Just recovering from a very close call. I have been very near to dying it seems and am so grateful to still be here; especially for my wife and daughter’s sake. I had been feeling unwell for quite some time and eventually was consumed by pain in my kidneys and other symptoms. I eventually tried to get a doctor’s appointment, but as things are now regarding NHS, I just had a phone appointment where I was indeed diagnosed as having a kidney infection and antibiotics were prescribed. But things didn’t improve and as the pain got steadily worse I found I couldn’t eat either and then began to vomit black bile. I did then get an appointment to see a doctor face-to-face and within a few minutes she told me to go home, pack a bag and go straight to hospital as I wouldn’t be coming home for a while. Following a long wait in A&E, I finally had a CT scan and was visited by a consultant who told me I was hours away from death; many things were going wrong, but most worryingly my kidney function was down to 7% and there was some irreparable damage there. Emergency care followed and the next day I was visited by another consultant who confirmed what I was still trying to process – I was indeed very lucky to be alive and I had left it a day longer sepsis would undoubtedly have occurred and there would be no chance of saving my life.
So I’m back home now and back to work, but still receiving treatment and will be for some time. But I’m slowly getting better; although I have lost a lot of weight and at the moment weigh only nine stone. This near death event has spurred me on to write again as I have found the process quite demoralising of late as it seems so much more difficult to engage with a theatre director or company. I’ve even tried mailing scripts together with a SAE ‘old school’, and more recently even posted my play Canned Peaches in Syrup to a hero of mine, Terry Gilliam when he was directing a play at Theatre Royal Bath, but no reply and no return SAE with my bloody script either!
But for some reason I can’t seem to stop writing, and at the moment feeling I’ve been granted some extra time I’m scribbling away again and am still trying to prise a response (or even an acknowledgement) from an industry I still love and miss. The idea of death really does have a way of focussing you on life, and if you’ve read earlier posts you will know that this isn’t the first time I’ve faced it. So back to my current job in mental health support and looking forward to a holiday and some scenic walking with my wonderfully supportive wife, seeing friends and my lovely daughter... I’m still here and very, very grateful for all those hospital staff that made it possible... life is so, so precious.
