A Lemon On Matchsticks by Pituitary_Patient_Sharon

Well today I should have been in Tokyo taking part in the Tokyo Marathon. As luck and life would have it, I never made it as far as the plane...and it had nothing to do with the fact I found myself in an ambulance bound for a hospital trolley last Monday.

Instead, it had everything to do with the fact a Registrar advised the family that if he were a betting man, my mum had two weeks at the most to live. On hearing what had been said (the nurse who was present at the time echoed his view to me), I cancelled my trip. I very much doubt the Travel Insurance company will pay up anywhere near the amount, but as luck would have it my mum - though she is still very ill - looked nothing like a woman who has three days left on this earth when I saw her tonight.

Last Tuesday, she had a cardiac arrest following vomitting and other rather yuk goings on. When I questioned the nurse as to why my mum had suddenly developed such symptoms two weeks into her stay, she replied: "We haven't had Salmonella here for a long time." Six days later the hospital anounced an outbreak of err, Samonella.

Unfortunately, this came three days after I had won an Olympic Gold in the sport of being sick - so bad that it was relentless during Sunday into Monday night and my GPhad no alternative, but to call an ambulance to take me to hospital.

My pulse was 150 and they attached me to an ECG and pumped me full of fluid and IV hydrocortisone and capped it with the full A&E experience - several hours on a trolley while the Pharmacy managed to find 5 tablets for me to take home.

Right now, I'm drained and a bit wobbly on my feet and have just read on my bottle of lucozade that it's not meant to replace fluids lost. Drat, wish I'd read that before 6 380ml bottles of the Lemon flavour stuff.

So, tomorrow the plan is to try and begin VLM 10 training with earnest even if it ends up as an hours walk. The important thing is to get moving and regain my strength and make it to the finish line. Things can only get better and, perversely, it's probably good that it's happened now. 

Friday, Morrisons in Barry came good - donating £20 vouchers for a raffle prize towards my RNLI fundraising goal. Three cheers for Morrisons!