"I told you I was sick"

The above words were inscribed on a grave stone in a cemetery in England. Spike Milligan made some slight changes to this epitath with the words "I told you I was ill".

You may ask what is the relevance of these words to this post and the answer is: "absolutely nothing."

The purpose of this post is to keep all those interested aware of my recent health issues. It seemed an easy way to let family know all at the same time. I had been quite ill with vomiting and diarrhoea for a couple of weeks, and started to lose a lot of weight. In 10 days I lost 10kgs in wieght.

I went to the chemo unit for my regular monthly intragam on Monday, 30 April, but was taken down to the emergency department because I was obviously quite sick.

After a day spent in ED, and the short stay unit, I was transferred to a single room in the surgical ward and stayed there for three more days, while I underwent tests and was rehydrated. I had become extremely dehydrated, and my kidneys were dry and not functioning at all well. There were concerns about the effect of the dehydration on my renal functions.

For 36 hours I was infused with massive amounts of sodium chloride and also potassium. The diarrhoae was quite bad but gradually it settled down and it was decided that I could come home, which I did late morning Thursday, 3 May.

It is clear that the illness was caused by a bowel infection, particularly due to my severe immune deficiency disorder. As you probably remember: because of the severe immunodeficiency I have great difficulty fighting infections of the lungs, liver and kidneys.

I will be having my infusion on Monday, 6 May, and then go to Brisbane where I will be reviewed by my clinical immunologist. We have also decided to have a colonoscopy as soon as possible.

I will definitely need to rest over the next few days and try to regain strength. At least I should be fairly well for my birthday. Some who are reading this have been invited to the birthday festivities on Queen's Birthday weekend. If you have been invited and plan to come and have not given any indication as to whether you will be attending, you may like to give us a head-up, so we can get some ideas of the numbers of attendees.