18/02/2023
Hi everyone, I'm not 100% sure if everyone knows, but on 22nd October 2021 I had a cardiac arrest while driving my van. I died for 40 minutes, but was kept going by first class CPR from people who following behind. I spent 3 and a half weeks in and out of 3 coma's due to sepsis and pneumonia. My family was called several times to come and say goodbye. But against all odds I pulled through. They then fitted a pacemaker/Defibrillator called a C-RTD device. I was let out of hospital at the end of November as long as I had someone to look after me as the recovery was going to take at least 18 months. During my recovery it was noticed that I couldn't breathe very well. So eventually they did some exploring and noticed my vocal chords were pretty much sealed shut. I had a tiny air hole to breath through. This was caused by being Intubed a number of times onto a ventilator which caused scarring and basically sealed off my airway. So they planned an operation to try and free it all up and remove the scar tissue causing the issue. But my condition got worse very quickly, and 4 weeks ago had to preform emergency surgery as it was at the point I couldn't breathe at all pretty much. Sadly the operation didn't go to plan and they couldn't open the airway like they thought, due to the damage left, and the fact I have heart failure, and was worried about keeping me under a general anaesthetic for longer than they realised. So the only option left was to put in a Tracheostomy ( which I now have). So in 6 months they are going to review and see if they can do anything else and remove the traccy, or it maybe a case of it being permanent. My intention was to be back working before now, but unfortunately at the moment it isnt possible, due to all the problems that the tracheostomy has with it. I'm still hopeful of returning to it, but at the moment I can't. I do apologise, I thought all my customers were aware, so I am sorry. I hope you are all well, and hopefully fingers crossed I will be back this year to scrubbing the windows. Mad I know, despite everything that's happened, I really miss scrubbing those windows, and my fantastic customers. Take care πβ€οΈ
