The Anonymous Widower

Is The Jigsaw Of My Health Finally Fitting Together?

These lasty days, I’ve been feeling unwell and have an appointment with my doctor tomorrow. I have tended to put a lot of this down to hangovers from the stroke, but is it more fundamental.

As a child, I was always off school, with what my doctor thought was some sort of allergy.  I hadn’t been diagnosed as a coeliac in those days, so when I was diagnosed fifteen years ago, I felt that could have been the problem. As a child, I used to sleep in a room with a big south-facing window and I do wonder if the room was rather warm and dried me out.

I can remember an incident in my first job at Enfield Rolling Mills, where my gut felt awful and just like it does today. I worked in a laboratory over a factory and I do remember it was very hot.

My health did improve, when I went to Liverpool, but then I didn’t live in a hot room. In fact quite the reverse.

For the next forty or so years, I didn’t have a problem, but this might be because I was living with my late wife, C. She was a fairly assertive woman and probably kept the temperature to a reasonable one for herself and me.

I do remember, when we had the house in Antibes, I did find it rather hot. In those days we’d generally flown down in my Cessna 340a twin and I’d cool myself down by taking a flight up the coast.  In fact, in the whole time, when I was flying, I don’t ever remember suffering from this problem.

I also had various episodes with very dry eyes.  When I had my first eye test for glasses with a retired eye surgeon, he said that my eyes were some of the most sensitive he’d seen. In one case I even had a small operation.

When C died, my health deteriorated and I started to get all sorts of itches.  I’d also taken to showers and improved the heating in my bedroom. So was I heating myself.

When I had the stroke in Hong Kong, I was in a room with the sun streaming in and it could have been very hot. They were also obsessed with measuring my urine and despite drinking masses of water and having various drugs, I couldn’t pass anything.

Things seemed to be better when I returned to Addenbrooke’s, but a couple of months afterwards I had an eye test and the nurse said my eyes were awfully dry.

So do I respond badly to the heat?

And is the pain I get in all my old injuries down to the heat and dehydration?

October 24, 2012 - Posted by AnonW | Health | Flying