benenden had arranged for me to get a ultrasound on my heart, which came back normal, but my cardiologist also picked up sleep apnoea from an overnight heart monitor, and recommended I get a loop monitor to see what happens when I faint, both of which had to be dealt with by the Health Service.
I now have the dreaded CPAP machine – a Christmas Eve present from Belfast Trust – and an implantable loop recorder which flagged up that I was dizzy recently (I don’t remember it!) but the underlying heart rhythm was normal. The fear was that there might have been a cardioinhibitory reason for my fainting, but this is good news. CPAP is going grand, to my honest surprise.
The biggest thing, though, is driving. It’s now a year since I fainted, so I can apply for my licence back, although I would have to say that’s not easy. If your licence is medically revoked, apparently it’s a renewal, and then having got a photo code I discovered I couldn’t apply online. My local chemist will be sick of the sight of me.
We moved house at the end of March. The new house is lovely, it’s got a massive kitchen (just what we needed) and we’re planning a Lego shed at the bottom of the garden, but trying to do everything with one car and one driver was very difficult. When I passed the test in 2009, I thought my days of scrounging lifts were over, but here we are – and there is light at the end of the tunnel.
One final thought. It wasn’t easy for me being 52, but I know somebody else who had a tough year due to all of this. It isn’t easy being married to a 52 year old who’s having a difficult year.
Andy has a very wide range of interests including Christianity, Lego, transport, music, the Alliance Party, chess and computers. Anything can appear in a post.
Andy has abandoned Twitter, needs to update his website, and has a BlueSky account.
Discover more from Slugger O'Toole
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
